3 days after we left the hospital with Oscar, found us BACK in the hospital for ME.

I had a fever of 103+ and SEVERE pains in my stomach and pelvis. After 5 hours in the ER (and a LOT of pain medication!) they decided to admit me for what they assumed was a uterine infection that came on due to or after the c-section.

Thus began the longest week of the new year!

Yes, I know we are only 2 weeks into it, but I didn't want to be TOO dramatic

;-)

For the next 7 days I was poked and tested and miserable. I had soaring high fevers, than I was freezing cold. Anyone who came to visit had to endure sauna-like temperatures in my room. I was only given pain medication ever 2 hours, which was not enough. The blood lab at St Peters took enough blood from me to save a small town in Idaho! And always at 4:00 in the MORNING! Now is that anyway to wake someone up? NO!

The first IV I got in the ER was in the crook of my elbow. So every time I bent it for too long the IV machine would start beeping at me and the nurse had to come restart it. They kept trying to move it and I kept saying "NO WAY!" Until finally they said it had to be moved because you can't have an IV in one spot too long. I cried. They tried 4 times to put a new IV in my left arm, but my veins were hiding and it just turned into a very painful experience. So they gave me a 48 hr lease before they would move it, but we didn't reach the 48 hours because the IV started bleeding about 10 hours later :-( So they removed it and had to put a new one in my other arm. Finally they put it half way up my fore arm, it hurt a bit, but I was tired of them trying so I lied and said it was fine and I was probably just paranoid.

Apparently I wasn't because my arm puffed up the next day and they had to take it out too. Luckily at this point they were discussing whether or not I could be switched to oral medication. So I never got another IV put in. Which is good because I was starting to look like a drug addict with all the needle marks on my arms!

They sent me down for a CT Scan to see if maybe it wasn't my uterus, but my appendix instead and I was just unlucky enough to have them both happen close to each other.

The CT scan showed everything as normal.

Silly CT!

So they still didn't know where the infection was coming from. The only way to know for certain was to open me up and take some cultures. NO THANKS! SO they were going to keep trying stronger and stronger antibiotics (Jordan looked up everything they gave me and it turns out one of the drugs was what they use to cure anthrax!) If they didn't work, then it MIGHT be SPT and I would have to get shots in my hip for 6 days. If THAT didn't work they would have to open me up. I was such a baffling case that the "House" of St Peters (he worked with infectious diseases, a lot of diagnostic medicine) reviewed my case and gave his recommendations! I never got to meet him, but then House never meets his patients until they are about to die anyway, so I am glad :-)

I am so grateful to Jordan's mom & Stacey (again!) for watching Makayla while we were in the Hospital. And for bringing her by twice a day to see me. It was so hard to say goodbye and hear her crying down the hall for me as they carried her out ;-( I missed my little girl so much while I was stuck there! I am so glad she had places to go that could make her happy and keep her safe so that I knew I didn't have to worry about her.

Oscar stayed with me and Jordan stayed with Oscar. The first couple days they said I could still nurse, but as it became more clear that what they were doing wasn't working, they had to try stronger antibiotics and different ways of putting the meds together, they decided it would be safer to switch him to formula so they could focus on me and not worry about what it might do to him :-(

It was very hard to hear that because I had had so much trouble nursing Makayla and Oscar and I were just getting into the swing of things, but in the end it is more important for health.

This is the view from my window. I was actually more pretty than the picture looks, but I had to take the picture from my bed, which was not right next to the window.

Oscar was a trooper. (So was Jordan really!) And half-way through my stay he even had his own doctor's appointment and check up.

He is now 21 inches (75%)

And 7 lbs 3 oz (15%)

For those who don't understand the percentages, let me explain, cuz well I never get them.

It means that Oscar is long and skinny.

Duh.

Have you met his father?

Here is the art work that Makayla and Jordan's mom drew for me on the ugly white board I had to stare at all day. Normally it just had my nurses name, last fever, room number, what time the nurse was leaving etc.... boring! But then I got to stare at this beautiful picture of Makayla & I. :-)

Finally after going 48 hrs without a severe spike in temperature, they decided to let me go! Hooray!

They still never found out what exactly was wrong, other than I was finally responding to something. They classified it as endometritous. Basically a uterine infection. But it was more for insurance purposes than actual knowledge.

I got home friday and have been kind of dead ever since. I am still taking some pretty heavy duty antibiotics. 4 pills, 3 times a day for 5 days. Whew! But I am hopeful!

I have a followup appointment next tuesday so my fingers are crossed. And until then I am taking it easy, but SOOO happy to be home and more comfortable.

I have quite a few ice/heat packs that I have been using. Yesterday after I took my small purple ones off my scar I set them on the couch next to me. When I looked at Makayla a few minutes later, she was sitting like this, with my packs on HER belly!

She's such a cutie. I am so glad to be home with her again. And with Oscar. And Jordan.

Thank goodness for modern medicine. Whether or not we know what it's for.