Now I see why we did not end up with twins the first time around with IVF, there is no way that my body could have handled it. Thank God for unanswered prayers.
Kevin headed off to work Wednesday morning and my mom and I headed off to my OB appt. This appt. was different than all the rest. This time, I was slow moving and all I could muster was a grimaced smile for the staff. Luckily, they did not make me wait hardly at all and I was in and out in an hour. Truly record breaking!
We started off with the visit with my OB as it was time for another FFN test, which came back negative! So sono second. She was concerned about the progression of my right sided pain and now appendicitis was on the list of differentials. She said that typically the hydronephrosis wouldn't cause this much pain. Or it could also be a really severe case of round ligament pain involving the nerves, in conjunction with the the fact the baby refuses to move and is sitting right on top of the same kidney, ligaments and nerves...and the side of my gall bladder and appendix. Move baby, move!
She completed the vaginal exam. All looked normal. I then skipped...not really skipping as you can imagine.. over and had the sono with Caroline, which, I have decided after a few times of the same from her and her giving me cervical measurements while I'm contracting, I don't like her. Zero bed side manner and personability. However, even after all my contractions the night before, my cervix was still 2.5 cm. I can't help but wonder if this is the progesterone helping. Yea. Way to go cervix!
My doc did ask me to head back over the hospital immediately following the appt. because she needed to rule out appendicitis. The only way to do this while pregnant: wait and see approach for three days plus clinical symptoms. So I was about to have another hospital stay. She said she would set up a general surgery consult for the appendix and a urology consult for the kidney issue.
So my Mom and I headed back over the L&D and got stationed in the exact area Kevin and I were in the night before. I was looking forward to some pain meds, and I wasn't shy about asking for them once I got there. This is a far cry from the 'al natural' pregnant chick I once was. This should tell you how much pain I've been in. I still feel so so bad for our baby. I just can't keep my mind from thinking about the long term consequences. So I have to get off of them ASAP.
After getting set up in the triage L&D area and getting some pain meds and some IV fluids going, we were moved to a L&D room a few hours later. I sure do love these L&D rooms, so nice and spacious. And it's also neat to stare at the baby station in the room and imagine that we will meet our baby in a similar room very soon! Surreal Mom and I rested and had some great conversation while we waited almost the entire day for the surgeon and urologist to come by.
The surgeon said that he gave me an 80% of NOT having appendicitis, as a lot of my pain was more in my kidney area rather than the very specific location that appendix pain isolates. Good news. But we had to wait a couple of more days to see how it progressed in order for him to say for sure it was not appendicitis. I was really hoping it was not appendicitis, as he said the only treatment was surgery, and the appendix sits literally right up against the uterus. This means that in order to get it out they would have to lift and move the uterus, which often causes the women to deliver the baby immediately after inducing PTL. So we definitely did not want it to be this differential. But, we had to wait and see to know for sure.
The urologist came in and wasn't overly impressed with a case of hydronephrosis. He, too, said all treatment methods were not safe during pregnancy so I had to live with it, take pain meds, and it usually resolves itself after pregnancy. He, too, would follow up with me the next day. I'm smelling no relief other than resorting to long-term pain management. Bummer.
My doc then came by and gave me to okay to finally eat!!! It had been two full days! I thought I was starving, but when my mom went out and brought me my FAVORITE meal of all time, all I could eat was two bites. Nausea was in full swing. I felt so bad. My doc also told me that in order for me to go home I would have to show that I could manage off of morphine and handle just being on oral pain meds, Vicodine. So that night I was able to take Vicodine and/or morphine. Man, these two together make all the world right. Hahaha....But I don't want a crack head baby, but I also knew I needed to take what I needed to take to get over the hump. Again, just like last time, I was also given the option of Ambien to sleep in the hospital, and this time, I knew I needed to take it to get some rest.
granimals.
I was hooked up with Vicodine, Morphine, and Ambien, I ate the rest of my meal that I couldn't eat earlier in the day and Kevin and I chit chatted and spent some QT together that night. I was actually feeling better than I had in a couple of days and had high hopes for the next day. But I guess I spoke too soon. Kevin and I winded down and he hit the sack on the lovely pull out chair which is grossly uncomfortable. I took my Ambien about midnight and looked forward to a pain-free evening filled with a deep sleep.
No such luck. At about 1:30am I woke up to stabbing pain in my lower right hip bone. And with every tiny movement it was magnified by ten. It literally had me screaming out in pain. Kevin was in a panic. He ran for the nurse--two came. The very short version of this story is that this entire ordeal didn't wind down until 5:30am. My husband demanded a doctor to come in and find out what was wrong with me as he was concerned that the appendicitis had "localized" as the surgeon mentioned could happen. They said all they could do was page the on-call doc from my OB's office. I'll go ahead and admit now, I was flooded full of awesome pain meds but was still for some reason feeling some hellish acute pain, so I know I must have been over-the-top emotionally, albeit in true pain. There was no holding back with the screaming, grimacing, and pleading. I was so nauseated, I felt like I was in and out of it, but I remember the two nurses literally standing at the foot of my bed staring at me while Kevin yelled at them to go find someone to help me...now! These woman are labor and delivery nurses, I know they thought I was a complete idiot. Hahaha....But not at all funny at the time.
By this time I was having full blown contractions. Real, very painful contraction, and 2 minutes apart.
After the nurses spoke with the on-call OB they were instructed to give me terbutaline to stop the contractions. In the end, I needed three injections of the medication to get them to stop. During this time one of the nurses checked my cervix as said it was still closed! Amazing!!! We would have to wait until the following day to find out how much this little episode shortened it. And again, there was no answer for what caused all of this as it ended up not being my appendix, which we later learned.
This experience was intense for me and Kevin. But in some weird way a sweet bonding moment. This was the closet thing to labor we have experienced together and now I know he will for sure be great when the real deal comes. The experience was mind boggling and super painful...but my vote is a lot of the pain could have been better handled if I would have know what to expect, the cause of the pain, that there would be a light at the end of the tunnel, and not to feel like I was blankly being stared at the medical staff and offered no answers for anything. The motto of the evening was' the doc can check you tomorrow, until then we just need to pump you full of pain meds'. Not what a loopy, on the verge of going crazy woman wants to be told.
After four hours, my uterus settled down and I was maxed out on pain meds. My uterus felt like it had just ran a marathon---our poor Bean---and we were exhausted, so we settled in for some much needed sleep...finally.
What a night..
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