The Juicy Details....

1st off, Lucy got moved to the next level up bed!  She'll be there for the majority of the rest of her stay, until she goes to the regular hospital nursery crib( the wooden stand with the plastic bucket on top).But she has to be to the weight where she can regulate her body temperature, and that is a far ways off. She did weigh in at 2 pounds 7 ounces tonight! Almost back to her birth weight. 2nd, Luke held her for the first time tonight!He said it was wonderful. I did steal her for one minute at the end while she was being fed. Luke got her paci out to stick in her mouth while she was 'eating'. We're all about trying to get her into the sucking motion while her belly is getting filled up, and when Luke was holding her she was seriously rooting. It was a few minutes past when she usually eats. I know this little girl is going to be ready before the normal 34 weeks! And if they show interest in the paci and all that stuff, they will try the bottle as early as 32-33 weeks.She went to town on the paci while she was being fed, AND had the hiccups, AND her breathing didn't dip too much. She did good with it all.
We had a good LONG conversation with her nurse tonight about what all actually 'happened'. She had met Luke before last Tuesday night, but hadn't met me yet. But she had heard all about me and my liver from the other nurses and Doctors, and wanted to know the final story and what all went down. So we actually laughed about it tonight, and it's finally not making me feel like I'm going to pass out when I talk about it. I'm guessing it's easier to joke about it in person. But when we go to the NICU, the first set of locked doors we have to go through is the triage/L&D. When they saw me,those nurses even left from behind their desk to hug me and say how good it was to see me. So I'm that patient everyone has been talking about.
So Sunday afternoon my ankles and shins were numb from being so massively swollen. I sent Leslie a picture to see if that is how hers looked when she had Pre-eclampsia, and I said I was for sure calling my Dr in the AM., and she said to come get her BP cuff so I could check it. I woke up in the night with an awful constant stomach and back pain--so I thought maybe it was early labor. But Luke ran a bath for me, and it actually eased up.My ankles had actually gone down in the morning, but Luke says I was complaining of a headache. I ended up calling, got a few more tips and what else to looks for, laid in bed AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE with Landon here by myself and my feet propped up on pillows, and waited for Luke to get home (early from work)with the BP machine. By the time he got home, I was feeling miserable. My blood pressure was around 154/93 so I called the Dr right then.The nurse told me to rest for an hour on my left side, recheck my BP then call her back.Sometimes the at home machines are a little high.  Luke gated off the hallway so Landon wouldn't bug me, and I just started feeling worse by the second, and could NOT get comfortable on the bed at all, and tried to take a bath to relax. I only lasted about 15 minutes, re-took the BP, and it was around 170/110. I couldn't even talk I was in so much pain, sent Luke a text, and told him to get Landon dressed we had to leave right then. So, finally we got to the hospital, FINALLY got someone to check us in, and as soon as we got to a room they basically told me it was c-section day. My Dr. was there ASAP ( Luke had called on the way, even though they closed early that day, he was on call!) waiting for someone to take my blood and get some results. They explained that they had to make sure my blood platelets were high enough for a spinal, but if not I'd be put to sleep. At that point I just kept saying I wanted to not feel the pain and I'd be fine. They kept assuring me that the only way to get rid of the pain was to take the baby. Luke didn't really comprehend that we WERE doing it because I kept asking him to call my family,and he kept waiting and waiting. My Dr was getting impatient & ordering for the results to get here, and find out where they were ASAP. My moaning and complaining was getting worse, and I remember apologizing to the nurses for having to listen to me, and that I was trying to not be a baby. Finally someone said it was going to be a spinal and we just had to wait 3o minutes because there were twins being delivered, and we couldn't bombard the NICU with 3 at once. About 5 minutes later,  I got loud and told Luke he HAD to go get someone, and we HAD to do this now. Jokingly, but in pain, I said I was going to die if they didn't hurry. I couldn't even breathe it hurt so bad. He told me there was no one to go get, and they had JUST said 30 minutes. So I got louder =) And in ran a few nurses. They could hear me in the hallway, and were rechecking why we couldn't go. They were all mixed up as to why we were waiting, but someone eventually said that NICU could get over it. I opened my eyes, and we were basically running down the hall way with my bed with nurses slamming open doors. Neither Luke or I really knew the severity of anything, but the blood test also showed that my liver enzymes were as high as they can go. I don't know if it will just rupture or what, but whatever happens next, would have been BAD NEWS for me! They just told me that my liver was really irritated and inflamed, and to tell my baby not to kick it please. She was also curled up in a ball on top of it, that didn't help the pain.Not to mention my Dr kept laughing when I said over and over to give me the spinal to get rid of the pain, because " I'm afraid it's not going to help your liver pain at all, it's so irritated and inflamed". Great, I just wanted to pain to stop!ANYWAYS, we got the baby out, had a LONG delay on sewing me back up because of another oddity they found*my bruised uterus*, but I got a good long 35 minute conversation  with my Dr and the plastic surgeon guy about how great modern medicine and technology is, how both my babies would have been still born not too many years ago, and how I'd not even made it through the night if I didn't come in. WHAT?!?! I was still happy go lucky at the moment. I'm pretty sure my body just had all the pain it could handle, and blocked everything out. Because when I got the spinal, it certainly did take away ALL pain. I even had pain up into my shoulders that was gone, but I could  feel everything up top that you are suppose to feel. Thank God!

 So, I was sent  back into the L&D room to be monitored for 1 or 2 days to make sure I didn't " dance without the music" as my Dr referred to seizures. I was pumped with Magnesium , steroids, and more magnesium. My blood was taken seriously about every 2 hours. (AND  since my IV had to be placed in my right elbow crease because I had no veins whatsoever to by found on my arms or hands because they were so massive, so my blood was drawn about 30 times from the same spot.The black bruises are ALMOST gone!)I made it to the next day before the seizure happened. My sister was in the room, and I remember trying to tell her to get help. After that, she says she tried to call a nurse, none of the buttons worked on the bed, so she stuffed some pillows around me, and ran into the hallway yelling. One nurse came in, and had to call the nurses desk with the phone to get more help, and Amanda went into the hallway to call Luke on his phone. The other funny thing that everyone seems to know about at the hospital is how much trouble Luke had getting into the room. There is the set of locked doors,and all the nurses were in my room. Once someone was finally there to open the doors,  they couldn't see his "pass" the green bracelet to get in. So they said they couldn't let him in, and he started banging and trying to open the doors himself. haha He said some mean things, and finally got in when they understood what he was saying. He later went back to apologize, and they came and told me how much of a gentleman he was. They just left out all the bad words he said and that he tried to break down the doors =) To put it shortly, what Luke saw in the next few minutes ( that seemed like a lifetime to him) was me having a seizure, lots of blood from me biting my tongue, Doctors and nurses not being able to find a pulse on me, me being "bagged", and my doctor taking him into the hall letting him know that they most likely will have to do a scan to see what type of brain damage I have. Eventually they found a pulse, got the regular oxygen mask on me, and were relieved when I started pulling it off.I was surprisingly able to answer the questions of where I was, why I was there, what had just happened, and what my name was, so the scan was cancelled. I always tell Luke before he leaves to go or come home from work to be safe because I can't do this without him, but on Tuesday he thought he was going to have to do it from here on without me. Landon, a new 2 pound baby, witnessing that mess, and doing it alone was what he had to think about. And I'm thankful that he is so strong, and what I need him to be! I stayed in that room until Thursday ( not being able to eat until late late Wed. night), and got to see Lucy on the way to the post pardum room. We had a few issues with my blood pressure still, tried a diuretic, tried 2 BP medicines, took an ativan, almost passed out 2 times, felt like I was having an anxiety attack,had to use a bed pan ( haha I asked for it!)took some more blood, finally got a shower, got a good massage, and finally was sent home Saturday! It was a long mess of a trip because of pain in my right side. But now all the nurses know who I am, and can laugh with me at how crazy my week was at the hospital =) Now that I've written a book, it's time to go to bed!