The whole sorted story...

I'm waiting for the visiting nurse to come and change the dressing on my incision so I can take a shower.  Showers are a luxury these days, but what I want most is to be able to bend over and have the ability to shave my legs and give myself a much needed pedicure!  I think it will be a while longer before that happens...
I guess I'm getting a little ahead of myself though.  Where do I start with this story?  It's been a long couple of months and so much has happened.  I guess I should start with the fact that on September 10th, I found out I was pregnant.  I didn't write about it because to be honest, after the miscarriage in June, this pregnancy felt really private and I only shared the news with a select few.  Wayne and I agreed to hold off on the celebration until the first 3 months were over. 
Almost immediately I started having pain in my right side.  I tried not to panic and thought it would pass.  Soon after, other symptoms started to arise - fatigue, nausea and oddly - a lot of sneezing (the midwife explained this was caused my the hormones effecting the blood vessels in my nose).  The pain in my side persisted as well.
At week 6 of my pregnancy, I called the doctor about the pain and they called me right in for an ultrasound to make sure it wasn't an ectopic pregnancy.  That day, I heard my baby's heartbeat.  It was the single most amazing moment of my life and I smiled for the rest of the day (much to my husband's dismay - he was really concerned about me getting too attached before we knew the pregnancy was safe and healthy).
2 weeks later, the midwife called me in and when I told her of the pain in my side she said it was probably due to the bowl descending with the pregnancy and told me not to worry.  I was sick every day and just thought maybe the pain was a part of this pregnancy. 
On the 13th, I had my first day out in weeks.  We had theatre tickets in London for over a month and I forced myself out for the weekend.  Through the weekend, the pain got progressively worse and on Sunday, after returning home, Wayne took me to the hospital.
Because I was pregnant, it was harder for the doctors to figure out what was wrong.  Monday, they sent me for an ultrasound to rule out a miscarriage and to examine my internal organs (they thought it could have been the gallbladder).  The ultrasound showed nothing abnormal and on Tuesday, with almost no notice - they rushed me off to surgery to remove my appendix. 
They gave me little hope for the baby.  The doctor gave me a speech about how easily I could get pregnant again and told me there was a 30% chance I'd lose the baby.  I was terrified and devastated.  About 30 minutes later, I was being wheeled into surgery.
After the surgery, they gave the baby a 48 hour window for miscarriage.  because I was pregnant there was little they could do in the way of pain meds.  I was given little more than an over the counter medicine for the pain of major surgery and I can't put into words how painful the next few days and very long nights were. 

It turned out, they had to cut a little more than they planned because when they found my appendix to be healthy (although they took it anyway) - they had to do a bit of exploring.  It turned out there was a bit of fatty tissue that somehow got twisted inside me and was dying and becoming toxic.  If they didn't operate it could have been quite dangerous. 
I suffered through until Friday when they finally sent me for an ultrasound to check on the baby and was overjoyed to find out out that everything was fine! 
Because I was being given so little in the way of pain medicine and very little assistance from the night nurses, I asked for an early release and was sent home that day.  I spent the weekend in bed, went to my GP on Monday to let him know the pain was still quite bad, but he just sent me home with nothing more to ease the pain.  He never even looked at the incision.  On Wednesday, the incision burst due to a build up of fluid with an infection and it was back to the hospital... 8 hours later, a surgeon came to see me and with no pain meds, he reopened the incision with a pair of forceps.  he packed it with gauze, dressed it and sent me home.  Friday, we were back again because the bleeding was too much to last until the nurse was due to arrive on Saturday.  I've had a nurse come everyday since to check the wound and redress it.  It will be another couple of weeks before it heals and I'm allowed to live any normal type of life.
All that said - I can't really complain.  Against all odds, the baby is ok and even though I've had to suffer without anything for pain - it's well worse the sacrifice. Next week, I'll be 3 months pregnant and I can't say enough how blessed I feel to have come this far.

Comments

[Tara]

After that ordeal childbirth will be a breeze for you! I am happy to hear you are doing"better", and I wish you a speedy recovery. I'm so glad you are back!

[Christie]

YEAH!! Im so happy for you. Well, Im sad you had to go thru pain and surgery! I KNEW you were pregnant!! I just had a feeling! When are you due? YEAH!!

[Christine L.]

Oh....My....Gosh!!!!
Congratulations!!!! But what a mess to have to go through!!

Just rest up and get better...looks like it should be fine...big sigh of relief.

I was sitting on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading that sordid tale (with Medical malpractice by the sound of it...)

-C

[Bron]

Congrats!!! what a special wee fella this baby will be!
x

[Suze]

That is the single most painful thing I have read in a long time - I really do hope that you are feeling better!
Suze x