Willis AKA Rocky

On Tuesday of this week, I awoke around 4:30am with severe pain in my back and stomach. So I called the after hours nurse and spoke with a nurse that told me to take some tylenol and lay on a heating pad. Ok, I thought, I'll do it. I did it and nothing changed. Around 7am I still had no relief so I called both of my sisters. Dana told me to call back the nurse and tell her she was an idiot because I could be having back labor. She was MAD....I think more mad than I was! So, I called back the nurse (thankfully a different nurse) and she told me to go to the hospital. David and I quickly grabbed my bag, took the girls to his sister Michelle's house and made the trek down to the hospital. Once we arrived at the hospital, it took almost 25 minutes to get checked in while I sat there pain. It didn't make me feel very confident in the hospital that I was about to put my faith into to cure me of my pain or to deliver our baby. Once we finally got up to the room, a nurse came in and asked me about my problems and proceeded to call my OB doctor. From that point, they drew some blood (the first out of 5 times) and I sat and waited to hear the results. That's when things get sketchy for me. I can't rememeber the exact events of the day, but I do remember starting to get sick. The pain and sickness continued all day. However, at this point in the day, I think the nurse gave me some vicodin. That worked for about 40 minutes and then I was back in pain. After that, she gave me a shot of demerol and phenergren. And that never worked. Soon I was being wheeled down to another room to get an ultrasound. This was pure torture for me. I kept getting sick and then this woman (not her fault at all) was pushing down on where my pain was. It was a miserable hour. It was now about 5pm and I still had no pain relief and not a clear idea of what was wrong with me. The docs thought it was something to do with my kidneys and since they knew I had had kidney stones before, they were pretty certain that was the case now. However, they wanted to do an MRI to be sure that was the problem. Before I was carted down to the MRI room, they gave me some Dilauded in my own "Billy" pump. If you remember, David had Diluaded in a pump for his surgery and he named it "Billy." So Billy and I got to know each other very well. Anyway, I went and had the MRI which was very difficult because I had to hold my breath while the machine took pictures. That's not an easy task when you have a giant kid in your belly. The MRI didn't show much except for my giant kid. Several of the technicians told me that "Willis" was large. That was not the obvious thing I needed to hear at the moment. It was now 7pm and "Billy" was giving me some relief, thankfully. One of the OB doctors came in and told me that he thought we should induce and that would give me the relief I needed. Because "Willis" was putting pressure on my kidneys, the stones didn't have the ability to pass because the kidney was fully blocked by our son. The doc thought if we induced, then the pressure would be relieved and the stones could pass. Neither David and I thought this was a very good plan. We both knew that the longer "Willis" stayed cookin', the better off he'd be. I also knew that there was no way I was in any kind of shape to deliver a baby. I was absolutely worn out! So, my other doctor made a call to a urologist and came up with the plan to have a stent put in so that the stones could have a way to pass. Then, "Willis" could come when he's ready and I could rest up and wait for that to happen. So that's the plan we went with.

Around midnight, I was wheeled down to the OR, given a spinal block (good practice for the epidural) and had the stent placed. The entire procedure took around 15 to 30 minutes. I was awake for the entire thing and found it quite interesting to hear the surgeon and nurses talking about the procedure. I also got to monitor "Willis'" heartrate along with the nurses. He made it through the procedure without any problems. The weird thing about this surgery was that I was numb from the chest down. I couldn't feel anything. And the next thing I knew, I was back in my room and off to sleep. (On a sidenote, I spent the day on some pretty potent medicines. This was and is conflicting to me because when you're pregnant, the doctors give you a list of things you can and can't do. I trust that the doctors know what they're doing and would never do anything to jeopardize the health of our baby. But, I just feel a little guilty taking those meds when they could potentially harm our little guy. I guess this could be considered as one of my first dilemmas as a parent.)

All in all, it was terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day! However, we are thankful for God's providence in keeping our son safe and his mom healthy. I am thankful for a patient husband that spent the day praying while I went through a number of tests. And now I get to rest up for the real deal....the day that "Willis" AKA "Rocky" will make his appearance (My Dad said we should change his name to "Rocky" since he is the reason I got the kidney stones.") Until then, thanks for your prayers and support. Also, here's a VERY unlovely picture of me from the hospital! I can't believe I'm going to post it, but hey, it's real life people. I can't be glamourous all the time! :)

I think this was right after the surgery. I couldn't feel anything from the chest down so the nurse had to position me like a rag doll. Dana, I got to play rag doll in real life! :)

Day after surgery, there's somewhat of a smile there. Like my hair??