What Happens When You Unexpectantly End Up in the Hospital

I typically try to keep posts on here going up two or three times a week to keep things current. But if you have noticed, it's been a week since anything last went up. Around here, that's pretty abnormal!

Well, here's the reason why. Last Thursday was when we were scheduled to get the ultrasound for our baby. I was fully prepared to come home, write a post about what we're expecting and what I'm excited about regarding have a boy or girl.

We did the ultrasound, but then a funny thing happened. I didn't feel well at all. I figured I'd post that on Friday.

My body, however, had different plans. Thursday night into Friday, I got really sick to where I was throwing up and had severe pains in my side where my kidney is. Friday, we went to my OB-GYN who showed signs that my body had also started having some really small contractions. So she sent us to the hospital.

On the way to the hospital, things got worse and by this time I hadn't had lunch and had already divulged (ahem) all of my breakfast so throwing up became a lot more painful. At the hospital they were able to stabilize me overnight and stop the contractions. Then Saturday and Sunday were spent doing different tests to try to pin down what was going on and had caused all the pain and vomitting in the first place.

The results? "I don't know." We got some ultrasounds done and even an MRI because they were really afraid it was my gallbladder or appendix. But all those checked out. So the doctors think it is/was likely a kidney stone or a really strong stomach virus, but they didn't (and don't always) show up on any of those tests. Either way, either of those things were ailments that any treatment would have included "just wait it out," so they weren't too concerned with either of those.

Fortunately, though, starting on Sunday, I started to feel better (comparatively), which coincidentally was also the time when they had announced in church what had happened to us and emails started pouring in from friends who were praying for us and this little baby of ours. You cannot tell me that that didn't have something to do with all this.

Because the medical folks still don't know what happened. Or why it's getting better now.

As of yesterday, I am now at home and still recovering. The pain has been progressively subsiding although it's still markedly there (but in comparison to the severity it was on Friday and Saturday, it is a great relief!). My biggest hurdle now is to overcome the lethargy of being hooked up on IVs and sitting in a hospital bed for 36 hours! I'm still quite tired and still can't sleep more than two hours at a time because the pain wakes me up. I'm also quite swollen (tried on some flip-flops yesterday and my feet are so wide they flow over the edges!) and hoping that will subside with time as I'm able to move more and more.

But of course the biggest thing to us through all of this was that our little one (whose sex I'll reveal later!!) would be safe and sound despite what was happening to mama. All through it, they kept checking the baby's heartbeat, which continued to be strong and moving around. Through most of the pregnancy, the baby has hung out on my right side, but that ended up being the side in the most pain. So, sweet baby of mine, has spent the past few days getting to know my left-hand side and giving me some repreive on the right. Thoughtful, no? Looking forward to tell the baby all about this someday and how much of a trooper they were through it all!

I'll probably try to post that reveal-the-baby's-gender post later this week, but for now (while I'm living between my couch and bedside as I continue to recover and gain strength), I am not making any promises. In the meantime, feel free to wager any guesses on whether you think it's a boy or a girl in the comments!

PRAYER REQUESTS
While I'm now at home recovering, there is still plenty of improvement to come, so if you'd like to join us in praying, here are some of the things that we're asking the Lord for:

• Continued healing of the stomach and side pains
• Swelling to decrease
• Return to mobility and energy
• Ability to sleep longer through the night
• That the baby would continue to develop healthfully and unaffected by the tests and treatments of this episode

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