December 2017 & January 2018 Recap

This is long but I'm pretty much writing it out just for my record or our lives the past couple months.

December started out pretty great. My mom came up to visit to help for when the baby was born.

December 12 I went into labor and had Parley on the morning of the 13th. The labor went awesome and Parley was doing great. After delivery we did skin to skin for about an hour and then they cleaned Parley up and  weighed him and all that good stuff. I started getting a massive headache. I couldn't sit up because it hurt so bad and I would get so light headed and seriously feel like I was going to pass out. They called the anesthesiologist in to see what he thought. He said it could be a spinal headache from the epidural, I could take some ibuprofen and see if that would help. So I did and it helped a tiny bit. He also said we could do another epidural and they would put some of my blood into the spinal something. Honestly I don't remember too much of what he was saying because my head hurt so bad. I could hardly eat and couldn't even talk to my dad on the phone. They also thought it could just be from not eating or sleeping all night and the trauma from delivery. Eventually after a few hours I was feeling better. During the night I passed a really big blood clot and the nurse checked my belly again and said everything seemed good. 

Throughout the next week and a half I would have good days and bad days, although my good days were still really bad. I was getting light headed, heat flashes and cold chills. I was also passing some clots here and there. 

The 20th we had Parley's circumcision scheduled. I told my doctor about the clots, heat flashes and chills. He didn't seemed too concerned and said it was probably hormone related from giving birth. (Curtis says that I didn't tell him the extent of it and he probably would have been more worried if I did.)

On the 22nd I passed 2 very large (softball size) clots within 30 minutes of each other. I called my doctors office and they still said it was okay, just due to giving birth. 

The next day is when it got worse. It was about 8 at night and I started bleeding very bad and I passed about 5 clots in an hour. I was very pale, sweaty, and felt like I was going to pass out. We decided to call Patty to come watch the kids and we were headed to the ER to get checked out. 

We got to the ER and I passed about 4 more clots. They got me hooked up to an IV, did exams and ultrasounds. They said everything looked good but I was just having excessive bleeding so they gave me a shot and prescribed a medicine that would help with the bleeding that I would have to take for 3 days. We were at the ER all night and Curtis had to leave to go get some formula for Parley because since the flu was so bad they wouldn't let us bring him to the ER for me to feed him. I also couldn't nurse while I was on that medicine and for 12 hours after my last dose.. I had to pump and dump. Which was awful, so we had to give Parley formula for a few days and he actually did really well thank goodness. 

We didn't go to church Christmas Eve because we got home about 7 am from the ER and were exhausted and I still wasn't feeling too good. Christmas day I was feeling a tiny bit better but still getting terrible heat flashes and chills and still was feeling like I was going to pass out. We just hung out and relaxed all day. Opening presents was not very fun for me. I felt awful.. 

The 26th I felt great! We even went to a movie and I was starting to feel so much better. But about 4 in the morning I started bleeding really bad. I tried to get some more sleep and woke up about 7:30 and I was bleeding so much worse than I had been and was passing clot after clot. I almost passed out while I was in the bathroom and I don't know how I walked from the bathroom to the living room. I sat down on the chair and told Curtis that we needed to go to the hospital. He called his mom to come over to watch the kids and I called my mom to tell her we were headed back to the hospital. I was sweating like crazy and Curtis said he had never seen someone so pale in his life. Patty got to our house, Curtis gave me a blessing, we gave the kids a kiss and left for the hospital. 

When we got to the hospital they made me check in at the ER and I could barely sign my name. Curtis made me get in wheel chair so I didn't fall over. They called us over to the triage room and the nurse started taking my blood pressure. I remember thinking "I can't sit here, I'm going to pass out. I'm in so much pain." I'm pretty sure at that point I did pass out because I don't remember the next few minutes. Curtis said my blood pressure was 65/30 and the nurse said that couldn't be right so she checked it again and I started sweating profusely. She checked my blood pressure again and it was the same. She yelled to the back to ask if they had a room and they wheeled me back there. As we were headed to the room they were ordering blood for me. I don't remember any of that. I woke up once we were in the room and the nurses were trying to get a hospital gown on me. They got me into the bed and started TWO IV's right then. One in each arm and got blood hooked up to both arms. Curtis said that the ER doctor was in another room and the nurse went in to get him to come check on me. He checked my cervix and asked who my OB was so he could call them. I have never been treated so quickly at a hospital before. There were so many doctors and nurses in and out of my room and they were working so fast! Curtis was pretty scared watching all of it and I was totally out of it until the blood had been going for a while then I was able to talk and function a little more. My blood level was so low. I am so glad we got to the hospital when we did or things could have gotten so much worse and I'm scared to even think about that. 

After I was doing a little bit better with the blood transfusion they came in to do an ultrasound of my uterus. They called my OB to let him know everything and they decided that I needed surgery, a D&C. We had to wait for the transfusion to be done then I was headed to surgery. We got to the hospital around 9 and I was in surgery by 12. When I was in the pre-op room my OB came in to talk to me and he couldn't believe that when I was at the ER a few nights before that that they didn't want to do surgery then after doing the ultrasound! 

While I was in recovery my doctor went to talk to Curtis. There was a piece of the placenta about the size of his thumb still stuck in my uterus and that is what was causing all of the bleeding and everything else! I am so grateful they got it out! They also gave me another unit of blood while I was in the recovery room. 

Once I was able to get up and walk around and eat they discharged me from the hospital. I was feeling like a new person. Even on my good days during the 2 weeks previous I didn't realize how sick I was. Even on the day of surgery I felt 10000x better than I had been. I finally was able to enjoy my baby and play with Brooklyn and not just sit on the couch all day long. 

My parents got up here the day after my surgery and stayed for 4 days which we were so thankful for. Two days after my surgery I noticed a red line going down my forearm and it hurt so bad. I asked my sil and aunt who are nurses what it could be and they both thought it was an infection from the IV. So I called my doctor (on a Saturday) and he called in an antibiotic for me. Also after the surgery I was on the same medicine again that I was before that I couldn't nurse with, so poor Parley had to take formula and a bottle again and I had to pump & dump.. Parley is such a good baby and had no problem going back to nursing once I could nurse again! What a champ. 

So after all of my health scares, seriously I'm lucky to be alive.. I'm so glad Curtis was home from work for Christmas break. The day before Curtis went back to work he had to go with his mom to get their dog out down that they had had for about 14 years. It was so sad and very hard on the family.

Then Curtis went back to work and the student he works with wasn't there the whole week after break. He just didn't want to go back to school. That next weekend he moved to Utah and Curtis was out of a job. Thankfully he has been in the school district for long enough and there was a job available that he got a new job quickly. But it was a very very stressful week of not knowing what was going to happen. 

We've also been having car problems and it just really sucks with only having one car. Seriously having a broke down car with no back up, a job to get to and 2 kids is no good..

But even with all of the terrible and scary problems we've been having the past couple months Curtis and I were talking last night and decided that we need to try and start focusing more on our blessings and not so much on our trials, no matter how hard they may be.

We are so blessed that we are all here and healthy (now), that we have each other and our families who help us out so much when we need it. We are blessed with the knowledge of the gospel that we have in our lives and that we have a loving Heavenly Father who guides and directs us. We're so very blessed to have our sweet Brooklyn and Parley here with us. There are so many wonderful blessings in our lives and even though there are trials we are grateful for the blessings and for how we grow from our trials.