History Of The Heart

What brought me to the blogging world was my first born son, Tater Bug. Golf Man and I got married and knew we wanted to start a family right away. After five months of marriage we started trying to conceive. Five months later, we found out we were pregnant. From the start, I did everything I was supposed to do. I was taking prenatal vitamins and folic acid before we started trying. As soon as I found out, I made my doctor's appointment. I was determined to do things by the book! My due date was in April of 2006.

The pregnancy was fairly uneventful. I had a few high blood pressure readings but attributed that to "White Coat" Syndrome. I did develop gestational diabetes when I was 30 weeks. I was put on the diet and my sugars were all staying in check. On February 18th everything changed. I hadn't been feeling well that day, but I thought it was just normal pregnancy stuff. Being my first child, I didn't know what to expect plus it was cold and snowing outside. I just felt icky. I couldn't eat my dinner that night.

About 15 minutes after I fell asleep, my water broke. 48 hours, magnesium sulfate, antibiotics, and two steroid shots later Tater Bug came into this world. He was 33 weeks and weight 4 lbs. 5 oz. and was a mere 17 in. long. He screamed... LOUD! Which was great! His stay in the NICU was pretty uneventful too. He developed jaundice, but really just needed to eat and grow. I was discharged when he was 4 days old. I was going back and forth to the hospital, which was 30 minutes away. I would spend hours upon hours there. Feeding him, changing his diapers, and holding him as much as they would allow me to. I was in survival mode. Goal #1 was to get him home!

In the midst of all this, I was ignoring my body. I was feeling run down, but I just thought it was from running back and forth to the hospital. When Tater Bug was 10 days old, I had been informed that his discharge date had been set. If he passed all the tests, he would be released on March 3rd which was two days away. I went home and told Golf Man. We were so excited we could barely contain ourselves. I went to bed that night dreaming of being a "normal" family.

About 15 minutes after I dozed off, I woke up shaking. After arguing with Golf Man over taking my temperature, I finally caved and let him take it. It was 102. I took Tylenol and it didn't go down so we were off to the ER. After waiting in the ER for hours that night, they finally decided to admit me and put me on IV antibiotics. Within hours, my temperature shot up again, but this time it reached 105.6! I don't remember much about that day, but I do remember thinking that I was going to die.

I know that I was hallucinating, convulsing, and talking some crazy things. They took me into surgery to lance a hematoma that they thought was the source of the infection. It was not. A few more tests revealed that I had sepsis. I was a very sick girl. And I was in a hospital that was 30 minutes away from my baby. This was not going the way I had planned! They were hitting me with 4 different antibiotics. One right after the next. My fever came back that night, but it wasn't even close to what it had been. The next day was the day that Tater Bug was going to come home. I wanted to get out of there and be with my boy. That wasn't in the cards.

Friday, March 3, 2006, Tater Bug got his walking papers. Golf Man and my mom had to go and get him. That has to be the hardest thing for me to come to grips with. They got all the instructions and drove him straight to my hospital. I was sooo glad to see him, but I wasn't feeling very well. I thought I was having some anxiety issues relating to this whole mess. I felt heaviness on my chest. It wouldn't go away. My mom gave Golf Man the choice to either stay with me at the hospital or take care of Tater Bug at home. He stayed with me and mom took care of Tater Bug. I wasn't there for his first night at home.

The next morning, I said something to the nurse about my trouble breathing. After even more tests, it was discovered that I had pnuemonia. The lung doctor told my mom that if the OB hadn't treated my sepsis so aggressively, I would have ended up in the ICU on a ventilator. This diagnosis added 2 more days to my hospital stay and 1 more antibiotic. I was VERY anxious to be at home.

Finally, when Tater Bug turned 2 weeks old, we were all at home under the same roof. It was sooo wonderful! I felt like I had cheated death twice.

We settled into a routine very quickly and things were going well. Two days before I was set to go back to work, I was having some stomach issues and ended up in the ER again. I was given IV fluids and some meds and sent home. The next day, my arm started to become red and splochy. It was tender to the touch. This went on for two more days and then my mom found a blood clot in a vein very close to my heart. I was thrown right back into the hospital. It was not ideal. Tater Bug was 2 months old and Golf Man was just getting use to being a daddy and taking care of a premature baby. So I was in the hospital for another 3 days!

So this series of events led me to the blog world. I was very depressed and upset. I found Share and started a blog. That got me addicted and led me to where I am today!