Two Surgeries and a Long Ass Recovery Period: Part One

Hello everyone. It's still very difficult for me to be out of bed / off the couch, but I really do want to write about what happened on Wednesday & Thursday. So here goes:

PART ONE

I took Wednesday off work as a vacation day. One of my friends was down visiting me, and I wanted to take her to the Missouri Botanical Gardens. About 11:00, we packed up, left the house and headed for the gardens. It was me, Alex, my brother (Duane) and my friend (Sabrina). We get there and start walking through the gardens about 11:25. At 11:45 I felt sharp pain that was not relenting. I had no comparison for the pain and no way to describe it. I suggested we sit down there and eat our lunch in the shade, with the hopes that the pain would lessen a bit and I could continue. Anyways, I tried to sit down, and was surprised at how much it hurt to sit! I had to sit on my side because I couldn't even sit on my butt. By then everyone noticed I was in pain, and asked if I wanted to leave, but I was bound and determined to go through the gardens. It was gorgeous, everything was in bloom, and I had taken a day off for it. Nothing was stopping me! So I continued through the gardens, trying to keep my pain quiet/a secret. I figured the worse thing that was happening to me was a miscarriage, and if my body was miscarrying, there wasn't a thing I could do to stop it. I went through the entire gardens, which is a huge place. We left about 3:00 pm.

My other plans for Wednesday evening included shopping. But I had to lie down first, try to take a nap, to see if the pain would subside. It never did, in fact, it was only getting worse. I began to get worried -- if I can't sleep through pain, then it has to be pretty bad, because I sleep through anything -- including the first 6 hours of labor with my eldest child. I weighed my options. My first baby appointment was still a week away, and I had yet to meet my doctor. I finally decided to give a call anyway. I was transferred to his assistant who wasn't there. At 4:00 pm I left a message for her asking about the pain.

5:00. I'm beginning to get really upset. Could someone PLEASE return my call? I tried the office back. Closed. 5:15, she calls! The Dr. could not see me that day, of course -- he had delivered two babies earlier, and the next day he was in surgery all day. Would Friday work? Wait -- you sound like you're in a lot of pain .... why don't you go to the emergency room?

5:30, at the emergency room. The nice thing is, if you tell them you're pregnant, you get to bypass the waiting room entirely. At least I got one perk from being pregnant. They take me back, and the doctor on call tells me she's slightly worried about a tubular pregnancy. She does a pelvic exam and orders a pelvic ultrasound. It's 7:30 by the time I get the pelvic ultrasound. The technician wouldn't tell us anything, which I knew was a bad sign ... you'd think if everything was all right she'd go: "Oh look! Here is your baby!" Instead, she sent us back to think and worry.

8:00 look who comes in: The doctor I have yet to meet! How akward. What was that? Surgery, now? It can't wait till morning? The tube is completely ruptured? We begin making phone calls to family -- many of which didn't even know I was pregnant.

8:30 / 8:45 - ish. Time for surgery.

I thought I could sit down and write all this at once, but I can't. I have to lie down. So, to be continued .....