This is the story of Landry's early arrival. Not everyone knows the whole story of Landry's start.
It was Wednesday August 18th, 2010 and I was 34 1/2 weeks pregnant. I was scheduled to go to the doctor that Friday, the 20th. But I got a call from the doctor's office early that Wednesday afternoon asking me to re schedule my appt. They asked me to come in late next week, I asked to see if they could see me that afternoon, and knowing what I know now, I'm so glad I asked for that. So I went to the doctor late that afternoon and the nurse took my blood pressure once....then again, and then took a urine sample, as they always did, to check the protein level. I waited in the exam room for what seemed forever. Finally the doctor came in with his nurse, and my husband. This is weird because my husband did not come to my appt with me. Dr Ward then checked my blood pressure 2 more times. He then informed me that my protein levels were "off the chart" and my blood pressure was extremely high. He believed that I was developing pregnancy toxemia (pre eclampsia), and that I was going to be admitted to the hospital for 24 hour testing. I was told that I would not be leaving the hospital pregnant. I was in total denial, I wasn't 35 weeks pregnant yet.... that was too early. It's weird because I always had this feeling that "something wasn't right" or something was going to go wrong. I always kept that feeling to myself. So I'm in the hospital on left sided bed rest, I did not sleep a wink Wednesday night. When I was admitted they checked me and I was dilated to a 2 and 80% effaced. The sonogram they performed showed that little Landry was as far down as he could possibly go. All day Thursday....same routine. Dr Ward finally came to see me sometime Thursday evening. The game plan was that if my test results came back and only put me in a "mild" form of toxemia he would send me home on strict bed rest and try to get me to 36 weeks but no more. But the high risk doctor that I was turned over to wanted me to stay in the hospital on bed rest and try to make it to 36 weeks. But if my results came back as high then we would be inducing right then! Everything had not sunk in at this point. Well a few minutes later my results put me as severe toxemia. At this point everything starts to become a blur, everything happened so fast. They broke my water and started the IV's. I got an IV with Magnesium (for the blood pressure, so I wouldn't start having seizures), antibiotics because I am a group B carrier, pitosin, and other fluids. This is were things start to go blank in my memory and you'll see why. A little past midnight they gave me a shot of Stadol, a pain killer. I have had stadol before for my migraines. 1 shot is enough to knock me out for a day. Ive always had weird reactions to pain killers. About an hour after the first shot of Stadol...... they gave me another. Not good to do when I had gone over 24 hours of no sleep. About an hour later they came in to give me my epidural, I don't remember asking for one but Landon says I did. First epidural did not take, so I got another. And when I got the 2nd, everything went black. The next few hours for me I don't really remember. Have you ever seen a movie or tv show that is taken from the patients perspective?? At one point I would wake up to a nurse putting an oxygen mask on my face... then blackness... then waking up again to a different scene and not knowing how much time had passed. The nurse was supposed to check me every hour, well that didn't happen. Landon says she checked me during the middle of the night and didn't come back for nearly 3 hours. She came back to check me about 6am and I was fully dilated plus 2!!! PLUS 2..... did you know you can go pass fully dilated???? Landon says the nurse checked me and says "Oh Crap" and leaves the room real quick. At this point I kind of wake up, it's time to push.
I vaguely remember this part. The doctor came in and let me try to push for about 45 minutes. Apparently your epidural strength can be changed, the strength can be lowered or raised according to what the patient needs. Well mine was left turned on high the entire night and Ward made his displeasure known. I remember I kept telling them that I couldn't feel anything, couldn't tell if I was pushing.....nothing. He let me "try' to push for 45 minutes before he used the suction to get Landry out. Landry was born at 7:14 am on August 20th, right at 35 weeks. 5lbs 2oz which is bigger than expected. I remember the doctor holding him and rubbing his chest explaining that he wasn't crying due to some fluid in his lungs. He finally cried a little and they cleaned him up, let Landon take a picture and showed him to me for a second then took him to NICU. Now I didn't remember most of this, most is what Landon had to tell me. They also sent off my placenta for testing after birth. There was 3 large spots that were abnormal. This becomes my nightmare later.
They took Landry away and things go fuzzy again. Friday was a blur, fuzzy, I remember bits and pieces and I couldn't tell you the times I was awake or people coming in my room. I do know that I was told with pre eclampsia the mother is supposed to "turn around' with in 3 hours of birth. I did not, I stayed just as bad and it worried the doctors and nurses. The epidural was removed at some point.... don't' remember when. Every time the nurse came in to check my reflexes she would tell me that me reflexes were not coming back like they should, I couldn't move my legs like I should have been able. She also told us that the leads for the IV's were not done correctly and that the nurse who did the IV's "Needed a talking too". That's a great thing to tell a patient. Friday night they finally called in an internalist to try to figure out why I wasn't getting better, keep in mind that I have still not seen Landry at this point. It was determined that I had been over medicated and my body did not have a good reaction to the all the painkillers and medicines. They said my body had been in shock because of all the different medicines, my body was fighting with itself internally. I finally started to "turn the corner" as they say Friday night. My body just needed a lot of time to set itself straight. I remembered bits a pieces but the order was jumbled. I ended up asking Landon on Sunday to put things together for me.
There are more details that I am leaving out, if I put in everything, this blog would be forever long. I will write more tomorrow. I think this is long enough for 1 reading.
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