Tate's Fifth Week

Well this past week has been one hell of a week. After Tate's one month birthday things definitely spiralled downwards in unforeseeable ways. Beginning with me being taken to the doctor then rushed to the emergency room and ended with me having surgery.

Let me back up... The night after Tate was born at about 130a.m. I began feeling terrible, terrible pains in my upper abdomen spreading to my back and shoulder. After writhing around in bed for about 30 or 45 minutes my husband sent for a nurse who assured us that it was either heart burn and/or gas pains from the pressure that built up after having a baby. I spent the next two hours in pain and ended up throwing up about 10 times and sitting in a hot shower for 40 minutes trying to find any way I could to relieve the pain. Nothing helped. I finally took a pain pill that helped me pass out and go to sleep.

I thought that was the end of it until about 2 weeks ago, shortly after going to bed I experienced the same thing. The throwing up, the gassiness, the pressure, the excruciating pain. After a couple of hours it kind of went away on our own. I stopped drinking carbonated drinks and was trying to avoid greasy, fatty foods because both nights I had eaten a hamburger and french fries with a soda later in the evening within a few hours of bedtime.

Then on Friday night I experienced the same thing, only worse. On Saturday there was another attack but nothing nearly as severe or discomforting as the previous times. Gabe and I decided we would seek a Dr's opinion during the week, likely early Wednesday morning when Gabe was off. Then Monday afternoon I had an attack that was by far the worst one yet. I was doubled over in extreme amounts of pain unlike anything I've ever felt before. I told Gabe we would need to go to the doctor when he got home. I called back shortly there after and told him there was no way we could wait and he needed to come home NOW.

We headed to the doctor's office, who skipped several patients to bring me back. She took one look and one feel and sent me to the ER. After waiting for over 2 hours I was finally brought back to a room. We had Tate with us since he's exclusively breastfed and Connor was thankfully picked up at the hospital by Amanda where he ended up spending the night Monday night.

After doing an ultrasound they determined I had SEVERAL gallstones in my gallbladder and had one stone that was lodged in my common bile duct, which was elevating my liver enzymes and basically starting to shut off my liver functions. They admitted me to the hospital so I could have an ERCP procedure done in the morning. Tuesday morning by the time I woke up I was jaundiced to the point my hands and fingers were yellowing. I was yellow from the waist up!

The ECRP, a procedure where I was consciously sedated, consisted of a camera probe being inserted in my mouth, down my throat where they flushed out the stone that was in my common bile duct. This procedure also confirmed that my gallbladder needed to come out. After a long wait we finally met the surgeon who scheduled the procedure for Wednesday at 1230. They removed my gallbladder, stones and all, and did a liver biopsy. We won't get the results from the biopsy back for a couple of weeks.

The procedure went well, but I'm still swollen and quite uncomfortable. Having surgery like this 4.5 weeks postpartum was not at all what I had in mind. I'm recovering, but the recovery, unfortunately has been harder and more painful than childbirth.

Gabe took a photo of my belly today- you can see the swell and the sites of the laproscopy. Thank you to all of you who prayed us through this ordeal. We wouldn't have made it through without the prayers you sent our way. So, basically the world's sweetest Tater Tot spent his 5th week in the world, back where he began... only two floors up! Unfortunately with all that's going on I only got two pictures of Tater Tot this week. I feel terrible about it, hopefully he and all of you can forgive me.