Monday, June 26, 2006

Stress = Bad

The following is old news - nearly a month old. Many of you already know about it, many don't. Here goes...

The night I flew back to MT to visit my family for Andrew's graduation, I started having contractions - painful ones - not the Braxton-Hicks silliness that happens all the time. I woke up Andrew to let him know, but said I thought they would go away. But they didn't - for about 8 hours. Finally, I called my mom before she left for work and asked her for a ride to the hospital (convenient, because she happens to work there). By the time she got to my dad's house, I was having another contraction and throwing up. I felt fine for the ride to Plains, but started feeling crappy again once they admitted me through the emergency room. This is a really long story. I'm going to condense it...

I got on an IV to replace fluids (though I was never dehydrated) and to pump me full of magnesium to stop the contractions (luckily I didn't dilate). It was way uncomfortable. In my 10-hour stay, I had the pleasure of 4 different IVs, a urinary catheter (that's a story all on it's own), blood tests, use of a bedpan and news from the doctor that I wasn't very happy to hear. She wanted me on bedrest - at least most of the time. I was put on Procardia (a heart/blood pressure medication) to keep my contractions from coming back and was sent home. At least I got to see my family and I was able to go to Andrew's graduation. But, the whole ordeal was rather scary. They couldn't find anything wrong with me, so we can only assume it was stress.

I went to my doctor after returning to DC and basically got the same prognosis. I had to start seeing another Dr., keep on the Procardia, and cease all exercise/cut down on work. But, luckily... when I went back in again last week, I was given a clean bill of health and told to get off of the medication (YEAH!!!) and encouraged to get back to normal (or close to). I feel so much better - the Procardia made me rather lethargic and caused my feet to swell to Cabbage Patch Kids' proportions. I'm finally back to exercising (we went swimming this weekend) and don't feel like taking a nap every hour of the day.

I go back in for another appointment on July 11, so hopefully all is well between now and then. I'm really just taking it one day at a time... crossing my fingers that little Ella will stay in there for a few more months.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

sure glad everything is o.k. we hadn't heard anything since we left Texas. now we have internet access as they put in a satalite here at the lodge.

Anonymous said...

sure glad everything is o.k. we hadn't heard anything since we left Texas. now we have internet access as they put in a satalite here at the lodge.