Things just seem to come in waves around here. I was feeling pretty good since we had made it through all of Justin's appointments and most of the other things we we hoping to make it through before baby comes. Then it was 10 pm Tuesday and my mom had made her flights and was well on her way here when Justin woke up screaming and when we ran to his room we found that he had thrown up the brightly-colored blueberries he ate for dinner. After a group effort to get him cleaned up and his sheets changed he was put back to sleep. My mom drove in from the airport and said that her back and arm had started hurting on the second flight and now she was at a nine on a scale of ten for pain. So she took some medicine and went to bed and then Justin woke up throwing up again. We cleaned him up and brought him and the bucket to bed with us. We slept for a few hours before he threw up again. And again. And well, again.
By morning we had barely slept and Justin had no more blueberries in him. While I was bathing him Travis came in and showed Randy his swollen, puffy eye. So Justin was vomiting, which meant no therapy, but he wasn't quite to doctor-appointment serious sick. My mom could barely move and needed to go to the chiropractor. Travis had to the beginnings of another contagious eye disease and it was my day to go to the doctor for baby. Oh, and Randy had important meetings at work that he really couldn't miss. (He had already told me that I needed to wait until after Wednesday to have the baby.)
I got appointments for everyone and then I had to find drivers to take people to appointments since I have found it's difficult to be in 2 places at once. I sometimes feel like a beggar calling my friends and asking for help. This was a particularly tough day. I had to go deep down my list asking for help but everyone made it to their appointments and got whatever relief they could. Justin stopped throwing up and even began eating small amounts of food around lunch (he really wanted "ships" (chips) but I was able to redirect him for a short time). Travis ended up having a stye in his eye. My mom was still suffering pretty intensely but she was able to take some of the edge off the pain. And baby is happy where she is and shows no signs of being ready to come out.
That night we hoped for better sleep, but Justin developed one of his classic croupy coughs and he only settled down while sleeping with me sitting up in the recliner. By morning he seemed fine and he did great the rest of the day. I, on the other hand, was struggling with back pain and being completely exhausted!
My mom really felt like she needed some pain meds and being out of town she has no doctor to prescribe anything so her doctor told her to go to the ER. Randy came home early to take Travis to his last soccer game and I went to the ER with my mom. We got there at 5 pm, armed with food and entertainment and ready for the wait. We began hearing people murmuring about how long they had been waiting and wondered how long the current waiting time would be. The longest we heard was six hours. That was not at all encouraging!
One hour into our wait I got a text from Randy that Travis had scored his first goal in his soccer game! So proud! Two hours into our wait they called her for an ultrasound to ensure she didn't have a blood clot in her arm since she had been flying. That was accomplished fairly quickly and we were back in the waiting room again. While we were gone, the room had exploded with activity and we could not even find two seats together. People were even sitting on tables. Four hours into our wait I decided I needed more food than what we had brought and I hit a fast food restaurant next to the hospital. By this time every drop of pain medicine that my mom had taken was out of her system and she was in tears from the pain. She could not get anything for the pain, but we did manage to get some ice packs and we alternated between ice packs and my rubbing her arm and back. Five hours into our wait I began inquiring how many people were on the list before my mom. Seven hours into our wait she was called for an EKG and we were told they were cleaning a room for us and she would be back in a room soon.
Another hour later (that makes eight hours waiting) we were finally in a room and the nurse began her triage questions. Another hour later, and two failed attempts at starting an IV, she got anti-nausea medicine and a pain shot. She finally felt some relief about 20 minutes later and we settled in to try to get a little sleep. She roused me a bit later saying she was going to throw up. I found an acceptable receptacle and moved out of the line of fire. I somehow end up being the one who cleans up the vomit at work, but I am not in the strongest of positions these days and I did not want to get too close to the action. She continued to feel sick for another hour and her arm and back started hurting again.
The doctor diagnosed a pinched nerve in her neck and gave her orders for an MRI and prescriptions for pain meds and anti nausea medicine. She was still feeling sick so she had to get a shot to stop vomiting. We were finally discharged from the ER at 4 am and she still got sick in the car on the way home (fortunately we had a bag to contain it). We were finally tucked into bed close to 4:30 am.
Somehow it was still a success because she got pain medicine. Eleven hours total for a little piece of paper that will give her relief for three days. Who knows what we'll do after that. Maybe back for another round? Anyone up for accompanying her??
My back had been hurting a lot since the sleep study but when my mom asked how I was doing during our ordeal I realized that I felt really good! I didn't have any pain at all. Baby must have moved into a different position. God really took care of me during that whole time so I could focus on my mom. My mom called the night pay back for the 17 hours of labor I put her through when I was born because yesterday also happened to be my birthday!
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