The following week after Jordan's work threw us a shower, I hit my 36-week mark. It was to the day, actually that I was up all night being HUGE and uncomfortable. The reason I was so uncomfortable this particular night was that 2 days previous our air conditioning went out. Not only was the a/c out, but the entire country was experiencing a heat wave and it was hot and humid in our cute little house. I spent my 'free-time' in those midnight hours entertaining/distracting myself with my new Kindle Fire Jordan had been thoughtful enough to surprise me with. Once Jordan's alarm went off in the morning and he started getting ready for work, I really started to feel miserable. The heat had gotten to me, yes, but now I was experiencing extremely sharp cramps on my left side that shot through to my back and down my left leg and I couldn't blame this pain on the heat. After trying to hug a pillow all morning, crying, and praying the pain went away, I told Jordan he probably needed to stick around until I felt a little better. I called my doctor's office and my doctor was out of town. They told me they couldn't get me in because of how busy they were with him being gone. The nurse told me if the pain was bad enough I could go to the hospital. Feeling hopeless and helpless, I soon realized the pain was bad enough and I should get to the hospital {with the help of an encouraging mother who, summed up, pretty much told me to get my scared booty to the hospital}. At the hospital they determined I was not in labor, I did not have a kidney infection, and the pain was probably just part of being 36-weeks pregnant. They sent me home with some Percocet. After taking the Percocet and the pain increasing once I got home, I was really feeling crummy. I knew pregnancy could be more than uncomfortable, but the amount of pain I was in, could in no way be part of the normal 'discomfort' related to pregnancy. Jordan was miserable as well. He couldn't stand seeing me in such distress. He called my doctors office once again and got to speak to the on-call doctor. The doctor told us to go back to the hospital. So I reluctantly got back into the car (roads here in Oklahoma are ridden with pot-holes, especially the road to the hospital and each car ride left me sobbing and cringing). Since I hadn't been able to eat anything all day they immediately hooked me up to some fluids, drew more blood, and gave me a shot of Demerol for the pain. I felt great! This time around they told me the baby was on my sciatic nerve and still there was nothing they could do. All I can hope for is that the baby moves at some point. The Demerol wore off as I slept that night, but I woke up not feeling nearly as bad as the day before. I didn't feel like running a marathon, but I felt considerably better. It was a HUGE blessing because early that morning I had to get up and let the a/c guys completely replace our air conditioning unit. It took that whole day for the new unit to get the house back to feeling livable, but we were just grateful it was on its way to cooling off. After that day, I felt pretty horrible for 1 week. I couldn't eat anything, I was getting an hour or two of sleep at night, I had to sit straight up in bed and couldn't shift from side to side. Jordan had to help me out of bed, into the bathroom, and he got me back in bed. We spent the Fourth of July back in the hospital. They got more fluids in me, ran more tests and after that visit I finally started to feel a little better with each day. My parents decided they needed to get here sooner than they had originally planned and arrived a couple days later to help out, give us some relief, and nurse me back to health. I had a doctors appointment once my doctor got back in town and even though I had not been eating for over a week, I had gained weight. That put up a small little red flag. The nurse took my blood pressure and it was normal when I first got there. The doctor checked me and said I was dilated to a 1 and things looked good. He asked if I wanted to set a date to be induced {he knew how miserable I had been with the sciatic pain} and he scheduled me for Friday, July 20 {my due date was July 26}. Yay! An end to the misery! Before I could leave the exam room the nurse told me to sit tight for a minute. They had checked my urine and found protein in it, which is a sign of Pre-Eclampsia. Another nurse took my blood pressure again {only 15 minutes after the first time it was taken} and it was high. I have always had perfect blood pressure - - always 120/80. Always. She took it 3 more times and each time it was bad. My doctor came back in and told me to get the hospital for more tests. At the hospital they drew more blood and took more urine samples and the results were still inconclusive. They sent me home with homework. I had to collect my urine for 24-hours and keep it on ice. Lovely. I went back to my doctor 2 days later and the hospital still hadn't gotten the results of my 24-hour urine test back, but the doctor assured me everything was okay and he would call me once he found out. A week went by since I first heard the word Pre-Eclampsia and I was back at my doctors office on Monday, July 16. By this point the sciatic nerve pain was but a distant nightmare, still causing a little pain, but absolutely nothing compared to what it was. I still hadn't heard back on the urine test so even that wasn't worrying me and overall, I was feeling pretty good. I was walking through the hall into the exam room when I passed my doctor. He looked at me and pointed and said, "YOU are headed to the hospital. YOU are having a baby today!" Seeing a puzzled look on my face, he replied, "Oh, I'm serious." Then disappeared into another exam room. A few minutes later he came in to my room and explained that he had gotten my tests back late the following night and almost called me then, but saw that I was coming in the next morning and thought he would wait to tell me. I did have Pre-Eclampsia, my blood pressure was increasingly worse, my swollen feet and legs {if that is what you could still call them}
and the rest of my swollen body and rapid weight gain was all related to the Pre-Eclampsia and I was to get my 38-week pregnant body to the hospital to have this baby. I was ecstatic. From the moment I was 36-weeks and in crazy amounts of pain, I was ready to get that baby out of me. I called Jordan and told him the good news. The doctor gave me 1 hour to get to the hospital. I hadn't packed any bags {I thought I had a few more days until I got induced}. I quickly gathered the necessities and headed for the hospital.
Ready to meet this baby and get rid of all the plumpness!
I am so blessed my parents came early to help out.
Even though from the moment they got here, I started feeling better with the sciatic pain, they were still were very much needed because of all the extra drama now with the Pre-Eclampsia and me having the baby earlier than anticipated.
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