ER Visits - We Have A Love/Hate Relationship

Tuesday I got up and sort of felt a little off and as the day progressed, this "feeling off" got a little worse and I started to feel cramps/contractions. I could time them. By the time bedtime rolled around and all the kids were in bed, I was in MAJOR pain! Chris almost took me in, but I insisted that I'd be fine, just let me sleep it off - so I took some Tylenol PM and went to sleep. The next morning, they were subsiding some. They were still there, I could feel them, but they were definitely not as bad as the night before. Chris wanted me to call the midwives and let them know what was going on. When asked to describe the pain, the only thing I could think to tell them (instead of "it just hurts on the inside") was that it felt like my membranes were being stripped about every 15-20 minutes...there is a sharp pain and then dull throbbing that follows. The nurse took notes and then relayed the message on to the midwife that was available. When she called me back, she laughed at my description and said that she could tell I've had a baby or two. She wanted me to come in and give a sample so they could send it to the lab to be cultured to rule out infections. This would take a couple of days for the results to get back, and in the mean time, to just call back if the pains picked up again or got closer together. She also said there were a couple other things that it could be. (1) My uterus is stretching causing muscle spasms, or (2) I could be miscarrying (the fact that I could time them worried her, some).

So, I went in, gave them the sample, took mom to the store, came home, realized she forgot something, went back to the store (I stayed in the car with the kids both times, mind you), and then came home. I really didn't do enough to cause pain, so I thought, oh, I'll be just fine.

Sadly enough, around 5 pm, they picked up again. At first, I thought it wouldn't be so bad, but then they progressively got worse. Just before the kids' bedtime, I called the midwife on-call and talked to her for a bit, she said I could either wait it out until morning and then come in to be monitored, or just go in to the ER, it was my choice (the pain levels I was in would determine what I would do). She said that she'd just plan on me coming into the office in the morning unless I called back and told her otherwise. I got off the phone and talked it over with my mom and Chris. Part of me wanted to go in, but another part of me just KNEW there was nothing wrong and I was over-reacting. I finally decided to have Chris take me in, so he put the kids in bed, I called the midwife back, and then we took off. I cried all the way to ER because I was so afraid they would actually FIND something wrong - I was afraid of them finding no heartbeat (yes, the pain was that intense).

We got there and got checked in, and as I sat there, I kept asking myself what we were doing there?! As soon as I'd make up my mind to say something to Chris that we should just go home, another wave of pain would overpower me, so I couldn't say anything. Chris said he was very glad that he brought me in. After about an hour, I finally got called back and put in a room. My nurse (who was amazing, by the way) immediately helped me change into a gown, got me some ice chips, went and got a Doppler and tried to find the heartbeat. It took (literally) a couple of minutes to locate - which totally freaked me out, but as soon as I heard that tiny heart beating, I burst into tears of joy! My baby was still alive! They got my IV's hooked up after that, they asked more questions and after I told them of my previous visit, went in search of my ultrasound and other records to give to the doctor. He looked them over, and brought in the Travel Ultrasound Machine (tiny little thing that just says "yes there's a baby in here and there's the heartbeat"). He found the baby and the heartbeat and the whole time we were looking, this baby was doing acrobatics (a VERY good sign). Arms were waving, legs were kicking and somersaults were happening. It made me cry again. Although he was not an u/s tech, he could not see the SCH I was diagnosed with a few weeks ago, but said that didn't mean it wasn't still there. His best guess was that it HAD gotten smaller, but we'd have to have a regular u/s tech do a scan to see for sure. We did notice, however, that the placenta was at the bottom of the screen. He couldn't answer whether or not that meant it was covering the cervix or not (again, we'd have to get an actual u/s to look in depth). They did end up doing another urine culture and drew blood and also did some swabs to test for infections. They found two different ones. Alone, they probably wouldn't be causing so many issues, but together, they were wreaking havoc. I was put on antibiotics and given pain killers and then sent home. I was there for a little over 5 hours. Ugh.

After being given the pain killers, I seriously have NO idea why people do drugs for fun. I'm still suffering from different symptoms from those things today. My pain levels are manageable today, but I haven't done ANYTHING but lounge around and take naps. I feel so lazy. But, I can't tell you how over-joyed I am that they found something that is treatable. My baby is still fine, and that makes me so happy!