Conquering my Fears

After five nights in the hospital, my blood pressure continued to be elevated and my liver enzymes were abnormally high. The babies were doing well, so they were discharged. Thankfully the hospital allowed the babies to stay with me as long as I had someone else with me 24 hours a day. Prior to delivery, I actually had really good blood pressure. Apparently the babies did more to my body than we realized. On Saturday it was determined I had to go back to labor and delivery and be put back on magnesium sulfate. I had already had this 12 hours after delivery, but was in such a haze, I barely remembered it. This time, I would remember. It is poison. It delayed the messages that my brain would send to my limbs. Along with being on this came my worst fears. I needed another IV and had to get a catheter put baok in. I can say now neither was all that bad. I also had to have labs drawn every 6 hours, which was not fun. I could not walk, I could barely talk and I could not care for my new born babies. Neal was a champ. He took care of them all night long. After 24 hours on the poison, the docs decided I needed 12 more hours. The purpose of the medicine was to prevent seizures. I still think I was way past the point of having a seizure, however the last seizure that occurred in the family was pretty bad, so I stuck with the poison. The last bit of misery that occurred while on the poison was the bed pan. Yes, you read that right. Something I thought would not happen until I was in a nursing home, but what are you gonna do. I survived, although humiliated.

Liver numbers were still not coming down after 24 hours. Neal took great care of me. He constantly argued with the doctors requesting further testing and consults with the liver experts. Finally on Monday morning I was taken off of the poison as it was determined I was no longer at a risk of seizure. Neal made the doctors perform an ultrasound of my liver, kidney, pancreas and gall bladder. It is scary to have doctors look into the unknown. Thankfully the results were normal. My numbers finally started going back towards normal. I will have some follow up to make sure they return to normal in the next couple of months. By Monday night, my swelling was down and I had the night pregnancy sweats. My body finally turned back on. I was feeling better almost immediately. It is now 10 days after delivery and I have lost 40 of the 50 pounds that I gained. That is mainly due to the fact that you cannot eat while on the poison, so I was on the ice chip diet that Neal invented in years past. I guess that is one positive thing that came out of this disaster. We were all scared, but are feeling as though things will be ok. Our family does not want to go through another organ failure, especially now that there are 4 of us to care for. I am now on blood pressure medication, but hopefully only temporarily.