Pregnancy Complication

Since I use this blog as a journal of our life and plan to print it out as a book someday I needed to mention a major turning point in this pregnancy.  My pregnancy has been going well, baby has been active and seems to be growing like a weed.   On Sunday March 18th while I was at work I started having bad lower quadrant pain.  It was pretty bad from 10pm to 11pm but then seemed to let up so I thought I would just call my OB that week and check in.   I knew our trip to Disney was just a week away and didn't want it to be anything serious because I did not want our trip jeopardized.

About 1am the pain became unbearable, I could not stand up straight and had tears in my eyes to handle the pain.  I called the OB on call and was told to go to Women's to get checked out.  My coworkers called my husband while I was talking to the OB to let them know something was wrong.  Then two of my coworkers drove me over to Women's and I was put in a triage room and attached to a fetal monitor, had an IV started and some labs were drawn.  I think the resident there and my nurse were downplaying my symptoms because it was not common to have ovarian pain like I was describing.  I was having some contractions on the fetal monitor but was also very dehydrated so they were giving me a bolus of IV fluids. Scott called my parents and my dad rushed over to stay with Cara so Scott could be with me.

After a few hours in triage they admitted me to a room on the high risk unit to continue to monitor the baby and planned to do an ultrasound with maternal fetal medicine specialist in the am.  I didn't get much sleep despite the pain medicine they were giving me in my IV.  In doing the ultrasound they found what they think is a dermoid tumor on L ovary about the size of a tennis ball that was causing my ovary to twist and is a very painful condition.  I was told they usually operate and remove the tumors when they find them but since I was 28 weeks pregnant that was not an option because it could trigger preterm labor.

Scott went home in the afternoon to pick up some things since they said I would stay another night and to get Cara off the bus to tell her what was going on.  Cara was scared and very unsure when she saw me in the hospital.   My sister in law had come first thing in the morning when I called her and my in-laws came from Ft Wayne in the afternoon so they could stay at our house and help with Cara and help me when I was released.   Cara was an absolute mess when it came to saying goodbye and my heart broke and ached for her.  I cried again when I had to tell her goodnight over the telephone.

I stayed in the hospital another 26 hours or so after the ultrasound to make sure my pain was controlled and to monitor the baby.  For one hour 3 times a day they placed me on the fetal monitor to check for contractions and the baby was doing splendid.  So they sent me home with a prescription for pain pills and told me to try to resume normal activity because I did not really need any restrictions if my body could tolerate activity.

I had another pain issue the next day just trying to be normal at home, doing laundry, emptying the dishwasher etc.  So I called my OB who released me from work for the rest of the week.  I explained that I had a trip to Disney planned and really wanted to go, pain or no pain.  So armed with my pain pills and a copy of my medical records from my OB we were given permission to go but if I had any symptoms I just needed to go to hotel and rest and not push myself.

Cara drew this on the dry erase board at the hospital so everytime I looked at it I could think of her.  She wrote I love you and you love me too.  And then on the picture of her she wrote " I am sad".  It made me teary eyed every time I saw it but I loved having it to look at all night!