Life

Well we have just been dealing with life lately. It's been a little tough, if you haven't been paying attention to my facebook :) But if you're reading this you probably have been reading my facebook. Well I am going to back up a little.

We are loving our little Xavier! He is such a sweet, wonderful baby boy! He really is so well behaved and makes our lives so wonderful. He has such an adorable smile and he shares it with us a lot. It is amazing. He has also started giggling and laughing occasionally. And his noises are adorable. He loves floor time and is so squirmy and wiggly. He makes us so happy. We are so grateful he joined our family and we enjoy him and love him more than I could ever describe in words!

The difficult thing is right as we were really adjusting and I was starting to feel fine going out and about with him (nursing takes awhile to get the hang of!), Spencer got sick. He was sick for a couple weeks and wasn't getting better, so he went to an urgent care and found out he had a back viral infection that would have turned into bronchitis if he hadn't gotten it taken care of. So I am glad he went in so we could nip that in the bud. But just as he was starting to feel better, I started having horrible abdominal pains. This happened late Wednesday night on April 9th. I had a very sudden onset of horrible pain that had me doubled over and whimpering. But I didn't have insurance so I sat up all night in the living room in horrible pain. It faded away during the day but hit again the next night. Friday I went to urgent care and the doctor was pretty sure I had gallstones. He prescribed me pain medication and antibiotics and got an ultrasound set up for me. But the ultrasound wasn't until Monday morning. So I went all weekend with this pain off and on. The ultrasound on Monday proved that my gallbladder was full of stones and that my common bile duct was inflamed and blocked. So we found out that I needed to have my gallbladder removed and we freaked out a little bit. I held off, dealing with the pain. Last Thursday night I decided not to take the Lortab I had been described. Well I woke up in excruciating pain. I took a lortab and it did nothing. At that point I begged Spencer to take me to the ER. I was quickly taken to a room where I got in a gown, they put an IV  in me and gave me morphine. Spencer got a few laughs out of seeing me on that!!!

They did an ultrasound and the doctor came in afterward and said things looked pretty yucky. The gallstones had gotten in my common bile duct and backed up my liver (which didn't surprise me, because we had noticed my eyes turning yellow the night before), and my liver was inflamed. They admitted me to the hospital and added me to the surgeons list to have my gallbladder removed later that day. Spencer and I frantically started trying to figure out getting help to watch Xavier. My wonderful sister, Nina, jumped in and said she would take Xavier for the day. So Spencer went home and got a bag prepared and my sister came down and took Xavier. It was so hard for me to let him go, but I knew that he was in wonderful hands and would do well with her. I wasn't allowed to eat or drink since I was going to have surgery later in the day.The surgery went well, but during it they confirmed that I had stones stuck in my bile duct, so they scheduled an ERCP for me the next morning. Once I woke up and got back to my room, Spencer was there waiting--thank heavens!!!! He ordered clear liquids for me, since I was cleared to have clear liquids. He basically had to feed me because I was so tired and groggy. Nina brought Xavier back down that night and I enjoyed seeing him, but I was so out of it! I wanted to cry when Spencer took Xavier home for the night. I was so out of it all night that night (I was on morphine and anti-nausea medication). But I remember nurses coming in and poking and prodding throughout the night, and early in the morning they came in and took me down for the ERCP. So I went under again for the second time in less than 24 hours (not my idea of fun!). The procedure went well and I was soon awake and alert. They took me back up to my room, but with the instructions to not let me eat or drink anything. So day two of eating no food.
My mom came down that day to help with Xavier (Saturday). Spencer brought her and Xavier to the hospital and seeing them made me so happy! They stayed until Xavier started getting hungry and they had to go home (I couldn't nurse him for 24 hours). I almost cried after they left because I was so lonely. I asked Spencer to come back by himself later since my mom was there to watch Xavier. So he came back later that evening and stayed with me for a few hours. It was so wonderful to have him with me! I don't do well completely alone in a hospital room, apparently. After he left I almost cried again. I went to bed again without being able to eat or drink still, so I was really not feeling great!

Luckily the next morning I was finally able to go home. I didn't get the ok to drink anything until the GI doctor finally came in my room around 9:45am. He said I looked good and could go home. As soon as he left my room I asked Spencer to fill up my water bottle. Water has seriously never tasted so good!!! After some more waiting around I was finally released. It was so amazing. They wheeled me out to the car in a wheelchair and it was so good to be outside. It was a beautiful Sunday, Easter Sunday! The sun was shining and the trees were blooming and I could smell the flowers when we got outside. I couldn't stop smiling the whole way to the car. Spencer helped me up to our apartment and I was heaved a huge sigh of relief. It was so wonderful to be home.

Spencer was able to stay home with me all day yesterday (Monday), and that was really nice. My mom came down Monday night and stayed with me part of today to help out. It was so helpful! She cleaned up the kitchen and helped with Xavier. It was so helpful and I was grateful to not be alone just yet. I was alone for a few hours because Spencer didn't get home from work for a few more hours, but Xavier did wonderfully! Love that little boy so much!

So basically life has been really stressful, but I am home! I am really sore, increasingly more so today. So I've pretty much been completely stuck on the couch tonight, which is probably a good thing. I'll be on my own tomorrow, which I'm a bit nervous for, but I'm sure it will be okay. :) I just can't wait to be recovered and try to get back to normal life! What I would give for a boring day. I guess I'm not going to really get much of those anymore now that we have a baby. But I can handle that :)