Friday, August 17, 2012

Isabel Update

Isabel is currently going through a 36 hour treatment. She had test preformed today to make sure her heart was strong enough to withstand a certain chemical administered in this treatment. The last 36 hour treatment, they pulled this chemical because her heart wasn't strong enough. Today she passed and will be administered the chemical. If memory serves me correctly (lately it hasn't) this should be the last time they administer this specific drug. Which will make future 36 hour treatments, more like 24. She is so close to completing her cycles of treatment. She won't be able to start school with her class mates, but it is looking like it could possibly be as early October for her to be finished and going back to school. She currently has her feeding tube out. She has still had time for fun!



Ambers Update

For those of you who were waiting for a blog update on me:
I am doing much better, although not quite back to myself.

Friday July 13th, I wasn’t feeling well, I came home from work telling Nic I just didn’t feel right. His advice was to take some Tylenol, have some rum and take a bath. I thought it was a great idea. After doing all 3, I started feeling better. About an hour later we went to the park with family. As we got there the wind started picking up, to the point we left after about 3 minutes of being blinded by flying debris. We all decided to go back to our house and just hang out. By about 7:30 I started having pains in my lower abdomen. I went upstairs to lay dawn. I didn’t make into my room, I had passed out on the bathroom floor. I remember waking up and thinking someone must have heard me fall. Then I realized it probably sounded like kids jumping around. I was then able to make it to my room, where I passed out again next to my bed. This time Nic found me, after saying farewell to our company. He helped me up on the bed, brought me a glass of water and some Alka-Seltzer. He checked up on me from time to time- looking on the Internet, trying to match up my symptoms, and taking care of the kids- We just happened to have an extra 3 staying over that night. At first I thought it was my appendix. Nic looked on line for other possibilities. Gallbladder, food poisoning and kidney stones also fit in to the symptoms I was experiencing. After about 4-5 hours of feeling a pain I wasn’t familiar with and could no longer tolerate and passing out, Nic finally talked me into going to the ER. That was my first time going to the ER as a patient, I've been pretty lucky. No one else was there, much to my surprise, as it was a Friday evening or Early Saturday AM by the time we arrived. After going through my symptoms with the doctor, they did a few tests and they were leaning closer to the kidney stone diagnosis. After getting the test results back he announced to Nic and myself that my pregnancy test was positive. All of a sudden the world stopped for a few seconds. As my eyes met with Nics their was silent communication. We weren’t trying, so this was a surprise to us both. After further testing and about 10 more minutes, it was determined that the pregnancy was the problem. It was ectopic. They made the call to OB/GYN on call. She is a Doctor at the office I go to, but I had personally never met her. Teresa Durbin from Rocky Mountain- she will now be my Doctor for any future appointments. She was honest and kind, which anyone can appreciate in this situation. About 2 AM they took me in for surgery, she had prepped me for the worst, telling me she may need to take most my girl parts, depending on the damage. Surgery lasted about 3 hours. After I woke up enough to remember talking to her she told me they were taking me to do a scan, because they weren't certain it was an ectopic and wanted to check my spleen. I had a lot of internal bleeding, which I was told is where most of my pain had been coming from. She said after making the second incision all my girl parts looked to be in perfect health, so they didn't have to take any of them. The scan came back clear, so she ordered more blood tests. She told me I could still be pregnant and wanted to check my HCG levels. They took my blood at 9AM and told me they would take it again at 6PM and that would let her know if I was in fact still pregnant. The results came back and it was determined that I was no longer pregnant and it was in fact an ectopic. They gave me a shot to clear out any tissue left by the pregnancy and sent me home. She prescribed me some iron pills as I was low on blood, but didn't end up needing any units. I almost wonder if my recovery would have been a little easier if I had been given some. It's been a long month, but it's also hard to believe it been a month already. I am still struggling to feel normal. I run out of energy fast, can't run yet because it hurts my incisions.
 I want to Give a HUGE Thank You to those who sent flowers/plants, stopped by to visit, brought over dinner or treats. My Family and Friend support system never ceases to amaze me. Thank you for all the prayers and positive thoughts. This has been the hardest situation to go through mentally and physically. It was much easier to give birth and recover from that. I am taking it day by day, some days are worse than others.
Thank You all for your love and concern,
                                                           ~Amber