The NEXT pregnancy story

So I've told you all about the accident that sent us to the hospital while I was 16 weeks pregnant with my first son. Now let me tell you the story of our second son.

After I passed the 16 week mark with this pregnancy, I heaved a huge sigh of relief. Not only had I passed that mark with nothing happening, but we even went to that Bethel Baptist church the very week that I was 16 weeks pregnant. (They were having a "Trunk or Treat" night for Halloween that we took our oldest to.) According to my plans, everything would be fine from here on out.

Boy, was I wrong!

The Saturday before my mother-in-law's birthday, we were at home doing normal Saturday things; Hubby was going to get a desk to set up in our living room for our computer that we needed to move out of the new baby's room, and I was trying to get some cleaning done but not really accomplishing much. I was in pain, but couldn't pinpoint what or why.

When I'm not pregnant, I deal with a little thing called IBS, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I will not say "suffer" (although it does feel that way sometimes!) because I know that there are people out there that have it a lot worse than me, and I would never knowingly make light of something that serious. I thought, when I first started feeling bad, that this was just an IBS attack, and it would eventually pass. I took some medication for gas that was safe to take during pregnancy and laid down on the couch. I asked Hubby to get the boy a sandwich so that I didn't have to get up, and he went on his way to get the desk.

When he got home, the pain was worse. I just couldn't get comfortable to save my life! Since Hubby was trying to put together the desk and the boy was trying to "help" him, Hubby got frustrated. That was my cue to take the boy upstairs for a nap. I told Hubby that I was going to lay down too; maybe trying to lie in the bed would be more comfortable. I was wrong!

About 2 that afternoon, I finally broke down and called my OB/GYN and spoke with the nurse on call. After describing my symptoms, (upper stomach pain and just general not feeling well) she suggested that I go to the ER and get checked out. This, I thought, was major overkill. I knew it wasn't the baby; the pain was WAY too high for that, so I waited a little longer. When I couldn't deal with the pain anymore, we packed up the boy, called my mother to meet us there and were on our way. The whole way there I kept thinking, "just tell him to turn around, you're being a hypochondriac!", but with every bump in the road, the searing pain would hit me afresh and I kept my mouth shut.

Thank God that I did!

When I got to the hospital, the first thing they wanted to do was send me to Labor & Delivery. I had to argue with the triage nurse for a bit just to get seen in the ER. I knew I wasn't in labor, and I knew that the baby was in no danger. IN retrospect, I may have been seen by a Dr. sooner if I HAD gone to L&D, but I didn't think about that then.

When I got into a cubicle, they came and drew blood, and then we waited. An hour later, I saw the first of several doctors. This one told me that the blood work came back with an elevated white blood cell count, which usually means infection of some kind. The first thing that crossed my mind was my appendix, but since the pain was across my upper abdomen and not in the right lower quadrant, I waited. She gave me pain medication and left. Another hour passed, and when the pain meds started to wear off, the pain had radiated to where it should be for appendicitis. I was so disgusted! The next doctor came in and asked me some questions; I had just had my gall bladder out that February, and I told him the name of the Dr. that did it. He decided to call that particular Dr., and when HE showed up a half an hour later in his street clothes, Hubby got nervous. He told me later that he realized that it was serious if the surgeon showed up after hours. (Hubby works in a hospital)

Speaking to the surgeon, we really had no options but surgery. I couldn't have an MRI because I was pregnant, and we could have done an ultrasound, but 95% of the time they come back as false negatives, and it would take 4 hours for them to do the test as they were backed up that night. He said he'd rather get in there and be wrong than have my rupture while waiting and possibly lose the baby or lose both of us. I told him to cut away!

All in all, pregnant and having an appendectomy, I was in the hospital for less than 24 hours, including ER time. They were able to do it laprascopically, and I have a beautiful picture of my uterus at 18 weeks gestation! They had to cut me in odd places to work around the pregnancy, but I'm still here and my son was born 20 weeks later, big beautiful and healthy. At my post-op appointment with the surgeon, he was comfortable enough at that point to tell me that he was surprised at how bad my appendix had gotten. It was about half an hour away from rupturing.

Thanks be to God that I didn't listen to myself when I thought I was being a baby!