Our second home...Santa Rosa.....part 2

So, I left off where Landon and I were fine after delivery. Now the real fun starts, right??

Well, Landon became jaundice and had to receive photo therapy beginning on Friday the 19th. I was discharged at that time, so I was no longer a patient in the hospital. Landon was the only patient now. So that meant that I could stay and nurse him but could come and go if I wanted too. I did not want to go, but Derek could not stay with us at night. Luckily no one was moved into our semi-private room so it was just us for those couple of days. Landon could only come out of the "tanning bed" (as we called it) to eat. Otherwise he had to hang out in that bed with his little Spiderman goggles on. At night he went to the nursery because the goggles had to stay on his eyes and he had learned to pull them off. So, if I kept him in the room I would have been up all night watching his goggles. They would bring Landon to me to eat throughout the night...and they changed the diapers too! :)

Landon was a patient from Friday to Sunday the 21st. We finally got to go HOME as a family. We were so ready and excited. The nursing staff was AMAZING and we could have not asked for better care. They loved little Landon and he loved them. They were all so sweet to us as well. We were very lucky and blessed to have such amazing women watch over us.
(I will post some photos of them a little later.)

So we headed home...and we thought everything was done with hospitals. Monday the 21st we went for our check-up at the pediatrician for Landon. Unfortunately his billierubins went back up. So we had to get a billie bed for the house. Same rules as the hospital only could come out of the bed to eat. It was hard to not to hold him and snuggle with him. We had only gotten to do that for a day or so before all this started. BUT we knew it could be so much worse. The doctor said we had to go back and get blood work on Christmas Day to check his billierubins then. What a great Christmas present for Landon, another heal prick!

So Wednesday I started feeling a little bit of pain. I thought it was doing too much too fast and given the delivery and trauma my body went through I wrote it off. Wednesday (24th) night was eventful. I cooked bacon and smoked up the house...and set off the smoke alarm. Oh, yes Landon slept right through it and our smoke alarm is connected to alarm system. Needless to say the fire department came knocking on our door to make sure we were ok. Who knew this was the beginning of the crazy Christmas?

I went to bed that night not feeling so great. I woke up around 5:30am shivering and asked Derek to turn off the fan. It did not help. He took my temperature and it was 100.7. GREAT! I was in some pain and it was hard to sit-up to feed Landon. We called the doctor and he prescribed some antibiotics but said if there was not any relief by the time we were to take Landon for his blood work to call back.

Needless to say I called back. It was worse. The pain was intensifying. I went to the ER and Derek took Landon where he thought we were suppose to take him for blood work. Turned out that place was closed and he showed up in the ER to get his blood work done there. Friendliness in the ER on Christmas Day was lacking to say the least. By this point I could not sit really because the pain getting up was too much.

Finally I was called back for vitals. My fever was 101.5 at this point. Then they did not have a bed so back to the waiting room to wait. Landon still had not had blood work done. After what seemed like forever, they told Derek to take Landon to the lab to get his blood drawn. Then they called me back shortly after that. (By the way, Landon's blood work came back with his billierubins at 11...so he was no longer having to get photo therapy.)

By now it hurt to walk or move AND I was FREEZING from the fever. They got me in bed and started in on exam and questions. (I will not go into extreme detail...) I was in A LOT of PAIN...more so than labor with the pitocin contractions. It felt like contractions but worse. It was a hot, burning, knife stabbing feeling all across my abdomen. That is the only way I know how to explain it. I was moaning and in tears from all the pain.

Luckily, my WONDERFUL friend Stephanie gave up her Christmas plans to come to the ER and help us and Derek with Landon. She has been amazing...but I digress.

Since I do not remember all the details...Derek will have to fill in the blanks, I will make the story short. I tried to nurse Landon and pump before they gave me morphine, but was unsuccessful due to all the pain. I was told I could not nurse once the morphine started. So they gave me the morphine and it did not work. They gave me several narcotics...some worked and some did not. Valium worked and that was at the end of the day when they were moving me to a room.

We got to the ER around 9am and I did not go into a room until maybe 5 or 6pm....again not sure because of all the drugs and pain. I did have a CT scan to see if there was anything wrong. I will share something about that. I FREAKED out when I had to get the CT scan. My Mom was diagnosed with cancer at this hospital...actually the room across the hall from where I was and I am almost positive that the doctor I had was the one that told my Mom she had cancer. Anyways, not fond memories of the ER to say the least. Derek had gone to make a call or get Landon formula, not sure. Steph was with me and they came to get me for the CT. The guy informed they would be checking my stomach, liver, gall bladder....he named some more and THEN he said Pancreas. That was it. I freaked. I started sobbing and getting a little hysterical. Steph helped calm me down and assured me it would be ok. She waited outside the room for me while I had the scan.

Needless to say we did not really know anything until around maybe 9pm or so that night. My doctor came to see us. I was again heavily medicated so the conversation was a blur. My CT scan was clean...just showed an enlarged uterus....which was a given since I had just delivered 8 days before. He said there were 2 scenarios it could be. Not all the pieces of the puzzle added up on either diagnosis but both could be treated with strong antibiotics. He said I either suffered from an infected hematobin (pool of blood in my pelvis...which did not show up on the scan, but I exhibited other symptoms for this) or endomitritis (infection in the uterine lining...which my white blood cell counts were not as high as they would be for an infection).

So Derek had a long night that night. He was in charge of feeding Landon formula, making sure I woke up to pump, and keeping an eye on me for pain and on Landon for sleeping. He did an AMAZING job.

The next morning I felt 100 times better. Really sore in my lungs and stomach but not the heavy duty pain. And I was not doped up anymore. Derek checked with the lactation consultant to see when I could start breastfeeding again because we had just been pumping and throwing the milk away. She came in and checked all my meds that I was on, and they were ALL compatible with nursing. There was never a reason to throw the milk away she said. But we went with the information we were given and I do not think Landon could have nursed off me because of all the distress and pain.

So another day in the hospital was spent. The doctor said one more night and then I could probably go home on the 27th (Saturday). So later that day, the nurse informed us that 5...yes, 5 children had arrived with RSV, 3 hours ago. I was like GREAT! So I fed Landon and Derek and him went home to spend the night. Derek formula fed him throughout the night and again I pumped...but at least this time I did not have to throw out the milk. By the time morning came there were a total of 7 RSV babies on the floor and one was a month old. They said Landon should be fine since we took him home and we were not parading him outside of our room. So prayers that is the case.

Saturday, the 27th, came and it was time to go HOME again!! Dad picked me up since I did not want Derek bringing Landon to the hospital.

It was so nice to leave and come home. For the first time since Landon was born, we were all well. We could cuddle and lounge without worrying about billie beds, fevers or pain. It was just the three of us in our home...hanging out. It was perfect.

Landon's first Christmas was different. It will provide a good story for his baby book, but other than that I hope we do not repeat this every year! Landon was a trooper through it all though and his Daddy was amazingly strong for all of us.

Stay tuned for photos of the nursing staff and more posts.

P.S. Please excuse all of my medical terminology misspellings. :)