Ups and Downs
Our family has been through a few ups and downs lately...Christmas of course was an up we spent Christmas Eve with Nathans parents and his brother and sister in law and their two children...we had a great time...Christmas day proved to be a wonderful day for the kids and Nathan and I and we had our good friends and the missionaries over for dinner that night. Our oven gave up the ghost on Christmas Eve but with the help of my Mother in law we managed to get the potatoes cooked and borrowed her electric turkey roaster for Christmas dinner.
We still have yet to replace our stove...our biggest "down" as most of you already know came Sunday afternoon. Nathan's sister and their family were coming through town on their way to San Diego for their Christmas present to Disneyland. So our plan was to go over and say Hi. Everything was going well for the most part. I had woken up with a migraine. I took some tylenol and for the most part church was great I just had a dull headache (as tylenol only takes off the edge of a migraine) but I am use to them. It is also very common for me to get numbness in my fingers hands and arms with migraines so nothing seemed to out of the ordinary when suddenly mid afternoon my right hand went numb...the only difference was it was sudden and the entire hand instantaneously! But with any numbness even with migraines I have created a habit of saying my ABC's to make sure all is well, since I know I am at risk for stroke because of my health history...I proceded to say my ABC's assuming it would be like every other time. I would make it through them no problem but this time I only made it to E when I started to lose my train of thought and could hear my speech starting to slur. I yelled for Nathan that something was very wrong and tried to think of what a "stroke" was called to tell him I thought I was having a stroke...but he knew immediately as he could hear I was slurring and rushed for asprin and to the phone. By the time he could get the asprin I had regained my train of thought and was able to make it through my ABC's but we knew it was serious and I took the asprin and Nathan called 911 and his mom to come watch the kids.
The results unfortunately are scary...but we are working with the Dr.'s to keep things under control...it is especially unnerving because I am pregnant. There isn't alot we can do until after we get the baby here...so the plan is this...
We need to get me theraputic with a blood thinner...while in the hospital I am on heparin...and after today they should transfer me to Lovenox (pending our obnoxious insurance that's another story) and this one is long enough. LOL! So then the worst news came after a night in the hospital after having a TEE (which is an ultrasound of the heart through my espophogus...which determined I had a fairly large blood clot in my left atrium. Which meant they could not cardioconvert me (shock my heart to get me back into a normal rhythym) because if they did they could dislodge the clot and cause death for both myself and the baby so the heparin/lovenox is to control the clot so it doesn't get bigger and doesn't let fragments break off (that caused the tia aka mini stroke) that brought me here. They said that while on the theraputic doses the clot will start to resolve itself but because of the size that will take some time (several months maybe even a year) after I have the baby then they can discuss the possibility of going in and breaking up the clot but I won't even think about that right now. There are obviously some very serious risks involved here especially pregnant but I have some awesome Dr's that are helping me out a lot to keep things controlled. We are just trying to take things one step at a time. It has been a wild ride and I am still currently in the hospital in the ICU. Once they can get my heart rate under control they will move me to Lovenox and then transfer me to the IMC floor where my kids can finally come see me. They will keep me for another day or two after that and then I should be released so I am hoping to come home on Sunday at the latest...but they say I could be here until Tuesday...so we will see how it goes...I have cried many tears of frustration and why "me's" but I have also cried tears of joy realizing how Heavenly Father has really blessed us...as this could have been sooooooooo much worse. I am glad to be alive and that I have no reprucussions from the TIA. I had an MRI yesterday that showed everything normal and no damage as well as the CT scan I had when I was admitted on Sunday. And Baby August seems to be tolerating things well...his heart rate has been between 139 and 150...so we are happy and trying to stay positive.
Thank you to all those who have offered help with meals for our family, watching our children while Nathan attends to me and other obligations as well as the visitors and notes and mostly the thoughts and prayers on my behalf. Life is Learning and I am trying to learn how to stay positive in unfortunate circumstances...I know there are reasons for these trials and also know I may never know the realization of those lessons in this life but I do know that the Lord's hand is very evident in our lives and I am thankful for his atonement to know he has suffered more than I ever will. His love is what sees me through this trial as well as the love from my family and friends.
After this incident though it is a confirmation to me that our family is complete after this baby...I felt that way anyway but this is just the "seal" of approval for me. I am truly blessed and I know this baby has a very special purpose for our family.
Thanks again everyone for your thoughts and prayers... we will get through this and your support is much appreciated...
We still have yet to replace our stove...our biggest "down" as most of you already know came Sunday afternoon. Nathan's sister and their family were coming through town on their way to San Diego for their Christmas present to Disneyland. So our plan was to go over and say Hi. Everything was going well for the most part. I had woken up with a migraine. I took some tylenol and for the most part church was great I just had a dull headache (as tylenol only takes off the edge of a migraine) but I am use to them. It is also very common for me to get numbness in my fingers hands and arms with migraines so nothing seemed to out of the ordinary when suddenly mid afternoon my right hand went numb...the only difference was it was sudden and the entire hand instantaneously! But with any numbness even with migraines I have created a habit of saying my ABC's to make sure all is well, since I know I am at risk for stroke because of my health history...I proceded to say my ABC's assuming it would be like every other time. I would make it through them no problem but this time I only made it to E when I started to lose my train of thought and could hear my speech starting to slur. I yelled for Nathan that something was very wrong and tried to think of what a "stroke" was called to tell him I thought I was having a stroke...but he knew immediately as he could hear I was slurring and rushed for asprin and to the phone. By the time he could get the asprin I had regained my train of thought and was able to make it through my ABC's but we knew it was serious and I took the asprin and Nathan called 911 and his mom to come watch the kids.
The results unfortunately are scary...but we are working with the Dr.'s to keep things under control...it is especially unnerving because I am pregnant. There isn't alot we can do until after we get the baby here...so the plan is this...
We need to get me theraputic with a blood thinner...while in the hospital I am on heparin...and after today they should transfer me to Lovenox (pending our obnoxious insurance that's another story) and this one is long enough. LOL! So then the worst news came after a night in the hospital after having a TEE (which is an ultrasound of the heart through my espophogus...which determined I had a fairly large blood clot in my left atrium. Which meant they could not cardioconvert me (shock my heart to get me back into a normal rhythym) because if they did they could dislodge the clot and cause death for both myself and the baby so the heparin/lovenox is to control the clot so it doesn't get bigger and doesn't let fragments break off (that caused the tia aka mini stroke) that brought me here. They said that while on the theraputic doses the clot will start to resolve itself but because of the size that will take some time (several months maybe even a year) after I have the baby then they can discuss the possibility of going in and breaking up the clot but I won't even think about that right now. There are obviously some very serious risks involved here especially pregnant but I have some awesome Dr's that are helping me out a lot to keep things controlled. We are just trying to take things one step at a time. It has been a wild ride and I am still currently in the hospital in the ICU. Once they can get my heart rate under control they will move me to Lovenox and then transfer me to the IMC floor where my kids can finally come see me. They will keep me for another day or two after that and then I should be released so I am hoping to come home on Sunday at the latest...but they say I could be here until Tuesday...so we will see how it goes...I have cried many tears of frustration and why "me's" but I have also cried tears of joy realizing how Heavenly Father has really blessed us...as this could have been sooooooooo much worse. I am glad to be alive and that I have no reprucussions from the TIA. I had an MRI yesterday that showed everything normal and no damage as well as the CT scan I had when I was admitted on Sunday. And Baby August seems to be tolerating things well...his heart rate has been between 139 and 150...so we are happy and trying to stay positive.
Thank you to all those who have offered help with meals for our family, watching our children while Nathan attends to me and other obligations as well as the visitors and notes and mostly the thoughts and prayers on my behalf. Life is Learning and I am trying to learn how to stay positive in unfortunate circumstances...I know there are reasons for these trials and also know I may never know the realization of those lessons in this life but I do know that the Lord's hand is very evident in our lives and I am thankful for his atonement to know he has suffered more than I ever will. His love is what sees me through this trial as well as the love from my family and friends.
After this incident though it is a confirmation to me that our family is complete after this baby...I felt that way anyway but this is just the "seal" of approval for me. I am truly blessed and I know this baby has a very special purpose for our family.
Thanks again everyone for your thoughts and prayers... we will get through this and your support is much appreciated...
