As you remember, I had a team of doctor's calling the shots after my "seizures". I guess I can take the quotes away from the word now that it has been officially said, although I guess nothing seizure related is truly official until the DMV is notified.
By calling the shots, I mean deciding what the best thing was for Griffin and I. It was decided we would deliver at 36 weeks which would have been Wednesday, March 27th. My c-section was set for 12:00pm and all of my pre-surgery lab work would be completed on Tuesday, March 26th at 8:00am.
So my mom and I went to St. Mary's that Tuesday. Coop's new schedule started so he was home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He and my mom wandered the halls and hung out in the gift shop while I went through all the pre-op paperwork, complete with directions on how to prepare for my c-section the following day, completed my lab work and was sent on my way.
My mom dropped me off at my house after the appointment to pack and get myself ready for #2 and to get Coop's stuff organized for his mini vaca at Grandad and T-mas. She took Cooper with her since Delaney was here and they had plans to go to the CMoR later that morning.
I began organizing all of my clothes as I wrapped up the laundry. I laid on the couch to watch a show and maybe nap a little (my morning dose of anti-seizure medicine was still making me feel a little groggy mid-morning).
As I started to doze off, my phone rang. It was the nurse I had just met with saying some of my lab work came back funny and they needed me to return and repeat it. I asked if this was something that I needed to return immediately for or if I should just set up a new appointment. She said as soon as I could get there would be great.
You can imagine the feeling pulsating through my veins.
As I was getting off the phone with the nurse, my OB-GYN was beeping in. She had just gotten the lab work back as well and she wanted me back at St. Mary's as soon as possible. She said that with a platelet count as low as mine, there was no way they would let me get a spinal which meant full blown anesthesia. This would be less than ideal being that this would cause Griffin to go to sleep as well and with his "wimpy white boy" lungs as they call them, this just wasn't the best option.
I know I have mentioned this a few times before, but this was one of those moments where I felt like I got smacked across the face, totally blindsided (much like this time and this other time). I immediately called my mom and could barely talk, trying to explain to her what was going on.
Ten minutes later my dad was out front ready to take me back to the hospital. They informed my a normal platelet count was in the 150,000's. Mine was 59,000. They wanted to repeat the blood work and see if there was any change. Meanwhile, my OB was on the phone trying to get in touch with my neurologist and neurosurgeon to see if my medicine could be a cause.
The second round of lab work showed my platelets were up to 81,000. My OB met with the anesthesiologist and they decided if we could get a platelet count over 90,000 they would go ahead and give me a spinal and let me deliver the baby today. Nobody seemed really comfortable waiting until the following day for fear my platelets would drop again and we would have to go with plan C, full on anesthesia.
Of course, you would've guessed that Rick was 2.5 hours away. I had called him when they called to tell me we would need to repeat my lab work. He being the wonderful husband he is, offered to drive back right then. I told him not yet, we needed to figure out what was going on. It is a good thing he didn't listen to me.
This sounds like it all happened really fast, but it was in fact all of the morning and a lot of the afternoon. I had many nurse changes throughout this, was obviously starving, not having had anything to eat since breakfast, and was hooked up to a fetal monitor the entire time (having some pretty intense contractions mind you). My OB even sent in a UVA medical student in to come hear my story, since obviously it is quite the unique one. (Apparently, us Rices really like to be remembered, particularly at St. Mary's!)
My 3rd platelet count came back at 93,000. They set my c-section for 4:00pm and called my brain doctors to be on standby. Looks like we were having a baby! Rick arrived at about 3:00pm, with an hour for us to say on repeat... "Holy moly, we are having a baby. TODAY." about 1000x! It was the fastest day of my life.
By 4:03pm, we were in the OR preparing for Griffin's delivery. They had their OR team together, the neonatologists were in the corner by the baby warmer ready to assess Griffin and his wimpy white boy lungs, and my sweet husband was by my side.
I had all kinds of crazy feelings during the delivery. Each time, I voiced a symptom, it was either met with the reason I was feeling that way or I was given a drug to battle the symptom. But mostly, I found myself ignoring Rick and trying to listen to the doctors. Because there was a medical student observing, my OB was talking through every step so I always knew what was happening. I think I was just so worried something would be wrong and I just wanted to hear Griffin's sweet cry.
My sweet Griffin Scot Rice was born at 4:32pm after what felt like a day. He cried louder and clearer than I recall Cooper's crying but his lungs were in much worse shape. At 35w 6d, he just didn't have the lung capacity required to get rid of all of that fluid and was only given a few seconds with us before he was whisked off to the NICU. But he was finally here and although it felt super scary, he would be okay. He was just acting like a 35weeker should.
Griffin came in at a whopping 7lbs 8oz and 19 3/4 inches long, which isn't much smaller than my sweet Cooper, who at 4ow 6d came in at 8lbs 11oz and 21 inches long.
Here began a long week of physical and emotional healing for the both of us. It definitely wasn't easy but with lots of wonderful support and a bag full of tools we had collected through all of the other difficult situations recently, it could and would be done. This was meant to be just like the arrival of our sweet Cooper.
No comments:
Post a Comment