My First Hospital Stay...

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the dreaded day to make our trek back to Florida... Tim awoke not feeling very well. (Actually he felt really bad. He had picked up the flu!) I tried to run around quietly and pack all of our belongings up for departure, while tending to my sick hubby (yet remaining far away as to not get the bug myself.) After the car was all packed, we loaded everyone in, Tim in the back laying down, Eric as my navigator, and I as the driver. We began our journey back to FL. (I kept the windows open as long as possible to keep the germs away and used Purell as much as possible. I was determined not to get sick!)

I drove the 16 hours home with a few stops to walk, and pee of course. I did let Tim drive for about 3 hours so that I could take a quick cat nap. The drive was not too bad. I drove while all 4 of the boys slept! Baby Girl and I were real troopers! Finally we were home and to bed we went at about 6:00am on Sunday. Tim and I then got up at about noon on Sunday and just kept around the house. He was not feeling very well still, but I was home and feeling fine! No signs of the flu for me!!

THEN IT HIT ME! Monday morning, I awoke at 5:30 am as usual for work. I tried to see if Tim was feeling any better and if he was going to work or not. I tried to convince him not to go and just take a day of with me to recuperate, but he was determined to go to work. As I got out of bed, I noticed that my stomach felt a bit odd, so downstairs I went to eat. I was not more than a few bites into my cereal and back it came! Ok, so I was a little sick, but not the flu, I did not feel that bad... did I?

Tim went off to work and I tried to catch up on some of my work emails from the past week, only it became impossible! I was getting sick about every 15 minutes on the dot or sooner! Ok enough of this. I called the Dr. and asked what I could take. They told me that I could take Emetrol, an over the counter medication for nausea. I grabbed my shoes and the trash can and was determined to get to the store and get this medication. But I could not even make it to the car. There was no way between the vomiting and the diarrhea. It was time to call in the reinforcements... Timmy... Come Home Now!

Luckily Tim’s Corporal was very understanding and within about a half hour, Tim was home with the medication. I had to take this medication every 15 mins for 1 hour and it would stop the vomiting. So I tried... I had trouble keeping the medicine in, but by the last dose, I fell asleep. I think I slept for about an hour when I was awakened by an urge to... well you know. After about another half hour or so, I was still getting sick, so I called the Dr again who said "Go to the Hospital Right now and Dr. VonThron will meet you there"

Off to the hospital we went. (Did I mention that we have not packed a hospital bag yet?)

At the hospital, we filled out the paperwork and finally got to our room. Here is where the story gets even worse! (As if it could really get much worse!) We got the baby, well really my belly, all hooked up to the monitors to check things out. Increased fetal heart rate, yes. Contractions, yes. Looks like my dehydration was affecting Baby Girl.

It was time for IV liquids! The first nurse went to put an IV in my left hand... No good. After a ton of poking and pain, the vein was too weak and closed on her. Another nurse came in and attempted to put one in my other hand. Same problem, only this one hurt even worse. The third nurse came in and after a few minutes of pain, she was in and we were all set. After the IV liquids were flowing, they came in to give me a prescription medicine to stop the vomiting. Phenegrine... which we were soon going to find out was my arch enemy!

A few minutes after the medication was in through the IV, I started to become very uncomfortable... very antsy and hot... I was flushed... Ok now this was getting unbearable so we called in the nurse... By this time, I looked like I had the worst sunburn ever and I could not sit still. (Did you ever see a video of a drug addict when they were trying to get them clean off of drugs. This is what I looked like. I was all fidgety and kicking... Could not sit still at all. It was the worst feeling ever!) I WAS ALERGIC TO THE MEDICATION! This reaction also caused some alarm for baby girl. He heart rate went up into the 190's as my temperature soared! Benadryl and Tylenol were given and after a few hours, I was a bit calmer... Tim made a quick run home since we were informed that we would be spending the night. When he arrived back at the hospital, I was still not comfortable, but getting better. We were still working on getting the baby's heart rate back to a comfortable lever. (We wanted her back in the 140's, but once she reached the 160's we felt much better.) After we decided that all was well with the baby, I decided that I could not take it anymore and asked for something to put me to sleep. Tim and I turned in for the night. Then next day things were much better and we were out of the hospital by noon. I felt like a million bucks after all that! (It was really cute to leave the hospital... These other couples were there being escorted out with their new bundles of joy. I was a bit sad that I was leaving the hospital with baby girl still in my belly and not in my arms, but it is best for both of us this way. She needs some more time to grow big and strong, and we need some more time to get ready for her!) What an episode!