12 Weeks: The Case of the No Good Very Bad Week

Well this week has not been the greatest. It started out when we brought my not quite 2 year old boxer, Bosley, to the vet to examine a hard lump on the outside of his left front leg near the "wrist" joint. The vet determined with x-ray that it was not bone and he wanted to remove it. While under the knife, he discovered that the growth is deeply adhered to the bone, and thus he did not want to remove it unless absolutely necessary so he took a punch biopsy. After looking at the sample under the microscope, he determined it was made up of a lot of "abnormal" cells that he could not immediately identify which concerned him and caused him to think it may be cancerous. The results of the biopsy should be back early next week. If it is cancerous, Bosley may lose his leg-or worse- and will need to have surgery immediately. I got this news over the phone from the vet and we were not going to be allowed to pick him up until the next morning so I couldn't even snuggle my little guy. Brent was not yet home form work, so I curled up with Harper and cried for awhile worrying about the fate of my sweet, young, energetic boxer who still has so much living to do and love to give. I want our babies to grow up playing with him. Bosley is home now and a bit out of it. He is taking it easy (for him at least!) and we are spoiling him every chance we get! We will consider ourselves blessed to have had him in our lives whether that is 10 more years or a couple months, but we will do everything in our power to keep him happy, healthy, and with us in the mean time.

Until this morning, I had not experienced any concerning complications in my pregnancy. I woke up to some bleeding- a scary sight for any pregnant woman. I called my OB's office and his nurse told me that he was in surgery, so she wanted me to just go straight to the ER. Intuitively, I did not feel that anything was seriously wrong, but due to the high risk nature of a triplet pregnancy, I will do whatever the professionals tell me to do and err on the side of caution. I had never been to the ER here before and had a picture in my head of a crammed waiting room full of wailing children and severed limbs spouting blood, but when I arrived I was the only one there and had the feeling I was in a hotel lobby. I explained what was going on to the lady at the front desk. A tech asked if I needed a wheelchair, I told her I did not think so, and her superior said "oh yes she does!" so into the wheelchair it was. I was wheeled into an intake room where the typical identifying and medical history questions were asked. Brent arrived in there shortly after parking the car. From there it was back to the waiting room. Brent was supposed to wheel me back out there, but couldn't figure our how to release the breaks. "It's like a lawn mower" the nurse said, which was all he needed to hear so he squeezed the two handles together and off we were. Brent must have forgotten that usually you don't have precious cargo like me and 3 unborn children riding on top of the lawn mower, however, and nearly gave me whiplash when he released the break in the waiting room before coming to a stop and the chair came to an immediate jerking halt. I was quite pleased with my ER experience, though. So far. I figured I would get a quick ultrasound to check the status of the babies, and if all was well I would be out of there and back to seeing my home health patients in an hour or two. Not So.  They took me back to the examination room where they put an IV line in to draw several vials of blood and explained that to do the ultrasound, they would catheterize me and pump my bladder full of fluid to improve viewing since I am only 12 weeks. I explained that I have already had 2 ultrasounds abdominally without such drastic measures (one was 4 weeks ago when the babies were only 9 weeks along for goodness sakes and there had been absolutely no problem seeing them!) but they still insisted that it was ER protocol for "early pregnancy" ultrasounds. The ER doc did a pelvic exam and said the cervix was closed and there did not appear to be any bleeding anymore. The nurse came back in with the catheter equipment and youch!  no fun getting it put in, but the worst was the HORRIBLE burning pain (perhaps from the betadine?). Although my bladder was emptying, I still felt like I had to use the bathroom and was in so much discomfort I couldn't keep my legs still. Eventually I was  taken to the ultrasound room where they had to switch my outtake tube to an intake one to pump up my bladder. During the tube switch, the tech managed to leak my own urine all over my leg and gown while unscrewing one and attaching the other. My bladder immediately began to fill and stretch- I thought it was going to explode. He cut off the flow after a minute and said "wow- your bladder filled up fast." I am guessing he didn't mean for me to take in quite so much of the fluid. The ultrasound took FOREVER. I would not have minded if I got to see the babies, but he had the screen positioned so that I couldn't get the slightest peek. The whole time my bladder was filled beyond capacity and he was pressing on it. Torture. He said all of the babies' heartrates looked good and they were all measuring very closely and jumping all over the place. So that means I can get this catheter out and go back to work now, right? Wrong. Even though everything looks great, he still had to write an official report that had to be reviewed by the ER doc before I could get discharge instructions. So after being wheeled back to my room and sitting for several minutes still no one had come to remove my catheter. Finally I hit the call button and someone came to tell me they would go get the nurse to take it out. Another several painful and uncomfortable minutes passed (not to mention smelly from my urine coated hospital gown) and finally it was out and I was rushing to the bathroom to relieve my bladder and change back into my clothes from the dirty gown (even though no one said I could). That felt great except for the insane burning from whatever damage that catheter did on its way in and out. It didn't help any that I KNEW that my babies were clearly visible without all of this catheter madness.

AND THEN. After ALL of this. I received a phone call from my OB's nurse (over 2 hours after she instructed me to go to the ER) saying that she just heard back from my OB and he wanted me to go to their office INSTEAD of the ER. Are you kidding me?!!!!  By then it was way too late and the ER was not going to release me as they had already done all of this testing and admitted me. So after a lot more waiting, and 4 hours after going in, I was free. And you can bet I am not letting any nurse tell me to go to the ER again until they actually speak with one of the OB's in the clinic.

I am not allowed to go back to work until Monday (as long as the bleeding does not persist or worsen). My OB called me about an hour after I left the ER and told me since I am O- he wants me to get a rhogam shot ASAP. He said if blood leaks from one of the babies' sacs and is +,  my body could attack it. So I have to go to the hospital again for that tomorrow morning.

I am ecstatic that the babies appear to be ok,  don't get me wrong. I am frustrated, however, at the fiasco I was put through this morning and the lingering pain from the catheter (not to mention the bills we will be receiving) when it all could have been avoided if my OB's nurse had just told me to come straight to their office, which was ultimately what my OB wanted me to do anyways.

To top it all off, when we got home, I went with the dogs to the backyard while they relieved themselves since Brent had to head right to work. When we tried to come back into the house, the door was locked. You have got to be kidding me! Brent, out of habit,  had locked it before leaving. Thankfully, I had my cell phone, so we were rescued about 20 minutes later. I just had to laugh about it when I tugged on the door and it did not give... Just one of those days I guess.

Ultimately we are just so grateful for these babies and that they appear to be doing well, but I think a little venting was in order after the morning we had :) We are hopeful that this will turn out to be an isolated incident, and are praying that our sweet Bosley will turn out perfectly fine as well. Thank you all for the continued support and prayers!