Progress

I'm slowly but surely getting back to 'normal' whatever that means. However I woke up this morning with what seems to be a head cold and I'm pretty scared that it could turn into something worse. I am NOT going back to the hospital!

So, for progress, I can now:

• go up and down the stairs, alternating feet like normal, without someone else's help
• get into the tub and bathe by myself, getting out I still need help
• take a shower alone
• get up from the toilet without assistance (this is a biggie and makes me so happy)
• walk without help or a walker or holding onto something
• DRIVE (this is fantastic and on the way home from being discharged from the hospital I was so scared thinking of how I was ever going to drive again. I've come a long way in 2 weeks and I'm so grateful to God for his amazing healing hand).
• Do my hair. Apparently I had a very bad ponytail while on life support, so now it's time to get back to looking cute, ha. Oh, ps, if you have any pics from the hospital (esp any of me on the ventilator) please email them to me. Thanks.
• Hold Nola and put her over my shoulder to burp, although not for an extended period of time
• Get up from pretty much any seat without help and without holding onto anything except my knees, YAY!!!

Nola is doing great! She slept entirely through the night on the 18th and has normally been only getting up once to be changed and eat and then going back to sleep. I am also sleeping better, so we're all a lot happier. She had her 2 month check up on the 18 with her new ped and she weighed 10lbs 15oz, was 23.5 inches long, and her head circumference was in the 5% at 37.5 cm around. Embry also had a check up and was 26 lbs, 33&3/4" tall, and her head circumference was 48 cm. Nola got 4 shots and a nasal drop thingy and she cried for a minute or so, then she took her bottle and all was well again. She did have some swelling at the injection sites later, but Tony gave her some tylenol and she was fine. Oddly, while we were there and I was filling out paperwork in the exam room, I overheard a nurse and the dr talking about how one of their patients was the step-son of Pam Golden (my amazing OB who basically saved my life on more than one occasion). So being the nosey person that I am, I piped up and said, 'oh Dr Pamela Golden? Is there any way I can get a hold of her?' and proceeded to explain what all went on and how she was the one who thought I might have a blood clot etc etc. They said I could write her a note and they'd try to get it passed along to her, so that's what I did. I really feel the need to thank her, it's not very often you find a dr like her and she needs to know how much it means to me that she actually cared.

Speaking of Drs...my pcp's nurse called me on Tuesday and said that she meant to call me earlier but their computers were down and she didn't have my #, but that Dr. Morris wanted to schedule a post-hospital appt with me. Ha. I said, 'well, I actually won't be seeing him anymore' and she just said 'ok, I'll let him know.' She seemed somewhat surprised, but I think she kinda caught the drift of what all went down and having kids herself I'm sure she wouldn't want them to receive the same kind of care that I did in that situation. I just don't want anyone else to get treated the way I did, get the brush off, and then end up on life support, or even worse, die. It's just not right.

Good news is that my insurance rocks and the bill for having Nola and the bill for this whole stint in the hospital were less than HALF of what I expected them to be. Another miracle I'm sure because God knows we could use some and he's definitely providing for us. :) I just pray that medicare doesn't go down the tubes with the health care bill cuz dang, I'd be up a river without a paddle. Then again, life's too short to worry, so yay for having good health care right now. Booyah.

My friend Kristy came to visit from WI last week and it was FANTASTIC! We used to do EVERYTHING together, we were pretty much inseparable and it was nice to feel so comfortable around someone. She's 5 mos pregnant and it wasn't an easy road to get there, so I was super excited to see and feel her baby belly and suggest that she name her baby boy Rourke just because I like it. :) We did some major shopping at the JBF sale, Target, Container Store, etc and she went through my maternity clothes (since I definitely won't be using them again) and picked out a few items. Needless to say, her suitcase was a little full upon her departure, but at least she got it zipped! We watched movies, went to MOPS, went to book club (she even read about 70% of the book with just a few days notice), went to Phoenix (to visit with Jamie), and went to girl's night. I'm so glad I'm able to get out more now because being cooped up at home is sooo not my thing!

Speaking of not using maternity clothes...we had the consult with the urologist and I think we've decided not to bank Tony's sperm before hand. We figure if there's a 97% success rate for the vasectomy reversal, then if someday he falls into the 3% it doesn't work on, he's just not meant to have any more biological children. As far as us having more kids, we haven't ruled it out. I've always pictured myself as a mom of 3 girls and Tony wants more kids (a boy in particular, but just more than 2 in general), so we're still throwing around the idea of adoption. We've always felt called to adopt (Tony's mom was adopted and I've wanted to since before I was married), but with the recent health issues I'm not even sure if it's an option anymore, even as foster/adopt. Either way, it wouldn't become a 'real' thing for quite a while so I'll keep you updated as we investigate further. I love babies and I LOVE being pregnant, so I'm kinda hurt that I never will be again. It's very trivial, but it still kinda stings.

The formula feeding is going really well. Nola doesn't seem to be having any issues with it and besides one small episode of leakage, things on my end are holding up rather well. I'm not so worried about mastitis anymore and I feel fine in that area, so yay.

The dr said to watch for any hardening under the skin in the 2 areas where I had the pic lines (my groin and my right bicep). Well, I found a very small hard lump right at the incision site to my groin pic line, but of course it was over the weekend, so I'll be calling them tomorrow morning to ask them about it. The arm one seems to be healing up rather well, but I doubt the bruising will go away for a while since I'm on blood thinners, but whatev. Till then I'll just look like I've been beaten and am addicted to nicotine because of this lovely blood pressure patch, good times.

I pretty much stopped doing the breathing treatments and I haven't gotten the results of the latest chest x-ray back yet. I go in to see the main dr on Wed so I'll know then what it showed. The x-ray lab actually gave me a dvd of the images, but I can't for the life of me get it to run on my computer. :/ It actually made my heart jump when the x-ray technician told me I had to strip down and put on a hospital gown for the visit...hospital gown, no thank you, I've had enough of those to last me a lifetime. So of course, I took a picture.