Alex's birth story and my month long recovery in the hospital

I went in to be induced on June 14.   Growth scans showed that Alex was going to be a large baby and since my 1st was 8 lbs 3 oz at 39 weeks both my OB and I felt that the growth scans were pretty accurate.   I was induced with Danny and had a very easy delivery.   I expected the same with Alex.   I was so very wrong.

They started the induction a little after 9 by breaking my water and starting the pitocin drip.   Things were going well until I hit 6 cm.   I started to develop a fever.   I knew that my time was limited since they would not let me labor very long with a fever.   They gave me tylenol and more antibiotics(I was already getting some since I was group b +) and my fever went down.   I was so relieved, thinking I had avoided a C-section.

I hit 10 cm a little before 9 PM and started to push.  That's when things started to go downhill.   Everytime I pushed, Alex's HB dropped and took awhile to come back up.  After about 20 minutes of pushing, my OB said she no longer felt comfortable letting me deliver vaginally.   The look of worry in her eyes as she had me attempt one last push was enough for me.  When the OB looks concerned, it's not a good thing.   I signed the consent for a c-section and literally within minutes, I was on the table.

It was a good thing my OB called for a c-section when she did.   Once I was cut open, they discovered that the cord was completely compressed between his head and neck.   He was born not breathing and had to bagged.   Everything happened so fast that neither DH or I realized he was out until we heard weak crying off to the side.    Alex also had a fever.   Since he was born not breathing and had a fever, he had to go to the NICU/Special care nursery.   They did bring him over so I could see him before he was wisked away.  Stats: Alexander Pierce, June 14  9:25 PM.  8lbs 5 oz.  21 inches.   He stayed in the special care for 3 days and then was moved to the regular nursery.

The next few days were rough as I dealt with the unexpected pains of the emergency C-section.   Both Alex and I were supposed to be realeased on Sat. June 18.   But on Friday night, I started to go downhill.   I developed a very high fever and my body started shutting down.   My hemoglobin dropped and they started giving me blood transfusions.   I was sent down for a CT scan to see if I was bleeding internally.   On Sat morning, instead of being released, I was moved to CCU.

I honestly don't remember much of that Sat and Sun.   I was in so much pain and on so many meds; I was completely out of it.   I do know that  my blood pressure was sky high and on Sat, they gave me 5 bags of blood.   

On my 4th day in CCU, the social worker told DH that insurance had stopped paying for Alex on Sunday and he had to be discharged that night.   There was no way DH could care for Alex.   His parents already had Danny living at their house.  DH needed to spend the night at the hospital with me since I was unable to advocate for myself since I was still so sick.   DH and some of my drs fought with the board of directors and eventually, they allowed Alex to stay until I got moved to the step down unit.  That was Thursday night on June 23.   Alex got sent home on June 24.    DH settled into a schedule quickly.  DH would drop both boys off at his mom's around 9:30/10 then spend the day at the hospital with me.   At around 6, he would go to his mom's to eat and pick up the kids and then took them home.   He was Mr. Mom.

I spent over a week in the step down unit.   I wound up needed another bag of blood since my hemoglobin dropped again.   I was on massive amounts of antibiotics and fluids.   I kept getting fevers plus my blood pressure still remained high despite being on lots of BP meds.   Since there were no signs of infection anywhere in my body, they slowly started taking me off the antibiotics, thinking that my fevers might be a reaction to being on so many for so long.   Then they discovered several blood clots in my arm from my PIC line plus a small clot in my leg.   After several tests showed no signs of infection, they decided that my fevers were a reaction to my body trying to dissolve the clots.   I was sent home with tons of meds including a blood thinner shot on July 2.

I continued to get at least 2 fevers a day at home but was starting to get stronger.   On July 7, I went to my infectious disease dr for  followup and got bad news.   The blood test that I had gone for the previous day showed that my hemoglobin had dropped yet again and I needed to go back in the hospital right away for another blood transfusion.    The next day, since I was still running fevers and they couldn't find infections or internal bleeding on any tests, it was decided that I needed more surgery.   Friday afternoon, I went in for laproscopic surgery.   They discovered a nasty hematoma of old blood in my pelvis plus all my organs were basically covered in pus.   My hemoglobin kept dropping because my body was attacking itself trying to get rid of this nasty pool of blood.

The next day, I stopped running a fever but my platelets dropped dangerously low.  They suspected I was having some sort of auto immune disorder and was having a reaction to a protein in the blood tranfusions or I was having a reaction to the blood thinner.  They had to give me a transfusion of platelets that did not have this protein in them and stopped my lovenox(blood thinner) shots.   My platelet numbers started to rise.   However, my potassium levels were low and my BP was still high.   Since I had been on antibiotics for so long, my bowel movements were very loose.   They determined that I was losing potassium and other minerals through that.   I got several bags of minerals through IV plus they started having me take potassium pills.

I was finally released again on July 15.   I am on an IV antibiotic just to be on the safe side for 10 days.   A home nurse came to show me how to give it to myself.   Plus I am on lots of different meds.   They think after a month or so, my BP should be back to normal and I shouldn't be on BP meds forever.

So what happened?   Why did I get so sick?   I was having BP issues before I delivered.   My BP would spike but go back down to normal after laying on my side for a bit.   It is now believed that the stress on the C-section on my body sent me into a hypertensive crisis.   That nasty hemotoma of blood was from a bunch of my blood vessels bursting when my BP went through the roof.

I have been home for several days and am slowly getting stronger every day.   It is going to be awhile before I am fully back to  being myself.   Right  now, I cannot be left alone with my  boys since I can't lift anything.   DH went back to work yesterday  finally and family members will be taking turns staying with me and the boys to help me out until I get better.

Luckily, I will get better and I will get through this.  Luckily, Alex is a very happy, healthy baby and despite his rough start, is doing fine.

I don't have pics of Alex yet since I haven't had a chance to download the few that we did take and I haven't been up to taking more pics but I will post pics in a few days.

I'm sorry this was so long but so many things happened that it is impossible to make the story short!!!!