SURGERY DAY ~ Tuesday, May 21
Start Time: 11:32am End Time: 4:25pm
Emma Grace did great!!! She is a true example of what unconditional, selfless love is!!! I’m amazed by her! Lennon did great! She is proving to be just as hardheaded and determined as all of the other women in our family!! They were able to remove the sac and repair the spine beautifully!
They sent her to the Labor & Delivery floor to recover because she still had the epidural in. It is normal with this surgery to have contractions, so they were having to give her meds to stop the contractions. She was a little sick at first and was unable keep her meds down, but her best friend, Zofran, came in clutch. The first night was rough, but she had an awesome nurse, Kristen, who was not scared to call a doctor and wake them up several times during the night to make sure EG was taken care of. Around 3 am her blood pressure dropped to 78/49, but because Lennon was unbothered, they just monitored her the rest of the night, and it slowly came back up. When the nurse came in at 3am, she asked, “so how long until breakfast?!?!” She was starving so the nurse gave her some graham crackers to take with her meds, and it was at that moment that Zofran became just an acquaintance. She was able to get a couple hours of sleep before shift change.
Wednesday, May 22
Around 7am the doctors started trickling in to check up on EG & Lennon, and they wanted EG up and moving around by the end of the day.
The epidural came out around 10am, and they gave her a T-block and morphine. The fetal echo at 11:25am showed that Lennon’s heart looked good!
The nurse came in around 2pm and gave EG her pain meds. The plan was for the nurse to take a “quick 15 minute” lunch, and when she came back EG was going to get up and sit in a chair. The nurse ended up having an emergency with another patient, so she did not come back for several hours. Her incision runs from one hip to the other hip…significantly larger than a C-section incision. Lennon is still growing inside her mommy’s belly, which means EG is not only dealing with pain from surgery, but she is also being punched and kicked from the inside. She is one strong momma!!! I finally got a nurse to come in to help get EG up around 5pm. The meds had already started wearing off and she was in so much pain, they decided to give her a little morphine and put a tummy binder on to help with the pain as she gets up. Unfortunately, her oxygen levels dropped very low, very quickly, so by 6pm she was on O2 trying to keep her levels above 90. The nurse came in from her emergency, and said EG was in a “tiny respiratory depression” and she was about to give her Narcan (this is what they give people who have overdosed). Luckily her O2 started holding with the O2 mask around 7pm, so the nurse tabled the Narcan and waited. The best thing for EG to do is use the spirometer and walk, but she was not at a point where she could do this, so we were in a pickle.
Time for another nurse change. Kelly was our next nurse, and bless her soul, she hung with me!!! Unfortunately, we started off on the wrong foot because we did not see Kelly until around 9pm…so we went 2 hours without seeing a nurse. Keep in mind, EG is still on oxygen because her O2 is not staying above 90 without it. When Kelly came in around 9pm, I decided I needed to be polite but matter of fact, so I said, “Hello Kelly, I’m Bobi, Emma Grace’s mom…I know you are just walking into this, but we have gone hours in between seeing a nurse over the last 14 hours. I need to know the plan for pain management moving forward so my daughter can get up and start walking. Her nurse had an emergency today, so she did not get out of bed when she was supposed to and that has set her back, so we need to get a plan together. Can you please find out what that plan is and let me know?” Poor Kelly left our room and did not come back for about an hour, which did not set well with me, but she came back with a plan as I requested. She told me the pain med schedule and the plan for getting EG up and moving. So, like any mother would, I set an alarm and made sure EG’s meds were administered properly. Kelly did a great job in getting EG’s pain under control! Around 10pm I asked Kelly about possible blood clots, and she checked her legs thoroughly and said she does not see signs of a clot. After talking to one of our nurse friends, I decided to visit the nurses desk. I told them that I would like EG to have a chest x-ray and/or CT scan. I expressed that something is not right, and I can’t sit there doing nothing. Shortly after that, the on-call doc came in and ordered bloodwork, x-ray, and EKG. Bloodwork came back high, and when I consulted Dr. Google, it says, “the higher the number, the more likely heart failure is present and the more severe it is.” They decided to run the bloodwork again.
Thursday, May 23
7:45 am ~ EG was moved to the Critical Care Unit. The doctor came in and said they did not see any blood clots on the ultrasound, but her x-ray was cloudy, and the bloodwork results were high, but they are not too concerned because everything is pointing to the fact that she has not gotten up and walked yet. He said all the fluid that they gave her during and after surgery was just settling around her heart and lungs. They ordered an Echo on her heart, followed by PT to get her up an going.
After she got up and started moving she started hurting so bad and started having contractions every 2 minutes. This lasted about 2 hours, but after giving her some meds the contractions stopped. She will continue take these meds for the remainder of her pregnancy.
They adjusted her pain meds again, and FINALLY got her pain to a point where it was tolerable. She finally slept well, and the next morning she woke up with purpose…to get out of the hospital!!
Friday, May 24
She was able to get up and moving, and she started using the spirometer every 10 minutes. She was finally able to come off the oxygen and around 2:30pm, she was finally able to go to her regular room!
Saturday, May 25
She was able to check every box to include a good ultrasound of Lennon, so she finally got to bust out of the hospital around 12:30pm!!! John drove over to put eyes on EG, and to help me and Tyler get EG settled in to the apartment that’s just about ½ mile from the hospital. After that, John and Tyler drove back home.
Sunday, May 26 – Wednesday, May 29
EG worked on staying hydrated, getting up and down unassisted and walking around the apartment. The heat index has stayed around 100-109 everyday, so we are staying in the air conditioning!! We’ve watched all of “Reba”, and EG has been watching “Lost” while I work.
Thursday May 30
1PM~ Ultrasound Day!!! Ultrasound went well! Lennon looks great and completely unbothered! EG was able to get out of bed and shower by herself on Thursday!
Saturday, June 1
We had to get out of this apartment…the walls were starting to close in on us, so we decided to check out The Galeria in Houston. We are thankful for complementary wheelchairs and Great American Cookie Company. It was a GREAT day!!
The Up-Coming Week:
Emma Grace will continue to gain strength and endurance over the next few days. Thursday, there’s an ultrasound and OB appointment scheduled to see if she is ready to travel back home.
Below is Lennon’s very first picture!! This is a before and after picture of the sac on her back.
