Tuesday 2/19/08

Tuesday morning Paul walked into my hospital room and I laughed. "Good morning! I decided that if you weren't coming to see me, I wasn't going home." He said, "I tell you what, we're sending you home today and that cath is NOT going with you. I've already told them we're pulling it and you have until noon to empty your bladder." Fine by me! We got to have a long conversation about my section and how I was feeling (really hurting, especially as Harrison nursed - afterbirth pains were excruciating and I'd started taking Percocet the day before). He got out so they could pull my cath.

I started drinking. I called my aunt (who was back at work after two weeks off) and said, "Did I hear you say you were making tea? Can I have some?" She was making tea and she brought me a big 33-ounce cup. I drank it all. I also drank a cup of cranberry juice and 2 of those big UAMS mugs full of water. I was able to get a total of 160ccs out and that was it. Paul was shocked at how much I'd had to drink and how little I voided. "You drank all of that and still no pee-pee?" (he's such a medical professional, isn't he??) You got it, bub. He sighed. "I was really hoping that four days post-op you'd be rested enough to pull the cath; but this just tells me how banged up you are. Okay, here's the plan. We'll recath you but we're not going to pull it Thursday. On Thursday, we're going to pull your staples and that's it. We'll pull the Foley on Monday."

Tiffany, my nurse, was wonderful when she recathed me. She used the lidocaine jelly perfectly and so it wasn't nearly as traumatic on Tuesday as it was on Saturday or Sunday. Then we got Harrison and me dressed to go home!!! Harrison's weight was up to 6 pounds 4 ounces - within 10% of his birth weight and his blood sodium was 147, within 2 points of normal. Since things were headed in the right direction with him - she let him go home. Hooray!

Harrison's going home outfit swallowed him, even though it was a newborn size. Poor little guy! He looked so tiny in his car seat...as you can see, he loved it (don't worry, we did buckle him into the seat). I had to stick my pinkie finger into his mouth to keep him from howling like this all the way down to the first floor.

As I reviewed my discharge papers, I noticed there was nothing prescribed for pain beyond ibuprofen. Huh? No Percocet? I asked Tiffany about it and she said that she'd noticed it as well and questioned the resident doing my discharge. Based on something I'd said Sunday morning the resident determined that I did not want Percocet. Tiffany pointed out that I'd been taking it at least every six hours since Monday morning and I'd been hurting. The resident refused to reconsider or even discuss it with me. I said, "No worries. We have some Percocet at home." Famous last words.

At 9:00p.m. horrible afterbirth pains hit me. I was writhing in pain and sobbing. It was horrible. Poor Elizabeth was frightened because I was hurting so badly - and ended up standing over Harrison in the bassinet praying for me and asking that God would help her be a good big sister to help me with Harrison and help him not cry. I called the ANGELS triage desk trying to be understood through the sobs - the nurse didn't seem to have a problem understanding me. The nurse said, "Let me go talk to the doctor and I'll call you back." The doctor was in a c-section so I was going to have to wait. While I was waiting on them to call me, I called Tandy - my Foley looked weird to me and I needed some reassurance about it as well. She wasn't home. I told Todd, "I just wish I was still at the hospital" - he said, "She's at the grocery store, call her cell phone." So, I did. I was on the phone with her sobbing, trying to not freak out, hurting like crazy and she said, "Give me just a minute and let me call you back." A couple of minutes later she called back, "Heather and I are on our way to your house." (she had called Todd and he said, "Are you kidding? Get over there!") It was 9:30p.m. That made me cry even harder. Brad was on his way to the hospital to pick up my script for Percocet and take it to Walgreens. Can you imagine sending a 4-time-repeat-section-plus-tubal mom home with no pain medication!?! But how sweet that Tandy, late at night, was sacrificing her bedtime to come to my house and help me. (didn't hurt matters any that Heather got to drive her new-to-her car over here - tee-hee) They were here until 11:45. They didn't leave until Brad got home and Tandy saw a Percocet go down the hatch. I told Todd via email the next day - my pride didn't want to let her come over here but I'm so glad she didn't really give my pride a chance -- because I needed her. I have really needed her since this baby boy has been born, haven't I? And thankfully she's been willing to talk to me - even when I called her five minutes before she needed to leave for choir, she's sat with me late at night, whatever I've needed. I'm so thankful for a friend like her and only hope that I can be a friend like that to her or to someone else who needs me like I've needed her.