Change in plans
Last Sunday night, my parents and I drove back down to Jacksonville. It was nice to be back again, and to have finally 'arrived' coming back from Thailand.
A few hours after I went to bed, however, I woke up with a horrible pain in my back on the right side. I tried stretching, changing positions, applying heat-nothing helped. The pain kept getting worse, so a little after lunchtime my parents took me up to the hospital to see a doctor.
They did lab work and my white blood cell count was a little high, so they kept me for observation for a few hours. Other tests they did were inconclusive, but the pain kept getting worse. They did a sonogram of my appendix and couldn't rule out appendicitis. When my white count skyrocketed around 6pm, it was off to emergency surgery for me.
The doctor said he wasn't worried about the baby; that babies at this stage are very resilient and they would do the open appendectomy (not laparoscopic) to stay away from the baby. But I was still scared!! The risk of infection to the baby if my appendix were to burst would be extremely high, so there was no choice to make. The surgery went quickly and smoothly.
Jeremy changed his flights, so he was able to be there the very next morning. I was glad for that. As it turns out, I didn't have appendicitis; I had mesenteric adenitis. That's swelling and infection of the lymph nodes right next to the appendix. It presents the same way and usually the first clue it's not appendicitis is when you remove a healthy appendix. The good news is that the risk of infection to the baby is much less, the bad news is that removing my appendix didn't eliminate the pain. I had some contractions after the surgery also, but they were able to stop those with medicine.
I was able to go home on Thursday. I'm still a bit sore, but definitely on the road to recovery. And the baby is doing great!! They observed him quite a bit this week, and did several ultrasounds, and he is a real trooper. No problems after the surgery and he's growing and active.
Jeremy and I are so thankful that this whole ordeal happened when I was in Jacksonville, with my actual OB doctor and in a good hospital where we know lots of people. I don't know what I would have done if this had happened shortly before I left Thailand, or worse yet, while I was on that long flight over the Pacific. God definitely had His hand on me and the baby through this whole thing.
A few hours after I went to bed, however, I woke up with a horrible pain in my back on the right side. I tried stretching, changing positions, applying heat-nothing helped. The pain kept getting worse, so a little after lunchtime my parents took me up to the hospital to see a doctor.
They did lab work and my white blood cell count was a little high, so they kept me for observation for a few hours. Other tests they did were inconclusive, but the pain kept getting worse. They did a sonogram of my appendix and couldn't rule out appendicitis. When my white count skyrocketed around 6pm, it was off to emergency surgery for me.
The doctor said he wasn't worried about the baby; that babies at this stage are very resilient and they would do the open appendectomy (not laparoscopic) to stay away from the baby. But I was still scared!! The risk of infection to the baby if my appendix were to burst would be extremely high, so there was no choice to make. The surgery went quickly and smoothly.
Jeremy changed his flights, so he was able to be there the very next morning. I was glad for that. As it turns out, I didn't have appendicitis; I had mesenteric adenitis. That's swelling and infection of the lymph nodes right next to the appendix. It presents the same way and usually the first clue it's not appendicitis is when you remove a healthy appendix. The good news is that the risk of infection to the baby is much less, the bad news is that removing my appendix didn't eliminate the pain. I had some contractions after the surgery also, but they were able to stop those with medicine.
I was able to go home on Thursday. I'm still a bit sore, but definitely on the road to recovery. And the baby is doing great!! They observed him quite a bit this week, and did several ultrasounds, and he is a real trooper. No problems after the surgery and he's growing and active.
Jeremy and I are so thankful that this whole ordeal happened when I was in Jacksonville, with my actual OB doctor and in a good hospital where we know lots of people. I don't know what I would have done if this had happened shortly before I left Thailand, or worse yet, while I was on that long flight over the Pacific. God definitely had His hand on me and the baby through this whole thing.
or 