We're Expecting!! Weeks 10-13

Sorry another long post, but a lot has happened in the past 3 weeks!

I've had a rather rough couple of weeks. I dare say (no, I know) they were harder than weeks 6-10 which I didn't think could be possible. Let's start where I left off in my last post. I began having an allergic reaction on my arm around the picc line iv. Everyone assumed it was from the tape, but that didn't quite fit. I wasn't having the reaction everywhere the tape was touching me, only on the inner part of my arm. At about 10 1/2 weeks my home health nurse was over one evening changing the dressing and she realized it wasn't the tape, it was the chloroprep she was using to clean and sanitize the area around the iv. She was able to come back later that night with some bedodine to use instead. At this point my skin was red, raw and leathery with little pustules everywhere. She stared at it for a while and then told me she thought I was getting cellulitus (a skin infection) and it had to be treated immediately. So she called the doctor and he had her call in an antibiotic for me to start taking right away. In fact, he had me take two doses of the antibiotic that night just to get a jump start.

The next day was a Friday and even if I ate with the antibiotic it made me so incredibly sick. I felt so horrible I left work early that day because I couldn't keep my head off my desk. I went home and wondered how I was going to manage 10 days of this antibiotic. Over the weekend I felt worse and worse to the point that I had pretty much stopped eating. Luckily, I had an appointment with the doctor on Monday morning. He looked at my arm, which was still gross, but looked so much better already and told me I could stop the antibiotics. So I went home expecting to feel better. That afternoon is when the fever started and I just kept throwing up. So I called the doctor back and he sent the home health nurse over to get blood and urine samples so they could check for a bacterial infection. The next day they told me they found nothing. But I just kept getting worse. The fever came at least twice a day and one night at about 2 am I woke up shaking uncontrollably. I literally had no control over my muscles and my breathing had become so rapid my lungs were burning. I couldn't really talk and Tyler just kept trying to ask me questions to figure out what the heck was going on. Finally, my smart hubby made the decision to give me benedryl. About 25 minutes later the shaking stopped, but then the fever spiked to 103 and not too long after that the throwing up began. This cycle continued to happen twice a day everyday. I was miserable. One evening, I called my nurse and told her about this awful cycle and that even tylenol couldn't break my fevers. That's when she told me I needed to go to the hospital. I called Tyler who hurried home from work, but by the time he got there, my fever had started going down on its own and I didn't want to go to the hospital if the fever was gone and look stupid. Unfortunately, another cycle started at about 2am and about an hour later when I felt like I could actually move to the car, I told Tyler we needed to go to the ER. I was terrified something was really wrong. So he got me into the car and we arrived at the ER about 3:15am. They ran even more blood and urine tests and again found nothing. They told me I probably had a stomach virus and that there was nothing they could do for me so they sent me home to wait it out. The ER doctor did find that my potassium was very low due to all the throwing up and ordered that my next 10 iv bags be infused with potassium. He told me that would help me feel better, so I once again, went home expecting and waiting to feel better.

But the shakes and fevers just kept coming day after day. I thought this was really strange because shouldn't viruses last 72 hours at the most? Why was mine lasting almost 2 weeks? During all this time, my wonderful mother came every week day while Tyler was at work to look after me. I was beyond grateful because I could barely move from my bed to the bathroom. My amazing mom probably cleaned up more throw up in those 2 weeks than she cares to think about and spent a lot of time trying to break my fevers with fans, ice and cold wash cloths. I honestly don't know what I would have done if she hadn't been there. I kept thinking how boring it must be for her to just sit on the bed next to me. I wasn't very entertaining, in fact I didn't even talk much. When I get really sick I don't exert the energy to talk and resort to grunting or head nods. But it didn't seem to bother her at all. She kept coming back day after day just to sit with me for hours in the dark. But I guess that's what moms do for their kids and I hope I can take care of my baby as well as my mom has taken care of me.

By the very end of week 11 the shakes had started to subside, the fevers still came but didn't get nearly as high as before. I kept thinking the virus must be on its way out, but I still felt like crap. I still couldn't eat, I was still throwing up and I could barely stand up. My mom, Tyler and I were all worried that I hadn't really eaten or kept anything down for about 2 weeks now. It was clear I was continuing to lose weight and not getting much nutrition. I decided to talk to the home health nurse that evening about possibly getting nutrition through my picc line. She weighed me and it was even lower than the week before. At this point I was weighing in at barely over 100 lbs and it was obvious something needed to change. She said she would talk to the doctor in the morning and give me a call. The next morning, she called me and told me my doctor wanted me to go see a specialist and they set up an appointment for me the next day. So last Wednesday Tyler and I went to Utah Valley hospital and met with a pregnancy specialist. The first part of the appointment was the best. We got to have another ultrasound, but this time the ultrasound tech spent a while looking at the baby and then the doctor came in and spent even more time looking at the baby so we got to see our little one a lot. I loved it!! Our baby even had the hiccups and looked like a little jumping bean, it was so cute! We got really good pictures of its little face (it definitely looks more human than last time). The doctor told us our baby was perfect and there were no problems. So here's our baby at 12 weeks 1 day.

I'll admit sitting there watching my little one made me cry. It made me feel so much better about everything and all of a sudden I didn't care that I was sick anymore. After the doctor looked at our baby, we started talking about what was going on with me. We gave her all my medical history and then started telling her about how I'd been so sick lately with these crazy fevers and shakes. At first she seemed confused and started questioning the thermometer I was using. She even asked Tyler if he had tried the thermometer after me to see if it was actually working. That's when we got a little defensive and told her it was obvious I was having fevers, I was so so hot to the touch and everything else that comes with fevers. But she kept telling us that it didn't make sense for me to be having a fever of 103 with a stomach virus. She said that was on the high side for a virus and she didn't think I had one at all. A few minutes later, Tyler mentioned my picc line iv and she just stopped mid sentence and said "Wait, you have a picc line?! I thought that was just a regular iv. How long have you had that?" We told her I'd had it for about 4 weeks now. "Where did you get it?" We told her at this hospital. She was not happy at all. She went on to explain that pregnant women should never have picc line iv's. She told me that in all of the cases she's seen, the women either end up with an infection or blood clots. She said that the last pregnant woman who came through her office with a picc line ended up in the ICU for 30 days due to the infection it gave her. She told us that the picc line was coming out today and she was positive that's what was causing my fevers, etc. She explained that my body was trying to reject the picc line and it was 100% the reason I was so sick. After all this, I was thoroughly freaked out and we of course agreed to have it removed. Then we started talking about nutrition. She told me she could give me an NJ tube (a feeding tube that goes from your nose down into your intestines) today if I wanted it. Or I could go home and try to eat on my own. Obviously, I wanted to try eating on my own first. And she explained I'd have to retrain my stomach to hold food again. So I basically needed to eat every 2 hours no matter what, even if I threw up, I had to just keep eating until the throwing up cycle was broken. She told me that eventually I would eat and just not throw up. I really, really didn't want the feeding tube, so I told her I'd try to break the cycle on my own. She told me if I wasn't successful at eating at least 1,000 calories a day over the next few days, I'd have to come back in and get the feeding tube. So, Tyler took me home and we started the process. It wasn't fun and it took almost 2 days, but I was able to break the cycle and actually keep food down. I slowly started feeling better. My fevers and shakes were completely gone and I was starting to function again! Saturday was my first day feeling well enough to get out of the house, which was a good thing because my little sister was having a bridal shower. And Monday I was back at work for the first time in 2 weeks. I get tired really easily but other than that I'm feeling so much better! I've continued to eat and drink enough on my own, so no feeding tube is necessary. As of today I'm 13 weeks 1 day, so the nausea should start subsiding soon and I should just continue to feel better from this point on. I'm so incredibly grateful to be feeling good again, especially because my baby sister is getting married on Friday and I was terrified of missing it. Things are getting so much better and I'm looking forward to just enjoying the rest of my pregnancy.