Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Caution - long explanation of health!

As most of my readers know (because probably 6 out of the 8 are family!); I've been suddenly bombarded with some rather frustrating health issues. At the end of August, we were very excited to learn that baby #5 is on it's way! Thus far, all seems to be well with the little growing one; I saw the little peanut in an ultrasound and heard it's heartbeat -what a blessing! About the same time, I started with a deep chest cough that never really turned into a cold or anything, but I just couldn't shake it. I did see the NP at my dr's office who thought it was allergy induced asthma and gave me an inhaler. I didn't use the inhaler much because #1 I was worried about the effects on the baby #2 I didn't like the shaky feeling I got afterward and #3 it didn't seem to have that much good effect to make it worth while. Then last week, my constant 'morning sickness' took a turn for the worse and I couldn't keep anything down for 4 days. After the continual coughing and throwing up, I also developed a rather severe pain in my side. So, off to the dr again. After spending over an hour with the dr, he prescribed four different things. A medicine to control the throwing up - which is great. And some tylenol with codeine for the pain in my side, which seems to be a fractured rib. An inhaled medicine; and a nebulizer treatment every hour. My major concern was the nebulizer, because when my heart races after a treatment, the baby's does as well. So, by the second day, I'd cut the nebulizer back to a coupla times a day. I've been praying for safety for the baby and peace for myself very much over the last week. Sunday, I asked for prayer at church and Denise had a word of comfort for us. She said that she saw a picture of hands wrapped around our little baby; and felt the word "filter" - that my body is doing it's job of filtering the medicines before it reaches the little one. What an answer - as that was exactly what I'd been praying for! Then at my follow up appointment yesterday, the dr was very understanding about my concerns with the nebulizer and suggested I do half treatments to cut back some of the bad feeling afterward; and is also trying an antibiotic (safe for baby) to treat what may be "an a-typical bronchitis or walking pneumonia". I'm still a bit frustrated at the very slow speed of recovery; but feel that my dr's care and concern have been an answer to prayer as well. I'm still in quite a bit of pain, as my rib will take several weeks to heal and I'm still coughing from the tightness in my chest- but the dr assured me that my pain meds were ok for baby, so I don't need to hesitate to take them. So, right now, I lay and watch a lot of the DIY channel, and nap quite a bit too. I hate not feeling like I'm contributing to my family, but my kids have been wonderful and we've been getting a lot of extra snuggles. I'd appreciate continued prayers for my recovery, the health of the baby, and some rest for poor Joey, who has been Super-dad. I apologize if this came across as a long complaint; but Denise challenged me to blog through this tough time, so I had to start somewhere!