February 16th-
Shortly after my C-Section we noticed that my oxygen levels weren't staying above 90 on their own so I was hooked up to oxygen over night. The next day the on call OB Dr. Carlson came in to check on us and had them take me off the oxygen, again I wasn't able to keep it above 90 without any assistance from the oxygen so he kept me on it. This pattern continued for the duration of the 3 days that they like to keep c-section patients for observation.
By Saturday February 18th Dr. Carlson was wanting to discharge us from the hospital but he felt he couldn't do that without ordering me a chest x-ray to see why my oxygen was having troubles. The chest x-ray was ordered and I went down that afternoon. When I returned my nurses informed me that I was finally able to take a shower, so naturally I opted for that. :) The nurses were joking with me that they hadn't paid the water bill this month so the hot water may take a while to come on, I was probably in the shower for maybe 5 minutes when the nurse came back in and said it was time to get out. In my head I was thinking "seriously I just got in here, why am I being rushed." She then informed me that the Dr. was here and need to speak to me immediately. I thought "Immediately? That doesn't sound good."
And I was right, but at the time I didn't know it. I sat on the edge of the bed and a new Dr. that I didn't know came in and told me that my lung had collapsed on the right side possibly due to laboring for 2 hours, something they call a pneumothorax. First thing that came to my mind was from a movie. Have you all seen Just like Heave with Reese Witherspoon? If so the scene in the restaurant when the guy passes out and she tells Mark Ruffalo that its a tension pneumothorax and how to fix it, yeah that scene made me nervous then, when I thought that was what they were going to do to me I felt a tinge of panic. If you haven't seen the movie look up the clip on Google to understand what I am talking about.
(here is the x-ray of my collapsed lung, looks like a deflated balloon on the right)
I was told by the Doctor that we needed to go into surgery immediately....there's that word again. That word made me feel as though my impending doom was coming if we didn't rush haha. Anyway Justin had stepped out when I had gotten in the shower and he wasn't in the room when this was going on so I of course asked if we could wait to tell my husband? The doctor informed me that they had ran into him in the hall and that he had been told what was going on. I then felt the tears start to form, he is my rock the one person who can calm me. And boy did I need calming, I had all kinds of fears but I quickly brushed them aside. Again I was asked to sign some forms and the next thing I know I am being wheeled down the hallway with my hair still wet in a towel mind you. Haha.
Everyone was so friendly, I even made friends with a few of the nurses, one in particular was my favorite his name was Page, he was so sweet and reassured me that things were going to go great. When we got into the room they quickly started to hook me up to things while doing this Page told me a little more about the procedure. They were going to give me heavy medication since I had already ate and couldn't put me under. Then they were going to insert a pic-line chest tube to help inflate my lung again. That sounded painful and let me tell you it was! Page gave me the necessary doses and the next thing I know I am feeling drowsy, he told me that was good.Then pain! Page told me to hold his hand and squeeze it to get through the pain, it was so sweet of him. They inserted the chest tube above my right breast out of the way enough for me to still nurse, and then they inflated the lung. Oh my goodness you guys I seriously thought I was going to choke and die. Seems dramatic but when you are trying to cough and nothing will come out and your gasping for breath and its not coming those are the thoughts that go through your head. Not to worry obviously I am alive and was able to finally cough and breath.
I was informed that the surgery was a success and the chest tube was in, now all we would have to do is watch it over the next 24 hours. I thought to myself "piece of cake, we'll be out of here by tomorrow afternoon." Well that didn't happen, I went in for an x-ray the next morning and it showed that my lung was not inflated all the way but partial. So we waited another 24 hours and took another x-ray. Same thing, this repeated until the Tuesday of the following week. So if you are keeping total I had already been in the hospital 5 days after having Lexi. Finally Tuesday nights x-ray showed some promise and I was told that if everything looked good in Wednesday's x-ray that we would be able to remove the chest tube and go home. Wednesday morning I went down for the x-ray and that afternoon was informed that the lung was back up. Yay! So 10 minutes later they pulled the chest tube, sounds awful but really it was quick just a few deep breaths and it was out. We were discharged that night at 6 pm and told to come back in 2 weeks for a follow up. We finally headed home with our sweet baby who was almost a full week old.
(our tiny 1 week old girl)
2 week check up March 9th-
One thing I forgot to mention was due to the surgery I was put on a lifting restriction and was told I was only able to hold Lexi nothing else. So because of that I needed to bring someone along to the appointment to help with Lexi. Justin's sweet aunt Dorothy and cousin Mariah were so willing to come with me. When we got there I had to get an x-ray prior to my appointment, I knew the drill since I had done this many times weeks ago. When I went in to get the x-ray I saw many Radiology techs that I had when I was in the hospital and they to my surprise remembered me. We joked around for a bit and when the x-ray was done I went to wait for my check up.
When I got into the room Jason (one of the residents we had worked with 2 weeks ago) informed me that he had some bad news. Instantly my heart sunk and I knew exactly what he was going to say. "Your lung has collapsed again." And I was right, this time it wasn't a full collapse just a partial but still not ideal. The most frustrating part is that I didn't have any symptoms, no shortness of breath nothing. He told me that we would have to immediately (their favorite word, I swear) re insert a chest tube today and admit me back into the hospital. I was fighting back tears once again. I kept thinking "seriously! How am I supposed to take care of a newborn while being in this hospital?" Jason asked me if I had anyone here with me and I informed him Justin's aunt was in the waiting room. He went and got Dorothy and explained to her what was going on and what needed to be done. I went back to the waiting room and Mariah started to cry when she heard so I then started to cry. Dorothy called Justin's parents and I called Justin but since he was in school he didnt answer and so I called my mom and dad. My parents decided to come up and then Justin called me back. I started bawling as I told him we were back in the hospital and that surgery would be this morning. He assured me that everything would be fine and that he would be there as soon as he could.
Jason brought out a wheelchair and we packed up Lexi and headed to get me ready for yet another chest tube surgery. The wait was unbearable to me. I just wanted it to be over and fast! All I kept thinking of was how it felt the first time they inflated the lung and how much I really didn't want to feel that pain again. I went in finally at 12 pm. and was so pleased when I saw Page again, first thing he said was "didn't we already do this?" "What is wrong with you?" I laughed and said I missed you and I just love being in the hospital." (SARCASM) This time they inserted the chest tube in my right side, that was very painful. Well to spare you from reading a novel we did x-rays again off and on from that next day March 10th until the evening of March 14th. So again another 5 days, in that time we did so many x-rays I lost count, a CT scan, and found that my chest tube had a kink that kept occurring. During those 5 days we had talked with a lung specialist about doing another procedure called a pleurodesis, the reason for this procedure is that they found cysts on my lung they found that one had burst which is another theory as to why my lung collapsed in the first place. What they would do is go in and remove the cyst, scrape the pleura wall of the lung to help the lung re-adhere to the wall and that should hopefully help.
But because one x-ray showed that my lung had inflated on its own the specialist felt it wasn't necessary, until we had been in the hospital 5 days going on 6 and my later x-rays were showing partial collapsed again we finally talked surgery. The only problem was that the Dr. in Pocatello had a family situation where he wouldn't be able to preform the surgery so my only option was to be transferred to Utah and go to Huntsman's Cancer Institute. When the Dr. told me this I started bawling, I no longer felt the need to hide my tears or act brave, I was so frustrated. I just wanted to go home and be a new mom! He told me he was sorry but that he needed to know my decision so he could make the necessary arrangements. I told him yes that we could transfer and 10 minutes later we had a plan. I was going by ambulance to Utah the next morning at 8 am. then I would be checked in and the Dr's there would do the surgery, he wasn't sure if it would be that day or not but it would be before the weekend. After we heard that plan my mom and I started getting a plan ready for us. First I called Justin to let him know what was going on and then we called my dad so that he could plan to meet me at the Huntsman's the next morning since my mom was staying with Lexi. Justin had a huge test that morning and then he and my mom would come with Lexi afterwards. Later that night we started to pack so I was ready to go and we had my Bishop come and give me a blessing.
(My amazing best friend brought me this cute basket)
(here is the kinked chest tube)
Wednesday March 15-
8 am. the ambulance drivers Justin and Dustin (this made me giggle) came in to pick me up. I was put on a gurney (so uncomfortable) and we headed off to Utah. I slept most of the drive but believe me it wasn't comfortable, my right leg was asleep by the time I got to the hospital. We had quite the adventure getting to the hospital. My ambulance drivers were told to take me to University of Utah Hospital but my nurse had told us we were in Huntsman's. When we got inside the University hospital we told them my room number and they informed them to take me to Huntsman's which luckily was just up the road. They loaded me back into the ambulance and took me to what looked like a war zone. Haha let me explain, the ambulance bay for Huntsman's was under construction and it was super sketchy looking when they unloaded me all the workers stopped and stared, we finally got inside the building and were joking about our adventurous ride. When we finally reached my room my dad was waiting for us.
(and we're off!)
I got checked in, IV's were put in my hand and I got another x-ray, to my surprise the x-ray tech was a girl I had worked with before at a tanning salon in Pocatello, I was so happy to see her it had been a long time. I also got a visit from a high school buddy who worked at Huntsman's he was the Director of Nutrition so he saw I was admitted and came to see how I was doing. It was so nice and great to see some familiar faces. After our visit one of my Doctors came in to get to know me and hear about my story, I told her everything and then she told me the plan. Basically she told me how the procedure would go which was the same thing I had explained above. Then she told me she didn't know if surgery would be today or tomorrow but would check with the main doctor and get back to us. Maybe 30 minutes later she came back in and told my dad and I that we were headed down for surgery. Wow that was quick! Justin and my mom were close to the hospital they had to pull over to feed Lexi but Justin made it just in time before they wheeled me into surgery. They put some medicine in my IV and the next thing I remember I am waking up in the ICU.
(My sweet aunt Valinda sent me these)
Now if you remember from when we did IVF coming out of the anesthesia I cry a lot. Haha, but this time really it was just tears no real sobbing. The nurse asked me if I knew where I was and I responded "Huntsman's," then she asked me why I was here so I told her "for a pleurodesis." Then I asked for Justin and she went to let him in. I asked him how the Doctor said it went and he told me that they got the cyst and that it went great. I had to spend the night in the ICU so Lexi wasn't able to stay with me, Justin's older siblings live in Utah and his sister Kristin let them stay with her over night. I got more sleep there than I had for a while due to being in the hospital and having a newborn. I still was interrupted during the night but it felt as though I slept for days.
Well for the next 3 days we did the same thing ran x-rays and hung out in the hospital, during our stay Lexi turned one month! I was sad that she had to spend all this time in the hospital but felt so lucky that I was able to keep her with me. Now the difference between these x-rays and the ones in Pocatello was that my lung was fully inflated, they just had to keep an eye on it to make sure that it was staying inflated since last time it collapsed again. They took the chest tube out on Saturday March 18th and kept us for observation the next 24 hrs. Finally we were able to be discharged on Sunday and I was just so happy to get out of the hospital!
I went back to the Huntsman's the end of March for a check up and they told me that everything looked great! I am now an as need be patient so I no longer have to go in for x-rays or follow up appointments. Who would've thought that having a baby could cause this much trouble (wink wink). Thank you to all our wonderful family and friends for the love and support that you've given to Justin, Lexi and I these past few months, I couldn't have gotten through this without you all!
Here are the pictures of the pleurodesis procedure:
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