update on Jen's health

More insomnia tonight, so I thought I would post.

I went to the dr. on Tuesday. He told me they actually did get enough information from the ct scan to determine there were no large blood clots, and that there was a miniscule chance I had any small ones. Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He told me just what I thought he was going to tell me--to just take it easy. Now that Christmas is here (Merry Christmas to everyone), that is going to be much easier to do. :)

Thanks for your prayers, everyone. I believe in the power of prayer! I have been taking it easier, and it is helping. My "no stress" campaign is underway. . .

Trip to the ER

For the past few weeks I have been struggling with not being able to catch my breath, insomnia, exhaustion, a few headaches, occasional dizzy spells and general crabbiness (ok--VERY crabby)--all of which I thought was just a normal part of trying to have a baby at 39 and being busy during the holidays. Saturday night I went to bed about 9 pm and slept until about 7 am. Besides frequent trips every couple of hours to the bathroom, I slept through the night (which is more than I can say for tonight obviously). I woke up totally exhausted. My body felt like I had just run a marathon and the inside of my arms ached between my wrists and my elbows (weird).

I sat through sacrament meeting fighting sleep and trying to breathe. I was sitting in Sunday School when the thought came to me, "Check your pulse." I took my pulse a couple of times, and the average was about 102. All of a sudden everything started to make sense. I was so tired because my heart was working too hard! I got home from church and started doing a little research online and noticed that quite a few women had experienced the same thing I had, so I wasn't too worried.

I decided to call my ob on Monday and just tell them what was going on, thinking they would tell me to just rest a bit more. Next thing I knew, I hear the nurse tell me, "He wants you to go to the ER."
"THE ER?" I said.
"Yes. They will probably send you to labor and delivery. They have machines there that we don't have here that can run tests that you will need. Go to the ER."
"Great. That's all I need," I thought.
So after my mom came and got Raegan, I headed to the hospital. I knew I would be there awhile, so I took some work with me.
I thought for sure they were going to look at me like I was some kind of idiot--after all, my pulse wasn't THAT high--my youngest sister had a resting pulse of 160 when she was pregnant with her second baby, and mine was 102--no big deal.

I get there, and they call labor and delivery--no beds--so off to a room in the ER I go. They did a heart screening (I guess that's what you call it) first, and discovered I was having heart palpitations, so I got to stay for the day (in the ER mind you) and have a bunch of tests.

(I think I have been to the ER--for myself--one time in my life when I was 14 and needed stitches, but I sure don't remember much about that. I learned why you are in there so long-- You get a test, have to wait for the results of the test, then wait for the dr. to come by again, then have another test and the perpetual cycle begins--enough to drive you CRAZY.)

They started with an EKG which came back normal. After that they did a blood draw which also came back normal. They did another type of screening where they took my pulse lying down, sitting and then standing--not sure what they had to say about that. They took a urine sample and found out I had a urinary tract infection. I had absolutely no clue that I had an infection. The only signs I had were that I had to go to the bathroom every few minutes, but that's part of being pregnant. Maybe they just caught it early. . .What a blessing (that they caught it early--not that I have one :).

After ruling out everything else, the ER dr. came back into the room and said he had talked to Dr. Tutt (my ob) and they wanted to make sure I didn't have a blood clot. Blood clot? That sounded serious. They said they were going to do a ct scan. That was an experience--they put me on my back and then I really couldn't breathe. I thought I was going to pass out. Then after waiting for over two hours for the results of that test, the dr. comes back into the room and tells me they botched the test and couldn't repeat it (thank heaven) because of the risk to the baby (the test involves some radiation). So, they couldn't rule out a blood clot. Yippee skippee. He told me Dr. Tutt wanted to see me the next day. They would have to monitor my symptoms and if they got worse, then we would have a problem. He gave me a script for my infection and sent me home.

We'll see what Dr. Tutt says when I have my appointment. While in the ER, I asked the dr. what would happen if my ct scan came back negative--and then of course answered my own question by saying, "They are just going to tell me to take it easy, right?" And he answered, "Right." I am pretty sure that's what Dr. Tutt is going to tell me tomorrow. In fact, at one point the ER dr. made the comment jokingly to the guy moving my gurney to the ct scan (I had to sit up in the bed so I wouldn't get motion sickness) that he needed to give me a sedative so that I would not be so "high energy". Yeah, right. I think he thought I was some kind of weirdo because I didn't want to sit in the ER bed--the chair was more comfortable and made it easier to breathe. :) Sitting still all day did help a little, but there were about three or four times during the day that I could feel my heart racing and I had to catch my breath, so I know that I will still have the problem even if I keep still (which is VERY hard for me to do).

So much drama! This baby comes eight weeks from Saturday, and it isn't soon enough. I am ready to have my body back and get this (as the ER nurse called it) parasite out. I know that sounds heartless, but that's how it feels. I am too old to be having babies! I am go glad when they get here, but it sure takes its toll on my body.

I am so thankful I had the prompting to take my pulse--thankful and surprised I could actually get a prompting because I was NOT feeling the spirit whatsoever because I was so crabby--just ask Blake how crabby I was. :) You can pray for me, but he is the one that needs the help putting up with me. Poor guy!

I will update tomorrow with the news from the ob. My tylenol pm is finally kicking in, and I should try to go back to sleep. Wish me luck!

DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, we are OFFICIALLY DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe it! Blake just sent me a text this morning with his grade in his design of experiments class--a B which means we graduate! Congratulations to Blake who will graduate with a master's degree in engineering. This B was his only B--the rest A's. Such a smartie! Congratulations to me who gets her husband back. It's a red letter day! :)

Raegan and Her Numbers

I thought this was pretty cool, so I'm going to brag a little bit about daddy's little girl.

Yesterday, December 17, Raegan had pulled up a chair to our little chalk-board and was scribbling on it with chalk. She then yelled out, "Mommy, I drew a four!" I heard Jennifer cheer her on and then say, "Show daddy." Naturally, I came running in the room to see what Raegan had accomplished and she said, "Daddy, I drew a four." I said, "Wow, you did!!" She then replied, "I drew two fours."

I had to run and grab the camera to take a picture. Below are a few pictures. One of the fours looks a little smudged because she was pointing to it by putting her finger right on it :) I don't know if she was planning on writing fours or if she did it twice by accident and recognized that they looked like number four - either way I think it is cool.

Also, if you look below the two fours... you will see a number eight... she added the two numbers and wrote 8 at the bottom. The second 4 also looks like it is preceded with a partial derivative symbol... Okay, I'm stretching it with the last two, but the bottom number does sort of look like an eight.

Family Foto Fiasco

OK so we tried to do it on our own--big mistake. Next year we'll need to get a professional, but this year our time was limited (10 days to finals). Of course Raegan woke up at 5:45 that morning and would not take a nap. Her hair looked PERFECT (thank you Jackie for the do and the headband) but her attitude was much less than perfect. After taking about ten vertical pictures I realized that last year my options were also limited because the card choices I liked were not vertical ones. But Raegan was all "pictured" out, and it was like pulling teeth to get the one we got. Actually I wanted to pull my teeth out (ok, her teeth) when it was all over. I got to thinking, "Is all of this effort and stress really worth it? When did we adopt this tradition? We never sent Christmas photos when I was little. My dad always wrote a hilarious poem that summed up our year." Maybe I ought to do that. . .

This is the one we are going to use. I thought it turned out ok in spite of everything.