Counting Lifes Blessings

This past week we have felt very blessed in our home. Liza is one of the blessings, the other is that I am still here to be a mother and wife to my children and husband.

We had a bit of a scare following Liza's birth. This might be a bit descriptive to some but I want to write our experience down and share it.

Liza had a normal delivery, except with the epidural I didn't feel any urge to push so she decided to come without any pushing. The nurse went to see how dilated I was and there was Liza's head almost out completely. After a push Liza was here. They cleaned her up and gave her to me. David sat with me while I fed her for about 30 minutes. He then decided to go home and get some rest. The nurse came in right after he left and I noticed that I had leaked some blood through my blanket. I let her know and she took Liza to check me. After looking she commented to another nurse that it was a lot of blood. There were three nurses in at the time and they started to weigh the linens to see how much I had lost. After my nurse had massaged my uterus and I was still bleeding a lot, they called in the midwife that helped deliver Liza, the nurse really delivered her. She came in and they were checking my stats. Some of that is a blur, but I was still loosing blood and they were still weighing the linens. I called David to come back and to bring my Dad or one of my brothers to give me a priesthood blessing. During that time they were massaging my uterus like crazy and the midwife had called in the doctor that she works with. When David and my brother Nick had gotten there my blood pressure was 56 over 35 and I was white as a ghost. I was laying back so I just felt really tired. Soon after that Dr. Allen was there. They had started giving me blood and frozen plasma. There was a room full of people working on me. At this time David and Nick, my brother, gave me a priesthood blessing. I don't remember much about the blessing except that I didn't feel afraid. Dr. Allen found that I had torn my cervix when I delivered Liza and stitched that up but I was still bleeding. After the blessing and getting some blood in me I could hear the comments that I was getting my color back. My blood pressure had gone back up to 112 over something but I was still bleeding. Dr. Allen then attempted to put a balloon in my uterus to create pressure and hopefully stop the bleeding. My blood pressure was going down again. The team that was in there was so professional and worked so well and fast together. During all of this there was David and Nick watching it all. I am glad to have gotten an epidural because Dr. Allen was up to his elbows working inside of me. With my blood pressure dropping again the doctor said lets get her to the OR for a hysterectomy. At that time I could feel my self passing out. I told them I didn't feel well and I couldn't see well. I remember taking some deep breathes in the OR before I was unconscious. Later Nick told me of how everyone in the room left except for he and David. I can't imagine how painful that must have been for them. I was told later by a nurse that it took 3 hours to clean up my room. They were calculating how much blood I had lost while cleaning. A nurse told me later that I had lost 7000 cc of blood when a normal pregnant woman has 5000 cc of blood in her system. I was loosing blood they were giving me.

I remember waking up and hearing David and my parents. I could barely see them because my eyes would only flutter but I couldn't move the rest of my body. I couldn't speak but I could hear them. I tried so hard. That was a horrible feeling.

I went back to sleep then I woke up and was able to move. I was on a ventilator so I couldn't speak. They were still sedating me some so I was in and out of things. That became less and less though. David came and stayed with me. Nick and his wife Elizabeth came to visit me. My sisters Diannah and Gina, and her husband Duncan, also came to visit. My parents had come back too. From Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon I was on the ventilator. I mouthed a lot of things during that time. It was hard not to communicate, I never realized I liked talking so much. I remember talking to my self and counting down the hours until the ventilator was taken out. It was so uncomfortable. I would droll, then gag, then cough and that would hurt my incision.

I also woke up with an IV in my neck and something called a butterfly that was attached through my neck to my heart.

I was so swollen all over, my eye balls were swollen, so I'm sure I was a sight. They gave me Lasick, a diuretic and in 2 hours I lost 7 lbs. of fluid. I was still getting blood in the ICU. I was told that Dr. Lee, the ICU doctor, was frantically doing research while I was in the OR. He and my nurse from ICU went and watched the operation some as well. I had an awesome nurse in the ICU. He was there all three days. All of my nurses were good though. You really develop a bond with them when your life was just saved. While in the ICU there were nurses and doctors that had been there in the delivery room that would come and see how I was doing. They were all amazed at how well I was recovering.

While I was recovering in ICU, Liza was being taken care of by the nurses in the nursery. She had lots of visitors though that were so excited to meet their new sister, niece, granddaughter, and cousin. We had lots of family in town because my parents had returned Saturday afternoon from their mission in Korea. I was able to see Liza again on Tuesday right before she was released from the hospital. The nurses did bring me a couple of pictures up to the ICU.

Uncle Duncan and cousin Chloe!

Callie and Liza

Lucy, Liza, Carson, and the nurse. She was nice to let the kids hear Liza's heartbeat.

Carson and Liza!

Little Liza

On Tuesday I was moved out of ICU to Labor and Delivery downstairs. By then I still had the IV in my neck and one on my left hand. They took the one in my neck out and put a second one on my left arm. My arms are all bruised from the many IVs they put in me. Where they were putting the frozen plasma is an ugly bruise.

my swollen feet

My bruises from all the IVs I had.

In L and D, I had a recovery similar to a C-section except I received my last unit of blood. I also received vitamin K shots and pills, magnesium, and potassium. They were testing my blood each day to check my platelets, the clotting factors for the blood. By this time they, the doctors, had decided the reason for all the bleeding was DIC, Disseminated intravascular coagulation. That is where all my clotting factors were used up in the first big bleed and I wasn't able to clot my blood. You can see a list of causes for it to happen on that web page. Yesterday, Dr. Allen got the results back from the testing they did on my uterus. He told me what caused the DIC was Amniotic fluid embolism. After reading up on it, we feel even more blessed and Dr. Allen agrees with that.

I was able to come home on Thursday, the 9th. I did still have a JP drain coming from my incision. I had that removed at the doctors office on Monday the 13th. I was also weighed there and from Wednesday the 8th to Monday, I lost 21 lbs of water weight. Dr. Allen prescribed an antibiotic just to fight off any thing that might be happening with my incision. I did develop a fever that night but haven't had one since.

I am so glad to be home and have so much help. It has been hard to not get back to our normal routine. We have also had spring break this week. Yesterday Papa stayed home with Liza while my Mom and I took the kids to see Hotel For Dogs. My mom did all the work, I was like one of the kids again. She missed the first part of the movie waiting in line for popcorn.

The past week and a half has been quite an experience. Again we feel very blessed!!! David told me to never make him cry like that again. I am still emotional about it. Throughout it all though, I was never afraid. I am so grateful for the power of the priesthood and priesthood blessings. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father who has spared my life that I can still be here with my family. Thank you to all of you for your thoughts and prayers.

I forgot to mention that I recieved a total of 17 units of blood and 5 units of plasma by the time I was released from the hospital.