out the winder

I haven't blogged in almost a year.  I've been busy.  Every few days, an idea for a blog post will pop into my head, but....I've been busy. 

I'm going to attempt to summarize the last year, probably in a series of posts.  Mostly for myself, so I can look back and know what the heck I've been up to.  Then when the mild cognitive impairment gives way to full blown dementia, I'll be able to reference important life events. 

My last blog post was in March 2012, in which I blasted my esophagus for causing me such misery.  Well, I'm happy to report that after having a 9lb 4oz baby boy cut out of my uterus, the esophageal issues have ceased. 

Luke Larson Bartlett (Larson is my mother-in-law's maiden name) was born on July 24th via a very convenient planned c-section.  Louisa was a very inconvenient, non-planned c-section which occurred after 5000 hours of labor and 400 hours of pushing.  I'm exaggerating a little. 

In the OR, an anesthesia resident placed my spinal and almost immediately I started feeling light headed.  I thought it was because I was laying supine, which I hadn't done in several months, and the baby was laying on my IVC.  Then I heard my heart rate on the monitor start to tank and I heard the number 70....referring to my systolic blood pressure.  I would have panicked, but I wasn't perfusing my brain adequately to do so.  The resident gave me some epi and my SBP came up to 150.  Hypertension feels GOOD!  A few minutes later, Luke was born.  Unlike his sister, he came out screaming!  This was a relief because Louisa really wasn't breathing when she came out and she was a slight purple hue.  I could hear my OB yelling at the nurses to get oxygen on her.  I did panic then, but soon she started crying and turned a lovely bright pink color. 

They took Luke to the nursery to get him cleaned up, but then they didn't bring him back to me.  They were concerned because his belly seemed to be getting more and more distended.  The nurse who relayed this information to me told me that they got an x-ray which only showed 11 pairs of ribs.  And because his belly was getting bigger and he had a skin tag on his ear, they were going to take him to the NICU. 

Um....what?  11 ribs? Skin tag?  Abdominal distension?  All of this information being told to a freshly post partum crazy lady who had a SBP of 70 withing the past 30 minutes and who still has fentanyl infusing. 

So they took him to the NICU and placed and NG tube (small tube that goes from his nose into his stomach to suck out any excess air) and placed an IV.  His abdominal x-ray was unremarkable and he never acted like he was uncomfortable.  He was having normal poops and passing gas too.  They wouldn't let me feed him, but instead gave him fluids through his IV.  He pulled out approximately 4 NG tubes.  I got to visit him in the NICU.  It was nice to be able to hold my boy, but it is quite disturbing to see an hours-old baby with IVs and tubes coming out of him.  The next day he seemed to be doing okay, but his belly was still big.  He was still pooping and seemed to be quite comfortable.  We got to visit with him more and I even dragged my edematous, post op self out of bed and walked down to the NICU.  Thanks fentanyl/percocet/ultram/toradol/ibuprofen.  I also have a fear of blood clots....that will get you moving! 

That night a nurse practitioner from the NICU came into our room to let us know that he'd lost peripheral IV access.  They had poked him everywhere (including his feet and scalp) to try to place an IV, but they couldn't get one.  So she gave us 2 options....either we try to feed him by mouth and see how he does, or they would have to put a central line in him. (A central line is a large catheter that you place in a deep vein, usually an internal jugular or subclavian. This allows for administration of fluids and medications when a patient can't take things by mouth. This is a procedure that I do when I'm in the ICU and it's not without risk - bleeding, infection, pneumothorax).  So you can understand why my initial reaction to hearing "central line" was something along the lines of, "What the *&^#^@%#$^$#!?!?!  Over my dead body!"  That was more of an internal monologue.  So, clearly we opted to feed him by mouth....and would you believe that he did just fine? 

They never did find anything wrong with him and eventually decided we could take him home.  His belly continues to be "protuberant" to this day.  So he got to hang out in the NICU for a few days because he has a Buddha belly.  Sorry Blue Cross. 

Oh, and it's totally normal to see 11 sets of ribs on a newborn chest x-ray.  The 12th pair often hasn't ossified yet.  Thanks Allison Zupon, radiologist extraordinaire!