The adventure continues...

I think it's fair to say that this pregnancy hasn't exactly been "textbook."

So, one of the main concerns that the doctors had after surgery was that I would go into early labor. We had to manage my pain well, keep me calm and relaxed and allow me to ease back into work. It took about a month to fully get to the last step, and I started going back to work last week. I was really careful, only working as much as I felt my body would allow. I didn't get stressed, I didn't climb the stairs very often, and I kept my pain under control the whole time.

Now I'm at Friday evening. I head to Journeys for some dinner at around 8pm. When I was grabbing my purse from the counter, I started noticing some back pain around the middle of my rib cage. "Weird..." I thought, but assuming I just sat wrong for a little while, I brushed it off. I made it to Journeys and ordered food, but the entire time, the pain was increasing, and it was spreading around to the sides and into my chest. It was radiating pressure from the inside and was becoming really, really uncomfortable. I couldn't find a decent position to sit in, no matter how many different chairs I tried! I wolfed down my salad and soda, told Genesis (a friend and kitchen manager at Journeys) that I wasn't feeling so good, so I got my check and bailed.

By the time I got home, I was in tears. The pain was SO BAD! What in the world was this? Certainly it's not a heart attack... my blood pressure, pulse and everything else has been perfect over the course of my visits. Not to mention, I'm freaking 26 years old! What could it be? Acid reflux? Indigestion? No clue.

3 hours later, around 12:30am, I finally called my doctor's office and spoke with the doc on call at St. Vincents. I explained the pain, and she said "it's probably no big deal, but let's get you in to run some tests and get your pain managed." So, off to the hospital. Got checked into Maternity, and they hooked me up to fetal monitors and contraction monitors. After giving it 20 minutes to start finding some things, the nurse comes in and says "Well, I think we know what the chest pains are... you're contracting, my dear."

"Um, excuse me? I'm only 25 weeks! I can't contract yet! This baby isn't ready! I'm not ready!" These were the thoughts racing through my head, but I was brave and didn't voice them to my nurse. I responded to the news with "Okay, so what's next?" Next steps were to have a pelvic exam (every woman's favorite thing) to be sure my cervix was closed, and an injection of some sort of fluid to get the contractions to stop. Pelvic exam showed my cervix is closed up like Fort Knox and the medication relieved the pain in my chest and back and stopped the contractions. Thank goodness! They let me go home after that.

Fast forward to Saturday night. Chest pains kick back in at full-force, so not wasting any time, I call the doctor on call right away, explaining I was in the hospital the previous night for the same thing and it ended up being contractions. This doctor immediately responds with a "Okay, get in here. I'll let the nurses know you're coming." So, off to St. Vincents again. Get checked in, hooked up to the monitors, and... I'm not contracting.

Enter a giant "WTF?" here.

It was contractions on Friday night, but no contractions on Saturday night. They run bloodwork, urine samples and an EKG to make sure its not my gallbladder, liver, lungs, kidneys or heart. All of the tests came back 100% normal, so we have no explanation for the pain. The pain was intolerable... 2 Oxycodone didn't even do the trick. So they gave me a muscle relaxer and a big ol' shot of Demerol in my butt and I finally felt some comfort. Karen (one of my bosses at Imago Dei) was kind enough to come sit with me through the whole ordeal so I wouldn't have to be alone... at the end of the night, she wheeled me out of the hospital with a prescription for Oxycodone and Flexeral and drove me home. So, if the pains come back, at least I'll have something to take to ease the pain.

So, because of all this mess, I'm on bed rest until Tuesday when I see my OB. Dammit. I'm hoping that I'll get let off the hook, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Anyway, that's the latest in the Weiseth Pregancy Adventure. Hopefully it gets a little more boring for the next 3 months... I can't handle all this chaos!