This Little Piggy Went to the Hospital

Okay, so that little piggy sent this little preggy to the hospital. And I do not mean Reese, although he is a chubster. I'm talking the dreaded Swine Flu. Here's how it played out (it's probably gonna be kinda long...sorry).

Tuesday
Woke up feeling fairly normal except for a sore-ish throat. Thought maybe I'd just slept with my mouth open and my throat was dry. As the day progressed my head started hurting and my chest was tight and hurt when I coughed. Around 3:30, the nurse from the OB's office called to tell me that the ultrasound tech that performed my ultrasound the day before, and consequently, the week before had been diagnosed with Swine Flu. I didn't feel like I had a fever or anything more than just allergies, so I was just kinda like, whatever. Around 1am I got up for a potty trip and was shivering violently...it was the first time I had been cold in about two months. My first thought, "oh great...I have a fever." So, I took my temp and I had a slight fever. I woke Cameron up and then started trying to get Reese to move around. He was not really wanting to co-operate, which to be honest kinda freaked me out. So, after some debate I called the doctor's office and was told to head to the hospital for observation. Oh, and we got pulled over for speeding in Byron on the way. He was nice though and let us go.

Once we got the hospital they put me in an observation room and got me hooked up to the fetal monitor. Reese's heart rate was very high (mid 180s), as was mine (130s). They said this was due to the fever. After a couple of hours everything stabilized and they sent me home. We got in about 5:45am with orders for me to call the doctor's office first thing to get in to be seen.

Wednesday
Got the doctor around 10:30 in the morning. They took me back to an empty room so I wouldn't breath on everyone. I pretty much felt like death warmed over and must have looked like it, too. I had a headache, chills, aches, fever, sore throat, etc. This was the beginning of 48+ hours of mask wearing. Dr. Paul decided I had the flu and should be admitted to the hospital to make sure I could get well quickly before Reese makes his appearance and so they could make sure they were close by if I got worse. We got down the room around 12:30 and I was hooked up to the IV (ouch!). I ran a fever for the next 24 hours.

Thursday
Felt much, much better! They had done something called a nasal swab to test for Influenza A and B and that test came back negative. However, after I got all excited thinking I didn't have the flu, the internist came in and said the test is only 50% accurate. So he said with my symptoms, he was saying I had the flu, probably Swine Flu because they had not really been seeing seasonal flu yet. Basically what he said was "if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck..." So, my diagnosis, with no further tests, was Swine Flu.

Friday
Most everything had moved to my head and my nose was much more stuffed up and runny. It dawned on me that I hadn't taken my allergy meds since Tuesday, so that might have something to with it being in my head now. The doctors, both the internist and the OB on call, gave me the clear about mid-morning. Annoyingly enough I was not actually discharged until about 3 this afternoon. So after 48 hours in the hospital, on the maternity floor, two days before my due date, I got to go home...without a baby.

They monitored the baby pretty much the whole time I was in there and he was fine...in absolutely no distress at all. We are actually kind of hoping now that Reese stays put for a few more days to make sure I'm well and that my body has built up enough antibodies to pass on to him. This is not something I was expecting to deal with the week before my due date, but it is what it is and it was dealt with. I do think if I had not been admitted to the hospital and pumped full of fluids for a day and a half, it would have been much worse. I'm not blaming anything on the ultrasound tech, either. I'm just grateful that I was far enough along in this pregnancy for there not to be any real danger to the baby. I've had it so easy up to this point, something was bound to happen sooner or later! I'm just glad it was to me and did not really affect the baby. I feel much better since I got home and took a shower and put on my own pjs. I'm very tired because I've gotten maybe a total of 12-14 hours of sleep since Tuesday night. But, hopefully I'll have plenty of time to get uninterrupted sleep this weekend. Well, uninterrupted except for potty breaks! Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers. Hopefully next time I grace the maternity floor, I'll get to leave with Reese on the outside of my body!