I had this post sitting here (in picture form) for a while now, but I'm just finding the time to write a few thoughts down. On September 23rd my phone showed me the pictures below, of Jonas and Finn at a play at the Children's Theatre on September 23rd, 2017. My spine went cold and my blood pressure shot up when I saw the photos, because that was the night I got my blood clot, and my body remembered long before my brain caught up.
I was helping Cora in the bathroom. I knelt down, stood up, and a sharp pain went from my left hip down my leg. By midnight I was in loads of pain, but I tried to sleep. When I woke up at 2:30 a.m. I knew something was seriously wrong with my body, and if I didn't get Jonas fast I might not be okay by the time they found me in the morning. 30 minutes later I was in an ambulance, which Layla witnessed (she stayed home from the play because she was sick, and I'm not joking when I say it's taken her well over a year now to get over this mentally and emotionally...poor thing).
I was 8 weeks and 3 days pregnant with Kellan, and I had no idea what was wrong. At the hospital they did an ultrasound of my obviously cold, swollen, and discolored leg. There was a huge clot that started up in my groin area, went all the way down my thigh, wrapped around my knee, and went half way down my calf as well. They started me on drugs and prepped me for surgery. I was told that if I had waited an hour more, or if I put off treatment for an hour more, we would have to discuss me losing my leg, or possibly more. JUST as I was wheeled into the OR, the Dr noticed that my foot was not as bad as it had been in the ER, and he decided to wait and see if it continue to improve. It did, and I went home the next day.
The first 2 days at home were okay, pain wise, but the next 3 weeks after that were HELL. The pain was so constant that I thought I might go crazy, and it wasn't until a good week and a half later that I got on Oxy and got a few hours of pain relief each dose. The Drs told me that these drugs were no danger to the baby, but I still worried...not enough to stop taking the drugs, but you know how it is, Mom guilt will always find a way to show up.
It wasn't until the start of November that I would say I was "doing normal life" again. From September 24th-early November, things just stopped. I was in my bed almost 24/7. I could barely think and speak and handle anything mentally or physically. I missed out on all of fall and pretty weather. :(
So, THIS September, I'm very thankful. I'm so glad to be here. I'm happy to have all my limbs. I'm so grateful to have a healthy baby who seems to have had no issues being surrounded by lots of opioids for weeks on end. I'm even grateful that Jonas was unemployed for those 2 months, because I have NO idea how we would have handled it all if he hadn't been able to stay home and help with home life and kids and my recovery.
Thank you to those of you who wrote and called and stopped by and brought food...even when I could barely return any calls or thank you for the food in person. Your help meant the world to me, and to us.
