18 weeks

God is good, all the time!

Well hello there world! Dianne here. I just wanted to give an update on how things have gone since I got out of the hospital, which was a week ago today. They sent me home on a PICC line (cody explained this in the previous post) which has been giving me all the nutrition I need to live on. The nutrition bag is call TPN (total parenteral nutrition). The doctors encouraged me to eat what I can in addition to what the TPN was giving me. They told me the sooner I can fully support my own diet, the sooner I get off the TPN and get the PICC line removed. SO....I took that to heart and have been slowly adding different foods to my diet. It started with just PB& J and oatmeal. Since then I've have been able to eat chicken and noodles, apple slices, applesauce, lightly salted ruffles potato chips, ham and mayo sandwiches, mashed potatoes, rotisserie chicken, chicken sandwiches, and tonight I had pot roast with potatoes! OH YEAH...I forgot the best thing! The other day I had a roast beef sandwich from Arby's! Yummy! :)

Having my gall bladder removed has made the most incredible difference. A couple weeks ago, I wasn't able to keep anything down...including most liquids. Things were very scary and I was in really bad shape. But since the surgery, I haven't thrown up AT ALL! I have felt a little nauseous...usually in the evenings, but I guess it's probably what a normal pregnant woman might experience.

We had 2 doctor appointments this past week. Wednesday we saw Dr. Carney. He was the surgeon who took out my gall bladder. He looked over the incisions from the surgery and said they looked great! On Thursday we saw Dr. Fogarty. She's my OB who will be delivering our little one in September. It was our monthly appt. and she was just going check on the baby's heartbeat. However, she gave us a little surprise. She left the room for a second and came back with the an ultrasound machine. It was such a blessing for her to do this. It's just been so hard these past few months, and being able to see our little one moving around and waving at us brought such a huge amount of joy and peace in our hearts, I can't even explain it. We are so thankful that she did that for us. She said the baby is doing great and developing very well!

We found out some more good news at our appt. with Dr. Fogarty. She was so impressed with the food I've been able to eat she said we'd be able to take the PICC line out early. Come next Wednesday, I will be PICC line free. I've gained 2.5 pounds since we left the hospital last week and she was very happy with that. She jokingly said she's going to start calling me "fatty".

So with all this great news and progress towards getting back to "normal", I'm very happy to say that I get to make a trip to Illinois to see my family!!! As of right now, I'll be leaving next Friday...not sure how long I'll be there. But I'm very happy that I'll get to celebrate my nephew's 1st birthday! Happy almost birthday Moses!

"And after the fire came a gentle whisper."

Many may know of the current events that have followed our recent post, but I would like to sum up the past few weeks. On March 24th, Dianne had a moment that some are saying was a seizure, and others are calling it an "unexplainable" incident, from my personal experience I rule it as one of the most terrifying seconds of my life. Dianne was taken to the ER where she was poked, prodded, pricked, and pinched to find out what exactly was going on with her body. Dianne's body was shutting down, her liver was failing and her kidneys were not functioning in a normal manner. She came in weighing 137 pounds, where two weeks before she was weighing 149 pounds. Over a period of 6 to 8 weeks, Dianne had lost almost 40 pounds.

After leaving the ER she was admitted to Freeman hospital where she was sent to the Pediatrics ward. There she began her recovery. Due to the severity of her condition, her Dr. had suggested that she have a PICC line. A PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter) was a direct line running through a vein in her arm all the way to her heart to allow nutrients to be given directly to her through her blood stream. By Sunday of the next week she had a PICC line in place "feeding" her body what it needed. That same day, through an x-ray, the doctors had found out that Dianne's gallbladder was full of gall stones, and it was possible that one stone had passed and blocked off the opening where the Pancreas deposits into the intestine cause her to have Pancreatitis. The Dr.'s suggest that her infected gallbladder and Pancreas could be contributing to the severity of the nausea and vomiting she had been experiencing. The solution, was to have surgery.

Come Monday the Dr.'s were preparing Dianne's body for the surgery, a month prior to this incident Dianne developed a blood clot in her left groin area stretching all the way down to the back of her knee, since the blood clot, she has been on a blood thinner to dissolve the clot, and also to prevent her body from developing any more clots. This was a major factor in the preparation for surgery that the Dr.'s were taking very seriously, there was a very high risk of Dianne bleeding severely during the process of surgery. Surgery was scheduled for Tuesday March 30th at 12:10, Dianne was taken into pre-surgery to be informed of the procedure and also to be prepped for the surgery. During the prep process one of the Anesthesiologist's had noticed on a chart that one of Dianne's blood levels were very high, without this notice she would have gone on to surgery and been at an extremely high risk of bleeding at an uncontrollable rate. Surgery was postponed until further notice but not for too long. The next morning, Wednesday March 31st, Dianne was wheeled into pre-surgery at 7:10 a.m. was in the operating room by 8:15 a.m. and was in her room at 10:30 a.m. gallbladder-less. The surgery went very well with no complications, the Dr.'s were well pleased with the outcome of the surgery as well as with the healing of her wounds.

It has been a very scary, heavy, and stressful past 8 days. In times of doubt and distress it seemed as though there was no end to the bombardment of sickness, nausea, needles, swelling, and bruises that kept coming our way. The trembling and overwhelming feeling of sadness, and the fear that while walking on this razors edge with just the smallest slip would send us tumbling down one side. The burning desire for God to take all of this away and let us have peace back in our lives was a constant plea screaming from my heart, and yet during all of this, during all the panic and frustration, during the sleepless nights and lagging fatigue, drifting off into dark thoughts, thoughts of failing, thoughts of defeat, thoughts of loosing a piece of my heart there was a whisper, the most beautiful whisper I have ever heard, the audible voice of the Almighty God, in the form of our baby's heartbeat. A beautiful voice proclaiming the truth of His word that is never failing, an indescribable reminder, that is at this moment as faint as a whisper, "the Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17.....Thank you Jesus.

-cody