Celebrity

As if we aren't going through enough with everything going on in our family I happened to make a bit of a celebrity of myself both at the Proton Institute and at the Ronald McDonald House (RMH). On Tuesday morning Audrey and I arrived for proton bright and early 7:15 a.m. Our nurse was running late as she was dealing with an illness of a child and coming down with something herself. They began to access Audrey's port (they do this the first working day of the week) around 8:00 a.m. It was taking awhile and they were not able to do it very easily at first. Finally the tubing was placed and I had to leave Audrey with the nurses because the pain in my back was so severe.

I have been battling a terrible back pain on and off since I was eighteen. It tends to get worse when I am pregnant. In the past couple of weeks the pain has been very intense. I have been laying down a lot which helps relieve the pain. After Audrey's tubing was in, I went and lay on the bathroom floor for a minute. Then I made myself get up because I could hear Audrey throwing a big fit; but, I was so hot I had to take off my long-sleeve shirt on the way. I went to comfort her but the nurses seemed to be doing well. I began lowering myself into the chair and never actually made it. I woke up with Audrey's anesthesiologist pressing up under my chin very hard. I was face up spread eagle on the floor with a breathing tube in my nose, an IV from my hand and six people standing over me calling me by name. I could distantly hear Audrey screaming from another room. Audrey's nurse, Gina, was helping to hook me up to all of my tubing yelling to everyone that I am 18 weeks pregnant. I asked if I had passed out. Affirmative. I asked if Audrey saw what had happened. Affirmative. I told them to bring her to me. Audrey lay on top of me hugging me as hard as she could while we both cried.

I was taken, by ambulance, to the ER. Audrey stayed with everyone at proton and Gina stayed with Audrey (even though she had planned to go home to her own sick child) while I was being taken care of. Gina called Ryan's mom (who was coming over that day anyway) who immediately left to come over. Ryan was also called and told what happened. Once I made it to the hospital I called Ryan to tell him how everything happened and to assure him I was comfortable with Audrey being cared for by the staff at Proton. After I made the call to Ryan I felt very comfortable and relaxed and took a three hour nap. Once I woke up I called my mom to tell her and Ryan's mom to check on her progress. I was waiting outside the house for a wheel chair when Ryan's mom pulled up. At the hospital I was given steroids, vicoden and cortisone - all on an empty stomach which made me run for the bushes the moment I got out of the car. I was released around 1:00 p.m. to Audrey's social worker (who had brought Audrey with her and a bag of McDonald's for Audrey to munch on) who brought me back to the RMH.

This morning I filled my prescriptions and I am feeling much better. I am still not able to keep up with Audrey but grandma is here to help with that. A few weeks ago Ryan and I decided that after I have the baby I am going to schedule an MRI and have back surgery so that these episodes do not continue throughout my life. It is so debilitating and obviously dangerous as well. It seems that word travelled quickly through both the proton family and the RMH family that we are currently part of. Everyone has been wonderful helping with Audrey and checking on my needs. Maybe the rest of our time here can be low key...

Audrey goes in tomorrow for her long chemotherapy she will be admitted on Thursday and released at some point on Sunday.