RachelRN

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It has been a long time since I updated, so here it goes. Nolan is here! For a while now actually. He was born January 31, 2010. He was born 2 days late. I had to go off work in December at 33 weeks for preterm labor, then the stinker didn't want to come out! lol We are all settled in and I can't remember what life was like before him. As I had expected, my husband has settled into Dad mode well and is such a wonderful father. My pug and my malamute have adjusted well and are very protective and watchful over the baby. I celebrated my 3 year anniversary with my husband yesterday. Although I think my husband would be content with just Nolan, I think I have decided that I want at least one more (maybe a girl!). I am wanting to go to nurse practitioner school next year and will want to wait until after that to start trying. I am feeling truly blessed and really couldn't be happier. I hope all is well with everyone right now 

Today I am 15w3d pregnant. It has been a while since I have blogged. After a long, stressful night at work, I came home on May 22nd, 2009 and was feeling lousy. I felt tired, my back hurt, and I felt the worst gas pains ever. I decided to take a HPT. It was positive. In disbelief I went to my family doctor that day to get a blood test - positive as well. I had the surgery to be able to have children as my obesity exacerbated my PCOS symptoms leaving me without any periods for nearly 3 years prior to my surgery. I had been regular since about 2 months post op, but still could not believe I got pregnant without trying. And to top it all off I WAS ON THE SHOT! The shot is supposed to be more effective than tubal ligation! I have had to get an intermittent FMLA as I have had bleeding on and off resulting in bedrest (and time off work). I have not had any bleeding in a few weeks and I am hoping that is all over and that we can continue with this otherwise healthy pregnancy. My doctor states the bleeding is form having a "fryable cervix" meaning it is very sensitive and bleeds easily and an "early placenta previa". He believes as the baby grows that placenta will grow away from my cervix. We are very excited, but still in disbelief.

Yesterday was my 24th birthday. I started my day out on the scale to find that I hit 50 pounds! 50 pounds gone in 2 months! I can't believe it! Also, when I was getting ready to go out to celebrate, I pulled out a pair of 24 pants ( I was tight in 28s before the surgery) AND THEY FIT! There were a lot of fun things about my birthday, but those were 2 of my favorites!

I can't believe how far I have come since my surgery. I am so happy to be home and I am feeling WONDERFUL. I go back to work on Monday and I feel ready. It has been getting depressing sitting around the house all the time. I just wanted to write a short blog about all of the things I am thankful for. First and foremost, I am so thankful  to be alive and well. After going through being on the vent and everything else I went through, I am just so glad that I made it through as well as I did. I am also thankful for my family and my wonderful husband and our two dogs. I am thankful for my job and for my house. I am REALLY thankful to be 28 lbs less!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

So, when I last wrote, I had broken my fever, but still had the sniffles. I was up all night, as I expected. Being the stubborn person that I am, I was bound and determined to have surgery and to keep my fever down. I think there is some real truth to the saying "Nurses make the worst patients." Showed up for surgery fever free but feeling really lousy. I got all checked in and went in for my surgery. The first interesting event of my hospital stay was when I woke up after a 3 hour surgery and was told that my internal organs are not located in the proper places and they removed my appendix from my upper left abdominal area (should be the low right). I felt pretty lousy right out of surgery, but got up and walking and did everything I was supposed to do, but my vitals were really elevated. My heartrate was in the 120s and my respirations ranged from normal of about 16 to up to 46 breaths a minute. I got through the first day and just felt that I was feeling badly just like everyone else. Then, the next day I wasn't getting better and my cold was getting worse. The rest was really a blur. To make a REALLY long story short. I, a 23 year old that is quite healthy other than obesity and PCOS, went in for an elective bariatric surgery with a cold (should have waited until I was healthy) and ended up with pneumonia in ICU on a ventilator for 6 days. I don't remember much about when I was intubated, but they took the tube out on Sunday the 16th and got better really quite fast after that and am now home and feel like a million bucks! I am having a little bit of pain. I coughed A LOT when I was intubated and between that and all of the blood thinners I was on, all of the blood vessels in my eyes burst so I look evil, but otherwise I am feeling great! I didn't lose much weight in the hospital because of the artificial nutrition I got IV while I was in ICU, but I know it's coming. Despite all of this, I DO NOT regret the surgery and am very much looking forward to the future! I don't want this post to discourage anyone from the surgery, but take my advice. DO NOT HAVE SURGERY UNLESS YOU ARE 100%. If I had not had a cold, I probably would not have aspirated during surgery and gotten pneumonia and spent 9 days in the hospital.

**EDIT - I later found out that the aspiration pneumonia had nothing to do with my "cold". They knicked my trachea when they intubated me for the surgery and I bled into my lungs throughout my surgery. Still, don't have the surgery unless you are 100% well!**

So, I have had a rough week this week. My TSH went down to 4.3 so that is good news, but yesterday morning I woke up with the sniffles and a fever! As the day progressed I got to feeling more and more terrible. I called the on-call physician and she gave me some instructions as to what to do. She said that as long as I don't have a fever this morning, then I should be good to go for surgery. So, I basically won't know for sure until I actually get to the hospital whether or not I will actually have surgery today. I feel much better and my temperature has been normal for several hours. I have my fingers crossed and hopefully my next entry will be post-op!

This is my first entry. I am 23 years old and I am married to a WONDERFUL man I am a registered nurse. We don't have children yet but we do have two dogs. One week from today I am having the roux-en-Y procedure at the St. Vincent Bariatric Center of Excellence with Dr. David Diaz. A few days ago I got a little bit of a scare after what has been a smooth process. I had my preop testing last week and my TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) was 6.52 (should be under 4.5!). The nurse practioner that works with my surgeon called and told me that it needs to be down in ONE WEEK so I can have my surgery on time. I am now on Synthroid 75 mcg. It just doesn't seem right that I have not been on any medications and am overall a pretty healthy person except for my obesity, now  I am taking all of these vitams and now Synthroid?! I hope that I am a success story. I am very motivated and willing to do whatever it takes to beat my obesity. So...I am praying that everything goes smoothly and that I am preparing for surgery this time next week. I am very interesting in networking with other people and discussing this journey! Good luck everyone!