To say it’s been a tough 2017 and 2018 for our family (and my husbands) would be quite an understatement. From my father-in-law getting diagnosed with a secondary cancer (first lymphoma, now prostate cancer) to my dad being in a wheelchair and not able to fully engage with his grandkids the way he used to….was tough.
It’s been a hard season. So much weight our moms have had to carry. Such big mountains our dads have had to climb. Surgeries, chemo, care taking…it’s A LOT for everyone to walk through. Seeing my SIL and FIL both undergo cancer treatments and watching my dad learn to use a prosthetic leg while attempting things that were once easy for him, reminds me that life requires an immense amount of patience and hard work.
(Image via: www.positivelypresent.com)
But I tell you, through others’ challenges and circumstances, I’ve learned what perseverance, grit, loyalty, and devotion look like! I tell you this, because these attributes are the very ones that helped me through the emotional, and sometimes physical, ups and downs that came with the pregnancy and birth of my daughter.
Sitting in the office of my high risk doc is a point when seeds of worry and concern took root. He turned the screen toward me and said, “I want to show you something we noticed”. Aside from all the medical jargon used, he told me that there was potential our baby had a congenital heart defect. It seemed to be coarctation of the aorta, which is a narrowing of part of the major blood vessel within the left ventricle of the heart. It was still quite early and difficult to be definitive using just an ultrasound. So, we needed to follow up with a cardiologist in a month or so for an echo, to gather her expertise on these findings. Fast forward to that appointment, and while she didn’t seem overly concerned, she confirmed it was there, requiring this to be monitored until after birth. In short, there wasn’t anything that could be done until the baby was born. This is when they would know if the narrowing closed or not, determining if heart surgery would be necessary. So, for the remainder of my pregnancy, that was my primary concern in regards to the health of our baby.
Well, pregnancy only got harder as time went on. It was the week before Christmas (around 29 weeks), and I was having some pain in one of my molars. Antibiotics helped it for the time being, but the infection persisted. The day after Christmas, I needed to take a train from STL back to Chicago for an emergency root canal. NOT how I intended to spend the holidays. Third trimester was giving me a run for my money. Thankfully, I would be heading on a plane to sunny Florida by week’s end.
Once we returned home, it wasn’t long before things turned south. My 32 week ultrasound was relatively normal without any major findings (enter sigh of momentary relief). It was during the 32-36 week timeframe when my body started to go haywire on me. I woke up one evening in the middle of the night with the most horrendous migraine. I’ve never experienced anything to this degree before….only a mild headache once or twice in my life. This migraine kept me captive to bed for 3 straight days, lying in the dark with my skull throbbing. I had to roll sideways out of bed because getting up straight would send me into a dizzying spiral. Every time I would cough or sneeze, it felt as though my head was going to burst. It was frightening, to be honest. I thought having the stomach flu at 32 weeks during my 2nd pregnancy was awful. But THIS….this took the cake. Hands down. I was tested for the flu, strep, sinus infection…everything under the sun….with all tests coming back negative and no clarity as to what was going on. On day 3, I went into my high risk doc and he sent my to the ER, as the symptoms weren’t getting better. I was having contractions and needed to be put on IV. That night I was sent home once symptoms began to subside a little. Next day….the throbbing, pulsing, pounding came back in full force. Eventually, I landed up back in the ER for a brain MRI, per request of my high risk doc, to be extra cautious. Thankfully, nothing appeared on the scan. This all took place around 34 weeks of pregnancy.
Two weeks later, at 36 weeks and 5 days, I went in for my weekly non-stress test and ultrasound. It was on this day when those words were uttered once again,
“I want to show you something we noticed.”
This time, it wasn’t about the congenital heart defect on the screen. It was something even more rare….and hard to wrap my head around in the moments that followed. This finding on the ultrasound is what would send me into an unexpected c-section surgery later that afternoon….
