I can't believe that it has been a week since surgery. I'm sure it feels like forever to Matt, but the time went by very quickly for me. I have to meet with the doctor before being able to be discharged from the hospital. As long as everything is looking OK and the doctors feel OK about it, I hope to be able to sleep in my own bed tonight.
Transport arrived to my room at 7:15 ready to wheel me over to the Children's Hospital for my checkup with the doctor. I didn't know how much of a hike it was from Maternal Triage to Children's Hospital, but I felt bad for the transport guy who had to be in his mid 60's. We checked in at the front desk and waited to be called back. My anxiety level was high and I had so many questions racing through my mind. Is Jackson OK? Are the staples in my uterus holding up like they should? What's going to happen if something isn't right? I've got to come up with a way to turn my brain off!
Alicia, the ultrasound tech came and got us and we went into the ultrasound room. I was excited to be able to see my boy, but just as nervous as well. Jackson was laying very low and had his back pressed up against me - I immediately thought: please don't let him feel pain. Due to my incision, Alicia had to be very careful during the ultrasound. She spent 45 minutes or so getting all the pictures she needed for the doctors. She wasn't able to get us an updated 3D picture due to Jackson's location and how he was laying. We were able to hear his heartbeat again and it sounded really strong. He wasn't moving around very much during the ultrasound, but that was to be expected since he just had major surgery.
We met with Emily, the nurse practitioner first and she gave us the pictures from surgery. Wow! To see pictures of Jackson's defect was surreal. We had only seen the defect through the ultrasound, but it was both amazing and heartbreaking to see it in "real life." One day when Jackson is older, I will show him the pictures and explain what we went through to try and provide him a better outcome.
Dr. Carroll came in next and discussed the ultrasound images. She showed us a few of them and explained what she saw. The main one that we looked at was Jackson's ventricles. She explained that the ventricles went up in size just a little bit, but then assured us that it was normal and was to be expected. She told us that my amniotic fluid was great and there was NO sign of the staples giving out or there being a leak - Yay! According to her, the uterine incision was holding up very well as was my incision on the outside. She gave Emily the OK to remove half of my staples and said that everything was looking great. She also told us that I could be discharged today which was the cherry on top of our appointment- I'm going home!
I was extremely nervous about having the staples removed and didn't know what to expect. Emily came back with a remover kit that had the biggest set of tweezers I've ever seen. :) To my surprise, it didn't really hurt to get the staples removed. Every once in a while there was a sting or a pulling sensation, but it wasn't bad at all. The last thing we discussed before leaving were my instructions for bed rest. I was given a packet explaining everything that was expected for the bed rest and several other papers in regards to if something should happen once we get home. While I'm excited to be able to go home, I'm nervous about it as well. One week down - 12 more to go!
Crystal
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My dearest Jackson,
I say it everyday, but I love you. I'm so proud of you and am already amazed by what you can do. You are truly amazing and I know that you are going to do something great in your lifetime. It's been a week since the surgery and you're doing a great job. It was so sweet watching you on the ultrasound with hiccups. I look forward to you starting to move more again. I can feel you every once in a while, but I'm ready for those jabs you like to do. Continue to grow and become stronger baby boy. We have 12 more weeks to go.
Love you always,
Mommy
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