Drama

Well, we had some excitement this morning, and not the fun kind—but the story ends where it began, with everybody happy and healthy and the baby still tucked securely in my tummy.

About mid-morning I started experiencing some really intense pain in my right side, basically exactly where the cyst is located. After about twenty minutes of trying to manage it through changing positions, et cetera, I started feeling nauseous, my vision was swimming, and I was seeing stars. We decided to go to the emergency room. Once there they checked my blood pressure and found it quite low, so I was hooked up to some oxygen (to ensure that the baby got oxygen despite my temporarily impaired circulatory system) and an IV bag. Then I dramatically threw up everywhere, which was grody. Also I was doing a lot of moaning and whimpering. I knew it wasn’t labor; there was no sense of contractions, just a very steady, very sharp, localized pain in my right side.

When my blood pressure had stablized a bit, they gave me some morphine for the pain along with an anti-nausea medication. And…everything got better. The pain subsided. By the time the ultrasound tech arrived to check out my insides, I was basically feeling completely fine. The ultrasound confirmed that the cyst had not ruptured, nor do I have appendicitis, and the baby is looking great. In fact the technician was absolutely crowing over our beautiful baby. “I do high-risk OB,” she explained to us, “so I see a lot of…bad stuff. It’s really a delight to see a baby as perfect as this one.” Apparently he is spot on by every developmental measure.

The going theory is that the baby was kicking against the cyst, causing the pain, and the morphine shot allowed me to relax, which encouraged the baby to move, which resolved the issue. After checking my blood and urine to rule out infection, we were released. I felt a little silly about running to the emergency room, but the doctor and nurses assured us that we’d done the right thing. There’s nothing to stop it from happening again, unfortunately, but we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.

And hey, we got another look at the baby. His weight estimate right now is 7 pounds 4 ounces, and the magic ultrasound software, after taking all his measurements, predicts his delivery date as August 13 (so one day after my official due date). I have no idea how accurate that timing estimate is, but the weight estimate can be off by as much as one pound in either direction. Still, since babies at this stage put on a quarter pound to a half pound each week, the best guess is that he’ll be eight to eight and a half pounds at birth…bigger than I was, sadly (I was a very considerate 6 and a half pounds!), but not a 10 pound monster like my little brother Jesse. Hopefully!


7 Responses to “Drama”

  • Sam Says:

    Things that Shannon didn’t mention:

    – All of the nurses, doctors, and lab personnel were incredibly friendly and supportive. Even when Shannon was moaning their sunny disposition helped relieve my stress about the situation. If you are broken in San Francisco, St. Francis has a great emergency room.

    – This was the first time I got to see the baby in a live ultrasound!!! (all of the others were scheduled when I was at work.)

  • shannon Says:

    Also I didn’t mention that Sam was great too, very supportive and calming.

  • Nina Says:

    omfg. So glad all is well. Of course you absolutely did exactly the right thing going to the emergency room, this is no time to be a medical Luddite. How did you get to the emergency room?

    Hart over the ultrasound tech enjoying your perfect baby!

    And, just so you know, August 13 suits us just fine.

    So glad you are all okay… can’t believe you didn’t email me, you swine, I was behind checking my reading list and only saw this tonight.

  • shannon Says:

    There’s a hospital, St. Francis, exactly one block up the hill so we just walked to their emergency room. It’s not the hospital where we’re going to be actually having the baby (that’s CPMC, they have a much more extensive maternity ward), but I did have one of the earlier ultrasounds done there as well.

  • Wendy Says:

    Ahhhhh! Scary! That must have been soooo scary!

    I’m glad everything is OK, and I hope your little buckaroo doesn’t start kicking your cyst again any time soon.

  • Jessie Says:

    I’m glad you’re okay!

  • shannon Says:

    Thanks Jessie & Wendy… Everything’s been calm since, so fingers crossed that it stays that way…

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