| Jul. 16th, 2010 @ 04:58 am To say the least it's been nuts... |
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An update Katie sent out to some family members and friends as we start letting folks know whats happening here.
Hey guys...
I thought since it's been about a week and a half since Ian was born, it was time to update you all on him and a few other things.
Ian first...
Ian is amazing. I had no idea what it would like to have such a little person in the house... someone who can instantly become the most important thing in your life. He's been great so far, and I think both Dean and I could sit and just watch him sleep for hours; short of the time we need to sleep ourselves. He's already doing stretches of 4.5 or so hours a night, but what time during the night is a different matter entirely.
For those that don't know, I ended up having a c-section with Ian. Technically I would say I was in labor... beginning stages with contractions from 10 minutes to about 2-3 minutes apart for a good 24 hours. If you hadn't heard, my water broke in the middle of the hallway at the hospital on one of our walks... which we found weird, and the nurses thought was fantastic. It was worth a good laugh for a while, at least between contractions. Around maybe 5 or 5:30pm I decided it was high time for some pain meds... we decided to start with something small IV, which meant that I got to be put on the baby monitor. Ian's heart rate had randomly dropped with a few other contractions, but nothing real significant... until I got pain meds. Once that happened, it was far more noticeable, and the doc decided that we'd try an epidural to see if relaxing me helped keep his rate up during contractions, or else we'd have to try another idea (ie: c-section). Epidural went well... it was in a little after 6pm, and although it helped me a lot, it did nothing for Ian's heart rate. Some contractions were fine, but the nasty ones keep dropping his rate as well. So... since I was only maybe 5cm dilated, the suggestion for best outcome was a c-section. Nothing emergent, but definitely highly suggested. We signed the consent at 6:30, and Ian was born at 7pm... I think that labor and delivery was slow up at St. Joe's that night - once they start to move with a section, they really really haul. The c-section went great, and it was really bizarre to know what they were doing behind the drape, but not feel any of it. The issue was that Ian had the cord wrapped around his leg, up his torso, and around an arm, so every contraction tightened around him and he couldn't descend properly for a regular birth. Dean got to see Ian being born, which I know he wasn't sure about at first, but he made it through everything with no puking or fainting... and he got to push the button that rings the baby lullaby over the hospital loudspeaker, which he was all excited about. Things in the hospital went really well, and we came home on Tuesday last week.
Now on to the other updates...
Late Thursday evening, I noticed that my mouth felt swollen... kinda like I'd gotten some Novocaine, or something to that effect. I could talk okay, and didn't really think much about it. Actually, I attributed it to my hormones, which had finally started to go a little haywire. Friday morning I saw my OB, who wasn't particularly concerned about the swelling because my blood pressure was fine, even though the swelling had pretty much gone to my whole face. Nothing huge, but really I feel like I looked like I'd gotten botox all over my face, so I couldn't see any of my lines in my forehead or around my nose or mouth. Nor could I really use my facial muscles all that well. Those of you that saw me Friday or Saturday morning know what I mean... my speech was pretty poor because of it.
Saturday evening I called my OB only because my blood pressure seemed high (hooray for having a cuff and stethoscope and a husband who knows how to use them at home) and because the swelling wasn't down yet. We decided that although it didn't sound like pre-eclampsia (essentially high BP with pregnancy and post-partum), and it didn't sound to her like Bells Palsy (facial paralysis of one side, typically), we'd both sleep better if I went to Urgent Care (rather than the ER because it didn't sound too emergent). So... off we went. They found nothing to be really wrong at Urgent Care, and the Doc there suggested that I call my regular doc on Monday and get in to see a neurologist, since it seemed to be a facial paralysis of sorts. My OB was comfortable with that decision, and so home we went.
Monday morning we called the doc, who said to get to the ER for a CT scan ASAP... no arguments. Lucky for us, Dean's parents arrived Sunday evening, so it wasn't a huge issue. Ian hung with his grandparents for 15 or so hours while I had a CT (negative for anything) and some neuro checks done, which showed "classic signs and symptoms of Bell's Palsy" but bilaterally, which is pretty rare. After seeing a neurologist and having an MRI done (also negative for anything), it was determined to be likely Bell's Palsy bilaterally. I've been put on some pretty serious steroids in the hopes of reducing swelling of the cranial nerve that is causing a loss of facial muscle control. Since Monday, I've seen the neurologist again, and will be also seeing a Rheumatologist (inflammatory doc) tomorrow afternoon, with some testing to be scheduled as he deems necessary. It's all well and good that it's probably a diagnosis of Bell's Palsy, but it had to be caused by something... which is yet unknown.
Hooray for being a medical mystery of sorts (yay for taking after my lovely mother, who still has some wacky undiagnosed inflammatory disease). Bell's Palsy does happen a lot with the 3rd trimester of pregnancy and in the first few weeks after birth... so I can't say its all that uncommon or shocking, but bilaterally (whole face) IS pretty rare, and my neurologist has not seen it before. Usually it's caused by trauma or inflammation from something else, and can be viral or bacterial in nature... neither of which fit my bill for now without further testing. My best guess is that post-c-section trauma and general hormonal overload did something wacky to my system. So far, it seems to be slightly worse on the right side of my face than my left. I can raise the left corner of my lip a little bit if I try really really hard, and today I can kinda make the muscles around my lower lip move a little bit more than yesterday. I can't say its a huge improvement, but it is still movement that I didn't have before today. I don't have a prognosis right now... typical Bell's is different for everyone, but it can be days, weeks, months to see things go back to normal... or they may never recover 100%. I'm hoping for a lot right now... and hopefully the super-high dose of steroids will assist with that.
So.... sorry we've been poor about contacting people especially to come over and meet Ian... it's been a bumpy week for us all, and it's tough for me to see a lot of people at once - and really tough to keep repeating what's going on without getting all hormonal and emotional on everyone. I thought it'd be best to just send out an email with a decent explanation, so you know what to expect. I don't mind seeing you guys - and in fact it would be really nice - just know that I don't really look like myself. I look... pout-y. I can't smile, I can't frown, I can't purse my lips... I can't raise my eyebrows. Essentially, you can't tell whether I'm happy or sad or pissed off except by my telling you so right now, and doing that sounds kinda slurred, although I'm getting better at compensating for what I don't have. I'm a little garbled on the phone... but it could be worse, and really it was on Saturday and Sunday I think. In fact, this could be way worse overall... but I have a feeling I'll be spending my summer rehabilitating myself and learning to take care of Ian at the same time, which isn't particularly optimal. Dean will be off from work until we figure a few things out with my doctors appointments, so we really will be home a lot if people want to come over... we just really do need advance warning, what with the schedules suddenly being more packed with stuff for me than we ever thought they would be. And really, I'm not sold on big group stuff yet, just because I'm not quite comfortable with myself yet.
So... that's about where we stand. Ian is a blessing and a half... and I'm really glad we have him right now. The other things... will hopefully get better with time. But, we did think you guys should know where we're at right now.
We'll see you, and talk to you soon,
Katie (and Dean and Ian)
After the dr. visit tomorrow we will have spent just about the same amount of time at all the Doctor's visit's ER, And urgent care that we spent in the hospital to have Ian. Rough times but we will get through it.
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