Baby's First ER Visit and A Trip (or Two) To Haiti

First I have to say God has a great sense of humor. Saturday morning I woke up around 6:00 (note the two posts before 8 am) and prayed that God would give me a sign baby was doing ok. Well, he sure did! Starting at 8:30 Saturday morning until 6:30 Sunday night, I could not keep anything down for any significant amount of time. My streak of no vomiting ended at three weeks vomit free. Sunday was miserable (but worth it, please don't take this as complaining), I woke up with a migraine and almost didn't make it to the toilet. That continued all day (I couldn't even keep down sweet tarts, my favorite!) until I finally called the oncall OB when I couldn't even keep powerade and crackers down. He asked me to go into the ER to be evaluated.

I got to the ER around 6:30 and he had told me not to worry, I wouldn't be there long and they would send me up to L & D for monitoring and fluids (I was also having some cramping). Well, L & D at Erlanger has a rule that you must be 16 wks to go there. I was 3 days short! Ugh! Luckily I got in pretty quickly and after determining that I was slightly dehydrated they gave me some IV zofran (since I couldn't keep oral zofran or phenergan down) and two liters of IV fluids. They discovered I had a UTI and gave me IV rocephin and sent me home around 10:00 with a prescription for keflex and wait for it...phenergan suppositories! FUN! No, I haven't had to use one! Haha! They also told me to stay on bedrest for Monday, but could return to work today. All I have to say is thank goodness for DVR, day time TV is TERRIBLE!

In the middle of my ER visit I sent a text to my boss Dr. Smith to let him know I didn't think I would be there Monday and he let me know that he had decided to leave WEDNESDAY for Haiti! He was already scheduled to go on February 13, but was going to trade out with a group from Erlanger that is there now and ready to come home. I spent the next 36 hours in a panic over reworking our schedule, but he told me not to do a thing about it or come in until Tuesday. So, this morning was spent moving appointments around, rescheduling surgeries, and basically rearranging his life for the next 12 days.

Let me say that in all that chaos this morning, I am so proud of him and I love the fact that someone I respect so much is going to help. He is making some pretty major sacrifices to go. He is leaving work here, forgoing all the luxuries of home for protein bars, sleeping on the ground, and less than ideal surgical settings. They will not have any electricity, running water, and no showers for 10 days, not only this next week, but again in less than a week from when they come back, they will return. When I first heard about their trip scheduled for next month, I REALLY, REALLY wanted to go, but he was not willing to take his pregnant nurse along. Also, it is advised that pregnant women not receive all of the vaccines they've had to take. Yesterday while I was in a slight panic over the fact he will be gone ten days this next week, here a week, then gone another week, I thought that I would still be helping by seeing his patients and making things run as smooth as possible at work while he is gone. Although, I did make him promise today that I can go next year (they are projecting this to be a five year thing).

I know some of you want to help anyway you can, just like I do. Of course I ask you all to remember them and pray for them as they leave around 9:30 in the morning and over the next ten days until they come back on February 7. Also, Erlanger has set up a fund that helps provide for these trips. You can read about it here. The group he is going with in February is a fabulous group founded by a local cardiologist (who is actually my Nana's cardiologist). It is the Children's Nutrition Program of Haiti. It is my charity of choice and Michael and I are excited to give towards their efforts next month. It is amazing what all they are able to do for the hundreds of thousand orphans of Haiti.