After Lola Kate; The Recovery
I have the most gorgeous, beautiful, amazing, BEST baby in the world. However, I've gone through some serious pain to get her here. You can see her birth story (labor, delivery, and how we got Lola Kate into this world) below.
We got home from the hospital on Saturday 3/3, and Lola Kate came home on Sunday 3/4. On Monday 3/5, I spiked a fever of 102 degrees and noticed that my incision was leaking a lot of bloody fluid. The doctor had me to come in. By the time I got to the doctor's office, my fever had dropped (due to the ibuprofen and liters of sweat I had gotten out on the way to the office). My incision site was hard, puffy, and red, but the CRNP said that the leaking looked okay, like my body was doing it's job by getting out the bad stuff. (My doctor was in emergency surgery, so I didn't get to see her) They started me on Keflex that day.
On Wednesday 3/7, I was scheduled to go back to see my doctor. I went in and she said that it seemed to be looking better and advised me to stay on the Keflex and keep activity levels to a minimum. I did exactly as they said. It didn't matter though, because on Friday night 3/9, I spiked a fever of 101.1 again. I tried bringing it down but the lowest I got it was 100.4, so I called the on call doctor. She advised me to go to the hospital.
I drove myself to the hospital (I didn't want to get Lola Kate out at midnight, so I had the husband stay with her.) They took a ton of blood, started me on IV antibiotics, gave me pain medicine, and admitted me. Here's the awesome news. My doctor was out of town FOR THE ENTIRE WEEK!!!
I was really bummed that I'd have to see another doctor in the practice. She was good, but she wasn't and isn't MY doctor, and they do things very differently.
On Saturday 3/8, the on call doctor did emergency surgery to re-open my wound. Thankfully, they put me under general anesthesia. The doctor said that she ended up having to cut out abscesses (usually they can just be cleaned or irrigated out) and said that she was glad that she went in when she did. Apparently, waiting any longer would've more than likely led to sepsis.
I spent the next 5 days in the hospital on a pain pump, and IV antibiotics. I also had my wound unpacked and repacked twice a day (towards the end of my stay, it was once a day).
Immediately after surgery, my wound was about 8.5 inches long and a little over 6cm deep. They set me up with a home health nurse, Karen who would be taking over my care in between doctor's visits for the next few weeks.
I got discharged on Thursday 3/16. Since then, I've had a home health care nurse who comes usually every other day to change my dressings and to unpack and repack my wound with hydrogel (which is so much easier than dry gauze).
We got home from the hospital on Saturday 3/3, and Lola Kate came home on Sunday 3/4. On Monday 3/5, I spiked a fever of 102 degrees and noticed that my incision was leaking a lot of bloody fluid. The doctor had me to come in. By the time I got to the doctor's office, my fever had dropped (due to the ibuprofen and liters of sweat I had gotten out on the way to the office). My incision site was hard, puffy, and red, but the CRNP said that the leaking looked okay, like my body was doing it's job by getting out the bad stuff. (My doctor was in emergency surgery, so I didn't get to see her) They started me on Keflex that day.
On Wednesday 3/7, I was scheduled to go back to see my doctor. I went in and she said that it seemed to be looking better and advised me to stay on the Keflex and keep activity levels to a minimum. I did exactly as they said. It didn't matter though, because on Friday night 3/9, I spiked a fever of 101.1 again. I tried bringing it down but the lowest I got it was 100.4, so I called the on call doctor. She advised me to go to the hospital.
I drove myself to the hospital (I didn't want to get Lola Kate out at midnight, so I had the husband stay with her.) They took a ton of blood, started me on IV antibiotics, gave me pain medicine, and admitted me. Here's the awesome news. My doctor was out of town FOR THE ENTIRE WEEK!!!
I was really bummed that I'd have to see another doctor in the practice. She was good, but she wasn't and isn't MY doctor, and they do things very differently.
On Saturday 3/8, the on call doctor did emergency surgery to re-open my wound. Thankfully, they put me under general anesthesia. The doctor said that she ended up having to cut out abscesses (usually they can just be cleaned or irrigated out) and said that she was glad that she went in when she did. Apparently, waiting any longer would've more than likely led to sepsis.
I spent the next 5 days in the hospital on a pain pump, and IV antibiotics. I also had my wound unpacked and repacked twice a day (towards the end of my stay, it was once a day).
Immediately after surgery, my wound was about 8.5 inches long and a little over 6cm deep. They set me up with a home health nurse, Karen who would be taking over my care in between doctor's visits for the next few weeks.
I got discharged on Thursday 3/16. Since then, I've had a home health care nurse who comes usually every other day to change my dressings and to unpack and repack my wound with hydrogel (which is so much easier than dry gauze).
Yesterday, 3/24 my wound vac came in the mail and today, 3/25, the home health nurses came to "install" my wound vac. I really don't know what else to call it besides an installation. haha. They insert some foam into my wound, hook it up to a vacuum with some tubes, and when you turn it on, it starts sucking out all the drainage that sent me to the doctor like it was trying to do originally on it's own. I can't show you MY wound, because if I posted that here, it'd be considered porn. haha! but here's someone else on a wound vac:
and here's what my beautiful machine looks like. Keep in mind that this thing has to go everywhere I go. I have a little bag for it, and to be honest, it looks like I'm carrying around a bag of bloody pee, just because of where the tubes come from (it looks like a catheter, to me anyway)
This is always on, constantly and it can't get wet, and has to be charged every night. I made a joke today that I "brought the hospital home with me".
The good news? My cultures came back with NO staph or MRSA infections. More good news? The nurses seem to think I'll be finished with this thing in around 2 weeks. Last bit of good news (and the most important) I have an EXTREMELY beautiful, sweet, and just all around good baby girl. I couldn't be a luckier mommy, even with all the complications.
The lesson learned? If ANYTHING... anything at all seems wrong in your incisions or wounds, go to the doctor. I was following all of the doctor's instructions and still got a terrible infection.This is rare, but I def. don't want anyone else to go through it, ever.
Now, a happy picture.
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