Pneumonia

I hadn't planned on staying in the hospital Friday night, and definitely not Saturday and Sunday night. I tried not to think about being away from Sophie and Sutton and tried to focus on the fact that I could get better faster in the hospital, but that went away on Sunday when I completely lost it and cried all day. I was so frustrated with the entire situation. I wasn't getting much information from doctors or nurses and felt like I was just laying there in the hospital while everything else was on hold for Thanksgiving weekend. If it hadn't been for Bethany, a friend from church who is also a nurse practitioner, I wouldn't have a clue what was going on. She and her mom were at the ER before I got to my room on Friday night and stayed till about 10:30pm making sure I got settled in. Bethany helped make sure I could still breast feed Sutton by checking the antibiotics they were giving me. The first one they had ready to put in my IV had side effects of muscle and joint problems in infants and luckily we stopped that one. Bethany was also back the next night to bring us dinner and then stayed with me all day on Monday.

While I was in the hospital mom stayed the nights with me and Chad stayed with Sophie and Sutton and then took them to Eagleville before coming to visit me during the day. I told them I wanted to stay by myself on Sunday night so that the kids were taken care of. Mom stayed the night at our house so she could be with Sutton when Chad went to work. Sophie went to Nanny's since I wanted her to be entertained and not be at our house missing me. Bethany was with me all day Monday as I worked hard to get to go home. My temp stayed down since the 102.9 temp at 7:30pm the night before. I was up walking the halls in the morning (good thing b/c the doctor noticed). My white blood cell count was low and she wanted to make sure it started coming back up the next day so said I could go home as long as I had a follow up appointment. Aunt Elizabeth helped me get into a doctor in Murfreesboro while Aunt Annie got me an appointment with Dr. Scott so I could get the discharge started. It was a hassle getting any info from the nurse about the discharge and had to end up calling in the director of the floor to give all our complaints about the entire stay.

I went for a follow up appointment with Dr. Carter in Murfreesboro and I love him!!! He was so thorough and has called me himself with test results and had his nurse follow up again yesterday. He said the reason I got pneumonia was from wearing the abdominal binder (which didn't allow my lungs to fully expand). My post op instructions were actually to keep it on till day 10 at my follow up appointment and not to take it off even for showers but I did take it off for a shower. This would suggest that the pneumonia was viral and that was what caused the low white blood count. The pneumonia could have been avoided had I been given proper post op instructions about breathing and not wearing the binder at all times.

So now I am trying to keep the pain (from the surgery) under control so that I can cough and get over the pneumonia. I am still limited to lifting and can barely take care of Sutton on my own. Mom has been coming over to help and Amber has been here twice this week (even though she has her two to take care of also). Aunt Elizabeth, Cousin Chelsea and Mammy and Pappy have all pitched in to entertain Sophie and get her out of the house. I don't know what I would do without such a supportive family!!! Also have to give a shout out to Dad who has taken me to doctor appointments.