CJ, my mom, and my sister-in-law Jolene were with me when they moved me from ICU and took me to the NICU first before I was put into a room downstairs from the NICU.
(I know I have shared some of these pics before......)
I was already feeling pretty overwhelmed and my Mom leaned over my shoulder,
gave me a kiss on my head and said something (once again I don't recall what exactly was said) and I lost it. I could not hold back my tears anymore.
CJ took these pictures....and I'm really not sure why they are so blurry, maybe it was because he was crying too or maybe it's just because he always takes blurry pictures...... :) But I am really glad that he captured them
I couldn't get over how big her feet looked!
Kamri doesn't look nearly as swollen as she did the day before when I got the picture
of her after her tubes had been taken out (from my previous post) .
of her after her tubes had been taken out (from my previous post) .
We have a cute video of her just staring at me with the hiccups- just like when I was pregnant with her, she always had the hiccups!
I wish I knew what was going through CJ's mind in this picture....
I sure love these two!
Grandma Larsen was dying to hold her, so we finally let her have a turn
Kamri only had to spend a few more days in the NICU for oberservation, and a final CT scan to make sure her brain activity was normal and that everything else checked out and was released on May 16th. CJ brought her down to me for a little while before he took her home on his own.
I don't think he had any idea that I took this picture. It's kind of hard to see, but I love the way he's looking at her.
This was the picture that CJ sent me soon after he got home- which took him longer than normal because he said he had to stop a couple times and check and make sure she was still breathing. CJ also told me that he hardly slept that night because he kept checking on her and watching her while she slept. He most definitely took on the full parenting role when he had to take her home on his own. My Mom was there, but CJ just insisted that she go to sleep and he would take care of Kamri during the night and when my mom got up the next morning, he gladly turned Kamri over to her for a while so he could try and sleep for a little bit before heading back to the hospital.
Kamri came to visit every day and this was the day before I was released.
I stayed in the hospital 6 more days. During that time, I was still having dialysis treatments, I ended up having Clostridium difficile (C-diff) which is when all the good bacteria in your intestine is eliminated because of antibiotics; which I was on a high dosage to prevent me from getting an infection from the surgeries. I would not wish that upon anyone! The cramps that I got from that were so terrible and not to mention you have zero control of your bowel movements. ZERO. And it is extremely contagious, so anyone that came into my room had to be wearing a protective gown, and gloves. But, really, the only way that another person could get it was if they came in contact with the bowel movements. They had signs and this huge cart sitting in front of my room warning everyone that entered was required to wear the gown, gloves and to wash their hands. I was treated like I had the plague. It was not fun at all.
Right around the time that I was 'diagnosed' with the C-diff, my kidneys were still struggling to work and had only improved a small amount. The doctors were wanting me to get a more permanent port in my chest for the dialysis treatments that I may have to do as an out patient. I was ordered to get a body CT scan. It seriously felt like I was never going to get better and it was extremely frustrating for me and and I know it was for CJ. My brother, Chad, had stopped by the hospital and the doctors had just come in to tell me that I needed that CT scan- I don't know exactly what they were checking on- my kidneys, my intestines, I honestly do not know. It seriously felt like we were just getting bad news on top of bad news. I knew that CJ was on the verge of a breakdown and I asked Chad to give me another blessing- the only words that I remember were this, "Your Heavenly Father is aware of what you are going through, and within the next 24 hours, your kidneys are going to start to function and you will end up making a full recovery." Talk about instant, peaceful, calm feeling. My brother and Mom left for the night right after that. CJ and I were alone in my hospital room and CJ said that he instantly felt better about everything as soon as that blessing was over. Sure enough, 24 hours later, I was producing 3-4 times more urine than I had previously been producing- which was pretty much nothing before. They were finally able to remove the catheter from my bladder and I was able to actually go to the bathroom. I had to work with a physical therapist. She helped me climb up and down stairs and to get out of my hospital bed on my own-(something crucial that I had to do before I could be released) once I could do those things- she gave me the thumbs up on her end for me to go home. The only thing, really that was keeping me there was the function of my kidneys were not as high as the doctors would like them. Two days before I was released, the doctors were talking about doing the surgery to put the port in my chest so I could do out patient dialysis. We all came upon an agreement that I would just stay a day or two more to see how my kidneys did. On Wednesday morning, when the doctors came in- the kidney doctor really wanted me to stay in the hospital a few days longer-They drew my blood and sent it to be tested- I was done with being in the hospital. As soon as the doctors left- I called CJ and told him that he needed to get down to the hospital because they wanted to keep me longer and I was done being there. I wanted to be home with my baby and family. For my mental stability, I needed out. CJ was there by the time the doctors had all come back into my room. He told them that I was completely done with being in the hospital- that we would do whatever we needed to do to be released that day, come back every single day for blood draws/ checks, whatever it may be. They finally agreed to release me that day. Because I was so anemic, I had to have one final unit of blood (making the grand total of 10 units) given to me- that took an hour or so. I had to have my dialysis port removed from my neck. That was the craziest thing- when they pulled it out and I saw that it was literally a foot long. The pressure that they had to put on it after they removed it hurt and it felt like I couldn't breathe very well and they were closing off my airway- I know they had to put a lot of pressure because it was in my artery- it was uncomfortable. I was finally released after 1 pm with a packet full of instructions, prescriptions to be filled, a huge bag of bandages to continue to care for the drainage hole left in my stomach- (which took about 7 weeks to heal all the way.......) I had to be back the next morning for a blood draw by 9 am. My kidney function the morning I was released was at about 11%.
The car ride home was so painful. My body felt every single bump, turn, movement......ugh! It hurt! And I'm pretty sure I cried the whole way home. That first night home was pretty difficult- I was still having a hard time breathing when I laid down. I was a mess. Thank goodness for CJ! Him, Kamri and myself all slept down in the living room. He got up with her, changed her, fixed her a bottle, I pumped (we had a struggle with her latching) he fed her and then we would all go back to sleep. The next morning after I had gone and gotten my blood drawn and we made it home- we got the call from the kidney doctor about the results. My kidney function had more than doubled in 24 hours! I really do think that being able to be home, in my own environment with my family is what helped me. I had to monitor and record all the fluids I put into my body- plus I had to measure all of my urine output for the kidney doctor. Just a side note: On average, a single human urinates about 500 ML every single time they go to the bathroom, which is about 6-10 times a day. When I was in the hospital I was only doing about 5 ML every 10-12 hours.....HUGE difference. When I had finally gotten home and was recording everything- it was about 200 ML every time- still not normal, but it was a huge improvement. I don't remember how long I had to keep track. Several days....more than a week, I don't know. Once I was finally reaching close to 500 ML, the kidney doctor told me that I didn't have to keep track anymore.
I am truly blessed to have completely healed from everything. I have no physical issues remaining except my scars. That's it.
I am truly blessed to have completely healed from everything. I have no physical issues remaining except my scars. That's it.
