welcome to spiceland.

We had a very scary day two Wednesdays ago. Tru, Heidi, and I were at a local flooring store picking out new carpet for our house, which we listed for sale last week. We were waiting on the salesman to help us. He apologized for being on the phone and told me he was trying to direct his son to a particular store. The son was in his car looking for the store, and the salesman didn’t know how to tell him where it was. I offered to look it up on my phone. Heidi walked off, and Tru followed her. I went off after them, and the salesman said, “Oh, they can’t hurt anything.” I motioned toward the unprotected basement stairs, and said “Well, either of them could fall down the stairs.” He said, “Don’t worry. I’ll look after them while you look that up.” Not 2 seconds later, we heard a crash. We were about 10 feet away from the kids, but in the hallway. We walked into the room where the kids had gone, and Heidi was lying on the floor underneath a solid wood exterior door that had been propped up against the wall. Apparently, the store had just moved into that location and hadn’t finished their renovations and had left this door unhinged, leaning up against the doorway. Tru thought it was a regular door and had tried to open it, knocking it right over onto Heidi, who became pinned to the floor underneath it.

We called 911 and got her out. She may have been complete knocked out for a second, but we’re not sure. The salesman pulled the door off of her, and she looked so tiny crumpled up on the floor. It really looked like she was very badly hurt. By the time we picked her up, her eyes were halfway open and she was flailing, quiet, and unresponsive. As she became more responsive, she began grimacing with only half her face, twitching one of her arms, and flexing her legs together very severely. She started crying about 2 minutes after the door came off. She and Tru and I rode in the ambulance to the hospital, which took forever and a day. When we got there, they did a CT scan and X-ray of her head, chest, back, and arms and didn’t see any injuries. I am just flabbergasted that she didn’t have any broken bones.

She acted lethargic for the rest of that day, and sore and tired the next day. She got happier though, so we were surprised when she spiked a 103.5 fever on the third day. We took her back to the hospital, and the doctor told us there was a small possibility that a tiny skull fracture could have been invisible on the X-ray but still been large enough to allow spinal meningitis to develop. We were to wait it out. Luckily, Heidi didn’t develop any more symptoms and eventually got over what was apparently just a virus. Unluckily, the rest of us caught it from her, and we are just now beginning to feel better. A real estate agent warned us this would happen! It’ll take you 2 weeks working your butts off to fix up the house to sell, she said, and as soon as you list your house you’ll all get sick!

Today has been quite a day.

I dropped Tru off at preschool at about 9 AM. This is her last preschool session before my maternity leave starts. I met Mike for lunch at O’Bryans at 11 AM, where we listened to Madison mayoral candidate Paul Finley talk about his plans for Madison. Our friend Jonathan Heath also attended. Nothing looked good. I thought that it must be my whimsical pregnancy cravings and aversions acting up again. I ordered chicken tenders and fries, but couldn’t eat more than a couple of bites. I left early and got home at about 12:30. At about 2, I noticed I was having Braxton-Hicks contractions again. I didn’t think anything of them. I’d been having very strong Braxton-Hicks contractions since I was 13 weeks pregnant, which is extremely early. I ran myself bath at about 3 thinking that a warm, relaxing bath might stop them. It was just a normal day.

I realized at about 3:15, after a short soak, that I could be in labor and I needed to get to the hospital. As soon as I hopped out of the tub, the contractions got so strong so fast that I couldn’t even speak. I text-messaged Mike with as much of a message as I could muster: “labor 911.” I put on whatever clothes I could find on the floor and headed to the car to wait on him, stopping every 2 minutes along the way to brace myself on a wall, a door, or the car and moan through another contraction. I wasn’t outside waiting for him for more than 5 minutes when the pressure got extremely intense and I started feeling the ring of fire. I made my way back inside and waddled through the kitchen, thinking, “I’m about to make a big mess all over this tile! The blood will never come out of the grout! But I can’t have her on the carpet either.” I thought I should go into the bathroom to give birth on the linoleum, but I didn’t want to mess up the bathroom rugs either. I stripped off my bottoms and hopped into the tub. It would, after all, be the easiest place to clean! I squatted on my knees in the bathtub, leaning over the side. After the first contraction, I reached down to see if I could feel her head. I did, and I felt my water bulging as well. It felt like a water balloon. I grabbed it with my fingers and twisted it until it broke. Amniotic fluid flowed all over my legs and down the drain. I had two more excruciating contractions that I screamed through, and her head came through. I reached down, felt her head, and pulled her out into my arms at 3:31 PM, after about 15 minutes of active labor.

I sat down in my own blood and wrapped her in the bottom of my shirt, umbilical cord still attached, knowing Mike was on his way. I thought that it would be less effort and less mess if I just waited for him. I went into a very calm, cold trance-like state. I don’t remember much about it now. I waited about 4 minutes, and heard him coming through the house, yelling, “Erin! Erin!” I said, “I’m in here…” My words came out much more weakly than I expected them to. I was shaking and in shock. He walked into the bathroom with the phone pressed up against his ear. He was on the phone with a 911 operator. “There you are!” He said. “Whoa, what’s all that blood!?” He exclaimed. “Whoa! There’s a baby!” The 911 operator was trying to give him instructions to cut the cord, but he was so freaked out that he couldn’t process them. He was relaying to me the instructions as if I could just hop up and perform them myself. “Find something to tie the cord off!” He ordered. I kept trying to tell him to get a hair barrette of the drawer, but I couldn’t seem to make myself heard. He was listening to the operator tell him to use a shoelace. He picked up his foot and looked at his shoe. “I don’t have any shoelaces!” He put his foot back down on the floor. He looked around for a shoelace and then back down at his feet. “I still don’t have any shoelaces!”

The paramedics walked in as Mike was willing his shoes to produce shoelaces. The first one whipped out his birthing kit and found a plastic clamp. He clamped and cut the cord and took the baby from me. The second one wrapped her up and took her away. The first one called a firefighter in to help me up. I protested, “I don’t have any bottoms on!” The first paramedic laughed, “That’s the last thing you’ve got to worry about!” I knew I was just dripping with blood, but they couldn’t fit the gurney through our bedroom, so I had to walk through the bedroom, leaving bloody footprints behind me. They loaded me up, strapped me down, and wheeled me out to the ambulance. There was a firetruck outside, and all my neighbors were out looking at the commotion. I waved to them. “I’m fine! We’re fine!”

In the ambulance, they told me that my blood pressure was only 90/25. They started pushing lots of iv fluids, and they wouldn’t let me hold Heidi. They turned up the heat so much to keep Heidi warm that I thought I was going to pass out. I delivered the placenta somewhere between my house and the hospital.

When we got to the hospital, my OB was already there. She said she’d never had a single patient deliver at home by accident before. Heidi was 6 pounds 2 ounces and 18 inches long. She looks EXACTLY like Tru did when she was born, except for the shock of black hair on her head. She’s much quieter than Tru as well.

Her name is Heidi Annora.

Pictures will be uploaded here as we get them.

Update: pictures of her rash taken April 27th.

Well, here we go again. Tru has erythema multiforme again. For background on last time, see here, here, here, then here, and see here for pictures. We went to the doctor Friday, April 18th because she had a fever, and she tested positive for strep throat that day. They prescribed Omnicef, a mild cephalosporin antibiotic which she’s had several times with no reaction. She got better but then developed a fever again by the next Friday (yesterday). We took her back in, and she had bad ear infections in both ears. They prescribed Ceftin, a stronger cephalosporin antibiotic, and told us to stop with the Omnicef. It tasted horrible, so we were only able to get her to take a half dose that night and another half dose or less this morning. We probably wasted 3 doses attempting to get that small amount into her! Since we were so unsuccessful administering the antibiotics, we called the doctor this morning and asked if they could do it in the form of a shot, which we knew would be much more effective and convenient. They agreed and we went in. Between the time we spoke on the phone and the time we got to the doctor’s office, Tru had developed a bright red, splotchy rash on her legs, arms, and face. They told us that it may be an allergic reaction to Ceftin, so they didn’t want to give her the shot, which would also be a strong cephalosporin. They sent us home with a prescription for Zithromax, which is not as effective on ear infections but is the only other option since Tru is also allergic to penicillins. By the time she woke up from her nap around 5, her rash had developed hives and become very itchy. We were positive by this time that she was developing erythema multiforme again. We took her to the emergency room because the doctor’s office had closed, so that she could be prescribed steroids. We’re back at home now, and she has steroids in her system. Last time, it took 48 hours or more from the onset of the rash to get steroids into her. This time, it took only 12 hours, so we are hoping and praying that the reaction is less severe since we caught it early.

As I understand right now, penicillins and cephalosporins are the two most effective classes of antibiotics for children under the age of about 15. However, we have to proceed now as if Tru is allergic to all penicillins and all cephalosporins except Omnicef, which means until she gets much older, she will be extremely limited in the treatment she can receive for bacterial infections. There are other antibiotics not in those two classes, but they are not nearly as effective as penicillins and cephalosporins. The Zithromax she’s on now is not in either of those classes, but it is one of those ineffective antibiotics. We’re basically just crossing our fingers hoping that it will be able to knock out this infection, especially since Omnicef was also ineffective this time for some reason, when it is usually much more effective than Zithromax. Please pray that Tru not only recovers quickly from her erythema multiforme, but that the antibiotic she is on now is effective against her infection and that she remains healthy enough in the next ten years that her allergies don’t prevent her from getting good treatment for any infections she may develop. About 5% of people who are allergic to penicillins are also allergic to cephalosporins.

I am exhausted. I spent the last 12 hours in the emergency room and in labor & delivery. I had some spotting 2 days ago that got about 10 times worse last night around 7 PM. We went to the ER, and after an ultrasound, I have been diagnosed with total placenta previa. This means that the placenta is completely covering my cervix and if I were to go into labor on my own, the placenta would detach before the baby comes out, cutting off all blood flow (and thus, oxygen) to the baby, killing it. Since it’s still early, it could still move up away from the cervix. However, if it doesn’t, I’ll have to have a planned C section at 36 weeks to make sure I don’t go into labor on my own. If I go into labor before then or start bleeding heavily, I’ll have to have an emergency C section right away.

I have been put on activity rest — I can walk and move around a little and I can drive and sit at my computer, but I can’t do any lifting at all or bending over or exercise of any type. I have to go straight to Labor & Delivery every time I have spotting equal to or heavier than this time or if I have contractions that could even possibly be labor. I had a full anatomy scan at the hospital. The baby is fine and growth is right on target. Sometimes PP decreases blood flow to the baby which can stunt development, but ours is right on track, to the day. I still have my normal OB anatomy scan next Tuesday where we’ll find out the sex. Then they’ll do another one at 28 weeks to see if the placenta has moved, and if it hasn’t, they’ll do another one at 36 weeks. If it still hasn’t moved by that point, they’ll do a C section at 36 weeks to take the baby. Please keep me and our baby in your thoughts and pray for us!

We got to spend 7 hours in the ER! What fun!

Erin called her doctor to ask about her pregnancy and she recommended we go the ER. Yeah, you heard me right, pregnancy. For anyone who doesn’t know Erin is pregnant. While we got a faint red line a week or so ago, we weren’t completely sure. Let me rephrase that, I wasn’t completely sure. Erin was. Tonight we got to unofficially see the baby on the ultrasound and it was for sure there! “Unofficially? Hospital? Why did you go the the ER to get baby confirmation?” you may be asking. Read on.

We didn’t actually head to the ER to find out anything related to the baby. When she called the doctor to ask about a few things to see if she should come in, one of the things she mentioned was a pain and tingly in her leg. They then asked if she was short of breath. She had been lately and when she mentioned it they said, “Head to the ER right away!” Their concern was that if it was a blood clot it could be serious stuff. She did have a really bad bruise on her knee with internal bleeding a few weeks back but it was the other leg. Also, she doesn’t move much since she’s a computer programmer. Maybe those two things combined could be not so good. Well, on that advise, off she went.

She IM’ed me to let me know she was heading to the ER. When I found out I picked up Truster and dropped her off at Abby’s (Adam and Mara’s) to play. Thanks for watching her by the way! The ER is never fun but it would have been impossible taking her. I then went back to work. I was taking care of some stuff and casually mentioned the doctor’s concern to another Engineer. He told me about his experience with a blood clot. He told me about his lungs shutting down. He told be about beating the odds and living through his experience. Holy cow! I had no idea it was that kind of ordeal. Heart pounding I rushed back to be with Erin.

Of course, when I got there Erin was calm as could be. All she could talk about is the TV shows she was watching while she was waiting. When it comes to trusting God, Erin’s got it down. Some blood tests, an EKG, and a doppler ultrasound later and the Doc had no signs of anything gone wrong. In a normal situation they would have done a radiation based scan to watch the blood flow but the couldn’t. Blood tests confirmed a little one in there that shouldn’t be exposed to such things. Also, the ultrasound tech snuck in a little tummy action after she got done with her legs (hospital folks, you didn’t read that). We weren’t able to see much since its so early but there was something there! What a wonderful bit of fun in an otherwise horrible day.

The diagnosis: no signs of bad stuff from what they could see and pregnancy makes it too risk to do the real tests. Pray for Erin. She’s going to keep an eye out for any warning signs and rush back if anything comes up. In the mean time, I get to start talking to Erin’s belly again!

September 4th, 2006 – Horns, Burns, Water Crayons, and Party

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A couple of major things this week:

1. Erin performed in church with her new brass group.

2. Erin sustained second degree burns from a grease fire.

3. Tru got some fun new bathtime crayons.

4. We had a Labor Day cookout party type thing.

Tru finally has a diagnosis! She has erythema multiforme as a result of a an allergic reaction to amoxycillin. Erythema multiforme (er-a-THEEM-a mul-tee-FOR-mee) is a specific type of rash that is characterized by spots that look like three concentric circles: an outer red ring followed by a normal skin colored ring, followed by an inner red ring. Swelling causes peteciae (pa-TEE-kee-ah) (bright red dots underneath the skin caused by bursting capillaries), which causes the rash to turn from red to purple after time. Its most common between ages 3 and 20, and is supposed to be very rare under age 3. There is a form of EM that can be very serious, but that form is even rarer and characterized by lesions in the mouth, which Tru does not have.

She is on steroids now and seems like it isn’t getting any worse. The doctor says it will be bad like this for about 5 more days then it will last 3-4 more weeks but not as bad. That is a *good* thing because she’s really unhappy now from what seems like constant burning and itching. She’s also officially allergic to penicillins.

All, please pray for her. It breaks our hearts.

More pictures here.

I spent the past 3 days in the hospital battling a ruptured hemorraghic ovarian cyst. I had some pain Saturday night, but went to bed anyway. At about 4am I woke up with severe doubling pain which inhibited my ability to walk, move, or breathe. We rushed to the emergency room where I underwent all kinds of tests, including an ultrasound and a CAT scan. At first, the doctors thought I had pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) as a result of either childbirth, my birth control, or a combination thereof. They started treating me with 6 different kinds of antibiotics by IV to combat the infection. But they weren’t convinced that’s what it was because of the unusually sudden onset. The ultrasound showed ovarian cysts, and my bloodwork showed lower than normal levels of red blood cells. My blood pressure was also low, leading them to believe a hemorraghic cyst (one filled with blood) had burst and released the blood into my abdomen, where it caused an infection and irritated my organs and diaphragm.

So now they think that the cyst was my only problem and that I never had PID. They said that I will make a full recovery, but it may be a slow one. I’m not allowed to do any heavy lifting, and that includes holding Tru. Mike’s mom is in town right now helping us out. I am still in a little pain, but it is miniscule compared to the pain I suffered from the onset!

I’d like to say thank you to everyone who was praying for us during this scary time! We appreciate all the support!

Tru was born at 5:38 AM today, December 21, 2004. She was 6 lbs 14 oz, 19 in. long, and very cute! I know it is cliche but it was like nothing we’d ever experienced! Definitely love at first sight.

Thanks to God for his blessings keeping Erin and Tru safe. Thank You for the opportunities to raise her for Your purposes!

We’ve posted initial pictures on our photo gallery here.

Michael and Erin

Here’s the official birth story for those bored enough to read it!

Mike and I went to the hospital about 7:30 pm to check in. They were supposed to give me one dose of cervadil then and one at midnight to prepare me for my induction at 6 am the next morning. We had family in town, and were late eating dinner and late to the hospital. When we got to the hospital, we were told that someone had changed our appointment from that evening to 1 am that night. They called my OB/GYN and verified that it was supposed to have been 6 pm, not 1 am. We finally got checked in and had our room about 8:30. They put the first dose of cervadil in then. Our nurse said I was 3 cm and 50% effaced at that time. About 11 pm I started having moderate contractions that were about 10 minutes apart. When my nurse came back at midnight for the second dose of cervadil, she told me that I hadn’t dilated or effaced any more. Fifteen minutes after the second dose, my contractions started getting stronger and closer together. At 1 am I was 4 cm and 90% effaced. By 3 am I was 6 1/2 cm and 100% effaced. I asked for my epidural at this point. The contractions were so strong that none of my breathing techniques were helping me relax. Mike kept encouraging me and helping me through them until the epidural took effect. When it did, I couldn’t feel ANYTHING from my chest down, and I really began to enjoy laboring. Mike would make jokes about how strong my contractions were getting on the monitor, but I didn’t even feel them! By 4 am I was 8 1/2 cm, and by 4:30 am I was 9 1/2.

My nurse told me at this point that I would start pushing soon. They got me ready and then told me to push. I did one good 10 second push and she told me to stop pushing, that they had to get my doctor because I had done enough. I was flabbergasted! When I asked why, I was told that their policy is to do everything possible to ensure that every baby is delivered by an OB/GYN. They didn’t have one at the hospital right that minute, so they would have to do what they could to wait until mine arrived. She called my doctor who was at home asleep on call. While I was waiting for the doctor to get to the hospital, Tru’s heartbeat dropped to about 70 BPM, and I had to go on oxygen. There were about 4 nurses walking around the room checking various things then, and they were very calm when they spoke to me, but they were frantically trying to get in contact with my doctor when they weren’t calming us down. She finally arrived about 45 minutes later and told me Tru was beginning to crown and that I could push again. I got ready for another 10 second push and started. I had only counted to 2 when my doctor told me to stop pushing. Tru was out! She was born at 5:38 AM, and she was 6 pounds, 14 ounces and 19 inches long. She cried a little, and they kept having to bounce her and tickle her to get her to cry more!

I couldn’t believe how easy it was. I sustained a 3rd degree tear that was 1 1/2 inches long. I kept asking how many stitches I had gotten, but my doctor wouldn’t tell me. I remember watching her stitch me, and I think I got about 20 stitches! Mike was freaking out because there was blood EVERYWHERE, but I felt fine.

My labor was:

5.5 hours from the start of contractions.

2.5 hours from the start of painful contractions.

1 hour and 45 minutes from the start of painful contractions eliminating the 45 minutes of waiting for the doctor.