The Day After

There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from. 

~ Elizabeth Kubler Ross
 

 Despite a textbook perfect pregnancy (well, if you disregard the daily shots, extra tests, extra Dr's visits and the genetic clotting disorder, perfect), surprisingly, our C-Section did not turn out perfectly. That said, the important thing did: our son arrived healthy.

Talking over the procedure with the anesthesiologist

But, during the actual c-section, I developed a spinal leak from the spinal block. It could have been because my anesthesiologist had to go in twice to get a good pass. Or maybe it's because she hit a nerve the first time ('bout jumped me right off that table!). Or maybe it's because she jinxed it by telling me how great my back was and how my spinal would be super easy for her. Or maybe it's because I talked too much in the operating room (that's Chris's theory), distracting the professionals. Either way, **something** happened and we came out of the surgery with me puking for 20 hours (a side effect from the anesthesia probably) and my spinal fluid leaking.

The spine is a cool thing. It has fluid in it that knows it needs to stay filled to the brim. And when that level starts to drop, it alerts you by giving you the worst headache of your entire life. Migraine medicine doesn't touch it. Narcotics don't help. And, in a cruel twist of fate, it goes away when you lie flat on your back. But really, how many new breastfeeding Mommies get to lie flat on their back? Ha! 

The one 'fix' that works most of the time is to take blood from me and inject it around my spinal column to clot around the hole and make the leaking stop. I was scared to do that (terrified if truth be told) so I opted to wait it out, on my back, with huge amounts of fluids being pumped into me.

By the next day, I would have taken a crowbar to my spine to get that headache to stop and so a 'blood patch' it was. I requested a fresh anesthesiologist that hadn't been on call all night and while waiting for them, put in an SOS call to my Dad who came right over to comfort his little girl. Chris was comforting our son (which was the right thing to do) and so my Dad took all the photos here too. In a fun twist of fate, the anesthesiologist who had originally done my spinal was the one to try and fix it. 

Chris, comforting Little Man (see my awesome pink suitcase? It got a lot of compliments)

Drawing sterile blood - took 2 tries & they got 20 ml with a huge size needle

And that, people, is the needle that's headed into my back

Yay! 20 ml of sterile blood. Go forth and clot! Clot!

Unfortunately, after all of that, the blood patch only took about 50% so my headache was vastly reduced. The procedure did mean that I got to stay in the hospital an extra day but since Little Man and I were having some trouble breastfeeding (well, that would be ME having trouble since I was late getting my milk in), having that extra day in the hospital was SO valuable. I was able to meet with extra lactation consultants and figure out how to supplimenet Jamisen so we could arrest his fast weight loss. He was born at 6 pounds, 13 ounces and when we left the hospital, he was 6 pounds, 1 ounce. Yikes.

The headache stuck around for 6 days - until Thursday the 28th - but it seems to be fully gone now and all I have to show for it are these gory pictures and the most adorable, cutest, smartest, sweetest son in the entire universe.

I would do it all again this afternoon to get our Little Man Jamisen.