A lot of people have been asking me and Megs what was
going on.....well I am here to fill you in....I will try to keep it
brief but informative....
The bottom line is we almost lost Megs and the baby last week. It was very very scary and heart-wrenching. On Monday last week, she couldn't move without serious stomach pain. Every time she even rolled over in bed she would wince with pain. She was also very nauseated and had a fever. By Tuesday, the condition worsened and the fever was spiking to 101. I took her to Beaumont emergency on Tuesday night and they checked everything over. They assumed it was the flu and told us to go home after about 6 hours.
Wednesday and Thursday, her condition worsened. Extreme pain in the stomach, Very sick to the stomach, but no vomiting. Extreme chills for a whole hour, to the point she was shaking so bad, the bed would literally shake. Then 2 hours later she would be sweating so bad, the mattress would be soaked. On Thursday morning when her temp hit 102.7, we made an emergency appointment with her OB. She saw Megan and immediately had her admitted to Beaumont. She didn't like the fever, the pain, or anything we were telling her. The OB wanted Megan monitored and wanted Infectious Disease doctors to look at her. (Thank God for this OB thinking that way and calling in Infectious Disease, This literally saved Megan's life)
We got checked in Thursday afternoon and they kept monitoring Megan and the baby....At this point, the baby had a good heartbeat and everything looked ok with the baby. Megan was still in extreme pain and still had the extreme chills and sweats. They drew a bunch of blood for both labs and for Infectious Disease to do cultures.
On Friday morning the cultures were coming back positive. Meaning there was a bacteria infection in Megan's blood. At this point we were very very scared as they were telling us there was a risk to the baby. They were afraid that the infection in Megan's blood had got into the uterus and infected the fluid around the baby. Normally with this kind of blood infection, it presents in urine or uterus. Since it wasn't showing in urine, they assumed it was in the uterus. IF the uterus was infected, they had no choice but to deliver the baby immediately. At 26 weeks, they felt the baby had a better chance of surviving outside the infected uterus than in....However, they weren't giving the baby much chance regardless.....Also, because of the infection in Megan's blood, they could not deliver c-section. They would have had to force a normal delivery. By cutting her open for c section, they would have risked the baby and Megan's life to infection. If we did not do anything and the uterus was infected, Megan would have gone septic and died, so we had no choice but to do the procedure and wait.
Lots of tears, lots of emotions.....We had to do a procedure called amniocentesis .Basically they insert a needle into Megans stomach, into the babies womb, and draw out some fluid to test. We had this procedure done at 4pm on Friday....Now we had to wait to see if our baby was going to make it. In the meantime, infectious disease did not like what they were seeing on the blood culture and started Megan on a broad range antibiotic. They did not know what infection they were fighting, but they knew they had to start fighting it immediately.
At 8pm Friday night, we got the call. The uterus was NOT infected. The baby could stay inside. Great news. We are so happy and it was the best news all week. We were so confident that Megan sent me home that night.......However, through the night, Megan's symptoms all came back harder than ever. I rushed back to the hospital to be by her side and wait for the antibiotics to do their job. During the day Saturday, they scheduled another ultrasound....our 4th while being here, but this time to look at the kidneys, liver, etc.
Sunday morning, the doctors come in and inform us they had found the source of the infection.....Salmonella......Now normally salmonella isnt all that dangerous....its a stomach issue, diarehaa, a few days it goes away, most people get it at least once in their life......However in 1-2% of the cases, the Salmonella gets into the blood stream and causes a very serious infection. This is what happened to Megan. When it gets in the blood, you usually have 3-4 days before it gets into the heart valves, the spinal fluid, and the brain etc. This causes the body to go septic, and when that happens and it goes too far, there is no turning back.
They feel the infection got into Megans blood on Monday. Had the OB not got infectious disease doctors involved, had not admitted Megan....Megan would have died. Thankfully the infectious disease docs put her on a antibiotic even though they did not know what they were treating...again, that saved her life.
The smallest decisions saved Megan and the baby.....Even though we didnt know it at the time, on Friday night, we came very very close to losing both Megan AND the baby. Another 12-24 hours without treatment would have sent Megan's body into full septic shock and she would have been gone.
Thankfully, she is home now. Antibiotics for the next 10 days. She is tired, and run down, but no fevers, no stomach pains, so we think they caught it just in time...barely. The docs dont feel there will be any risk to the baby, nor any damage caused by the ordeal. We still have a lot more tests and unknown answers so we have our fingers crossed that she is ok.
Well there it is, I am sure I have forgotten some, or skipped over something. Not on purpose, it was just a whirlwind weekend with a lot of emotional ups and downs....More downs than ups, but its over for now. Hopefully we are done with this for good and everyone remains healthy. We have a lot more doctor's and tests to still follow up with and Megan need to rest, heal and just focus on staying healthy. The big part is over, but there is still a lot more road to her recovery.
Bryan
The bottom line is we almost lost Megs and the baby last week. It was very very scary and heart-wrenching. On Monday last week, she couldn't move without serious stomach pain. Every time she even rolled over in bed she would wince with pain. She was also very nauseated and had a fever. By Tuesday, the condition worsened and the fever was spiking to 101. I took her to Beaumont emergency on Tuesday night and they checked everything over. They assumed it was the flu and told us to go home after about 6 hours.
Wednesday and Thursday, her condition worsened. Extreme pain in the stomach, Very sick to the stomach, but no vomiting. Extreme chills for a whole hour, to the point she was shaking so bad, the bed would literally shake. Then 2 hours later she would be sweating so bad, the mattress would be soaked. On Thursday morning when her temp hit 102.7, we made an emergency appointment with her OB. She saw Megan and immediately had her admitted to Beaumont. She didn't like the fever, the pain, or anything we were telling her. The OB wanted Megan monitored and wanted Infectious Disease doctors to look at her. (Thank God for this OB thinking that way and calling in Infectious Disease, This literally saved Megan's life)
We got checked in Thursday afternoon and they kept monitoring Megan and the baby....At this point, the baby had a good heartbeat and everything looked ok with the baby. Megan was still in extreme pain and still had the extreme chills and sweats. They drew a bunch of blood for both labs and for Infectious Disease to do cultures.
On Friday morning the cultures were coming back positive. Meaning there was a bacteria infection in Megan's blood. At this point we were very very scared as they were telling us there was a risk to the baby. They were afraid that the infection in Megan's blood had got into the uterus and infected the fluid around the baby. Normally with this kind of blood infection, it presents in urine or uterus. Since it wasn't showing in urine, they assumed it was in the uterus. IF the uterus was infected, they had no choice but to deliver the baby immediately. At 26 weeks, they felt the baby had a better chance of surviving outside the infected uterus than in....However, they weren't giving the baby much chance regardless.....Also, because of the infection in Megan's blood, they could not deliver c-section. They would have had to force a normal delivery. By cutting her open for c section, they would have risked the baby and Megan's life to infection. If we did not do anything and the uterus was infected, Megan would have gone septic and died, so we had no choice but to do the procedure and wait.
Lots of tears, lots of emotions.....We had to do a procedure called amniocentesis .Basically they insert a needle into Megans stomach, into the babies womb, and draw out some fluid to test. We had this procedure done at 4pm on Friday....Now we had to wait to see if our baby was going to make it. In the meantime, infectious disease did not like what they were seeing on the blood culture and started Megan on a broad range antibiotic. They did not know what infection they were fighting, but they knew they had to start fighting it immediately.
At 8pm Friday night, we got the call. The uterus was NOT infected. The baby could stay inside. Great news. We are so happy and it was the best news all week. We were so confident that Megan sent me home that night.......However, through the night, Megan's symptoms all came back harder than ever. I rushed back to the hospital to be by her side and wait for the antibiotics to do their job. During the day Saturday, they scheduled another ultrasound....our 4th while being here, but this time to look at the kidneys, liver, etc.
Sunday morning, the doctors come in and inform us they had found the source of the infection.....Salmonella......Now normally salmonella isnt all that dangerous....its a stomach issue, diarehaa, a few days it goes away, most people get it at least once in their life......However in 1-2% of the cases, the Salmonella gets into the blood stream and causes a very serious infection. This is what happened to Megan. When it gets in the blood, you usually have 3-4 days before it gets into the heart valves, the spinal fluid, and the brain etc. This causes the body to go septic, and when that happens and it goes too far, there is no turning back.
They feel the infection got into Megans blood on Monday. Had the OB not got infectious disease doctors involved, had not admitted Megan....Megan would have died. Thankfully the infectious disease docs put her on a antibiotic even though they did not know what they were treating...again, that saved her life.
The smallest decisions saved Megan and the baby.....Even though we didnt know it at the time, on Friday night, we came very very close to losing both Megan AND the baby. Another 12-24 hours without treatment would have sent Megan's body into full septic shock and she would have been gone.
Thankfully, she is home now. Antibiotics for the next 10 days. She is tired, and run down, but no fevers, no stomach pains, so we think they caught it just in time...barely. The docs dont feel there will be any risk to the baby, nor any damage caused by the ordeal. We still have a lot more tests and unknown answers so we have our fingers crossed that she is ok.
Well there it is, I am sure I have forgotten some, or skipped over something. Not on purpose, it was just a whirlwind weekend with a lot of emotional ups and downs....More downs than ups, but its over for now. Hopefully we are done with this for good and everyone remains healthy. We have a lot more doctor's and tests to still follow up with and Megan need to rest, heal and just focus on staying healthy. The big part is over, but there is still a lot more road to her recovery.
Bryan
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