What not to do

So I am pregnant. 13.5 weeks. It has so far been an easy pregnancy- TTC was easy (and a shocker since we did fertility treatments for Luke and I was still breastfeeding.) We did have to rule out an ectopic early on b/c I had a lot of sharp pain onone side- it was fine. Not much morning sickness. Blood pressure is good. Passed the 1 hr glucose test (they did it early to rule out type 2 diabetes since they never tested me after I had gestational diabetes.) Lovenox was sucking more this time, I don't know why, and I am tired a lot (probably mostly thanks to Luke), but all in all, it was going swell. I commented to both my regular OB and high risk dr, "This seems way too easy. I don't trust it."

Not sure if I was jinxing myself or know too well how my pregnancies go.

I had an ultrasound and high risk appointment a couple weeks ago. Baby looked great, heart rate in the 170's, measuring on track. Placenta looks like it's posterior which is good with my 2 c-section scars. My high risk doctor lectures me every time on be careful with knives and sharp stuff. Wear your seatbelt. Walk carefully. (Because I am on 2 blood thinners but have no known clotting condition.) This time was the first she even elaborated that IF I cut myself (stern look), hold pressure on it, blah blah blah.

Monday night around 9 pm our dogs got in a fight. Luke was standing only a few feet away from them, but they were between me and him, so I instinctively tried to grab one of them and ended up the sole victim of the fight. Even after I got bit, I ran around them to grab Luke as they were still fighting for a few seconds more.

I ended up with two punctures on my hand, one on the back of my hand between two finger joints-this is the bad one, and one on the side of my finger. Not super deep, but deep enough. I immediately washed it, put neosporin on it, and tried to stop the bleeding. They bled through some paper towels and bandaids. I contemplated going to the ER for a $250 copay, (all the urgent cares close at 8) calling one of my doctor's exchange numbers, buying skin glue from walgreens, etc. I googled what to do for dog bites and read that they almost never want to stitch them because that seals in the germs. The biggest issue is usually infection. Soak it in epsom salt and warm water, or regular salt if you don't have epsom salt. So I went back and soaked it for as long as I could stand and tried to keep my hand elevated to slow the bleeding.  I planned to go in to the family dr first thing in the morning to get an antibiotic cream or whatever...

Well I woke up Tuesday with my hand swollen about 4x the normal size, bright red, burning, unable to move my fingers, and PAIN. Pretty sure this definitely topped c-section recovery pain (which really, for me c-section pain is pretty minimal- I only took meds for 2 days last time) and possibly as bad or worse than HELLP when my liver was on the verge of rupturing. We didn't realize how bad my hand was when Joe drIve an hour and 15 min (and carpooled) to work. Changing Luke's diaper made me cry. I had no idea how I was going to wrestle him into his carseat or drive to the dr. Luckily I texted my dad and he came over shortly. Took one look at my hand and shook his head. He got Luke ready and in the car for me, I didn't really want to try to drive without my right hand, not that I needed it for steering but putting the car in drive, park, etc. would have been impossible with my right hand and a pain to do with my left. He was pretty sure they were going to send me to the hospital and sure enough, she took one look and told me I was way too risky for her, especially pregnant, so on to the ER we went.

Because I am brave or dumb, we decided the best bet would be the hospital my high risk doctor is at. It's one of the major hospitals in the area and my family dr wanted us to go somewhere with "plastics" in house (plastic surgeons...it's really not that bad though. I have much worse scars than this could possibly leave.) Plus I figured being pregnant and everything, this was the best bet, as the highest level NICU (not that they could or would do anything to save the baby at this point.They aren't doing anything to put the baby at greater risk than he/she already is with my infection,but it's not like we can talk steroid shots or delivering or anything anytime soon.)

In the ER, they wanted to xray my hand because it was SO swollen they thought maybe I had broken a bone. I got 3x the lead gowns and they were just doing my hand so I wasn't too worried about it.Bones are all fine. They did bloodwork to check my white blood cells, a quick ultrasound on the baby (who was fine-heartrate in the 150's), and decided it was definitely infected and they were going to start me on antibiotics and admit me. I was hoping I'd just be admitted for a few hours of antibiotics, then the ER nurse said definitely overnight and hopefully I could go home the next day. So there went that hope. As soon as I got moved to a real room (down the hall from Mom and baby area), thankfully private, the surgeon who is I guess my primary doctor here, took a look at it. He started talking about "watching it over the next few days" which definitely got my attention. The next time he was in (he came in like 3x yesterday), I asked how long he expected me to be here, which the answer was "a couple [more] days at the minimum". My mom and Joe and Luke were here at the time. I am still hoping it may mean I can go home late Thursday but Joe and my mom both interpreted as I will be lucky to be out of here by Friday. Ugh.

There is some talk about surgery and the surgeon was already in here this morning (sheesh, he was here at 7 pm last night and 7 am this morning) and the redness is a lot less red after 4 rounds of iv antibiotics but it's still swollen pretty bad. He is thinking they may have to "open it up" with a local which they don't really want to do (and I don't want!) They are trying to avoid surgery since I am pregnant and everything but he's not all that impressed with the healing so far.

Mostly, I am missing Luke. Being away from him for one night SUCKED. I am sure tonight will suck too. And however long I am stuck here. I mean, I know we can't risk the infection getting to my blood stream or anything (which is the biggest concern, I think), that would obviously not be good for me or the new baby, but ugh, I want to go home! I was dreading having to be in the hospital again to have the next baby and was going to beg my OB to let me go after 2 nights or ASAP. Here I am going to be stuck here AT LEAST 2 nights and we don't even get a baby out of this trip. Also, Luke is really freaked out about me being here. He cried hysterically whenever I tried to hold him, so that fricking sucks too.

I guess I am going to call my high risk doctor because I'm not sure they have. Not that I exactly want her down here strangling me but I kinda think they might like to know. The surgeon is pretty good but the hospital doctor (just a general hospitalist) I was NOT impressed with. He misunderstood gestational diabetes for diabetes  (even when I explained it!) and ordered them to test my blood sugar which the nurse told me to just refuse since I just had a good glucose tolerance test a couple weeks ago. He messed up some of the orders the surgeon left. He unwrapped my hand that the surgeon had wrapped and left it...it felt better and was easier to use wrapped because it was in a splint that gave my hand a little more support. And he was totally confused about the whole OB/high risk OB stuff. (And this is not as annoying as the other stuff but his English was not great and was really hard to understand.) Luckily, the surgeon is good. Just saw ANOTHER hospitalist who looked at me bewildered when I asked if they were going to send anyone to check on the baby. He asked when my last appointment was and when I said Monday (before the bite), he nodded and said, "oh it should be fine from one day." Uh, really?!? You are taking me off my meds, giving me a bunch of new meds (and you aren't used to working with pregnant people because I am one of the few dumb enough to get a dog bite), and that's just that?

I called my high risk doctor's office as soon as he left and told them I was here (in the same building, down the hall from their new mom's and babies...not exactly out of the way!) I mentioned that they had taken me off lovenox until they know if I need surgery (which I don't really disagree with but am concerned about), and my white blood count was high (just found that out from the nurse, yesterday it was 16, this morning it is down to 13, they want it down to 9.) And could you by the way please stop by and check the baby?  A nurse called me back in less than 5 minutes and made it sound like they were totally unaware that I was here and absolutely the high risk doctor on call would be by...the one on call is not my favorite but for this situation will be okay unless Joe happens to be here. I was actually on the phone with them when the hospitalist came back in and said, "oh, we put in an order for you to be seen by ob." Yeah, I just bet you did. On that note, I will be giving my OB an "FYI, I am here" phone call too. I don't really need both doctors coming by but I do want them both to know about it and that's not really the surgeon's job and the hospitalists are not impressive so I'll take care of it myself. If I am stuck in here anyway, you are damn straight you can send someone ALREADY WORKING HERE to check on the baby. Sheesh. I'm not asking for hours of monitoring here.

That being said, while I'm not feeling real movement yet, I have been getting that feeling where suddenly it feels like a weight on one side of my belly, for a week or so now. And I was feeling that last night and am pretty certain it was the baby, so I'm not really all that concerned, but still. There is no reason to not check the baby, it's not like I'm 5 weeks along and they can't check much. I mean, I know there would be nothing they can really do if something was wrong, but still, I've had one baby die and would like a little peace of mind, so grr, don't mind me doing your job for you. I have a laptop and am not afraid to play Dr.Google and certainly am not afraid to call the doctor's I DO trust to let them know what is going on. (My dad could not believe no one had told the high risk doctors I am in here. I told them yesterday about 20x.)

So anyway, here I am, pissing off the hospitalists, missing Luke (and Joe is MIA! Turn on your freaking cell phone!) , and laying around playing on my laptop. I must say, even though they woke me up a few times, and I stayed up till 11pmish and was up by 6ish, I still feel like I got way more sleep than I have in a LONG time...so that part is nice.