Acute Pancreatitis and a long hospital stay
I woke up early morning October 27 with the most incredible pain at the top of my stomach. I thought I was just having one of those major bloating sessions that a Maalox or a trip to the bathroom could fix. About an hour after, I was still in so much pain that I texted my mom who said it would be best to head to the hospital. I woke up Reg, almost crying from pain.
So we rushed to Makati Med and I went straight to the delivery room because I was concerned it was pregnancy related. I think I was on a bed in the delivery room by 4am or something, and I was there until about 3pm while they took blood tests, tried to give me gastric medication and NOTHING WORKED. I would fall asleep in an attempt to try to get through to the pain and would wake up to throw up. I was already worried because I hadn't eaten at all that day and I know from the clock that we were going way past 2pm already and I was throwing up liquid. Finally, the test results came, all the proper coordination with the doctors were done and I was admitted.
I ended up staying in the hospital until last Tuesday, November 5. Full 9 days. It turned out to be acute pancreatitis, with my potassium levels quite low (also because of that first day when I threw up a lot) and also a lot of my other levels were going up and down, mostly because I apparently have acidic blood that makes me pee a lot of the enzymes that I should be keeping in my body. So they had to bring all these levels back up, try to help me ride the acute pancreatitis until the pain left (my doc was saying that mine was a mild version, which is also kind of a good thing because they couldn't really do a full treatment with me, given that I am pregnant).
At one point, I was in bed with both hands attached to IV drips, two bottles each. I remember the first two-three days being really bad because at some point during the night, I would wake up from pain and from difficulty of lying down because the pain would radiate to my left side and no matter how I turned, it would be so painful. Reg would talk to the nurses if I could get my painkillers a bit early so I could settle down.
We had two pre-term labour scares, with the second one being the worst. I really felt contractions and they were coming in at about every four minutes. I was taken back into the delivery room so they could do a non-stress test where they tracked contractions. I got medication to stop and control the contractions and I had to stay in a labour room until about 6am the next day so they could observe. Now that I am home, I am on bedrest, with very limited movement. Currently, we are at 31 weeks. When I was in the hospital, we were at 30 weeks. My doc says to hang on until my 35-36th or something. I hope we make it to 37th at least. For now I drink duvadilan until I got my doctor again on the 19th.
So eventually, things got better. I started being able to feel hungry again - I think I woke Reg up twice at 3am and 5am each day looking for food, poor guy. The drips lessened but I got more oral medications. I felt more comfortable. Finally, my levels started getting better but we're still working on my potassium. Then I got my discharge orders. All throughout, I was very thankful that baby is ok, heartbeat was strong, he was still the same malikot baby. Right before leaving, we were able to get an ultrasound and see baby and was super super relieved he is ok.
I'm at home now. On bedrest. Hungry quite a lot but I try my best not to get too full in case that triggers anything (I'm so scared to go back to the hospital again for now). Just taking it easy. I can get all the other treatments I need for my pancreatitis and other things after I give birth. For now, my family is just hoping I'll gain back some weight because they said I've lost quite a bit. Baby, on the other hand, is just the right weight for his age right now according to the ultrasound. Whew.
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So now that I'm bedrest, I'm thinking about all the things I can't do - such as buy christmas gifts, fix Tala's big sister bag, fix baby's stuff, etc. :-s I wonder if my check up on the 19th will give me more mobility but I doubt it :p
So now I'm just trying to figure out ways to fix up the personal errands. I'm very lucky that my family is here to help (in fact, we moved back to my parents' home first so I'll have companions and endless supply of food when needed :p) and a lot of things are found online. I guess with nothing to do really, I should be able to do these errands. :p
So we rushed to Makati Med and I went straight to the delivery room because I was concerned it was pregnancy related. I think I was on a bed in the delivery room by 4am or something, and I was there until about 3pm while they took blood tests, tried to give me gastric medication and NOTHING WORKED. I would fall asleep in an attempt to try to get through to the pain and would wake up to throw up. I was already worried because I hadn't eaten at all that day and I know from the clock that we were going way past 2pm already and I was throwing up liquid. Finally, the test results came, all the proper coordination with the doctors were done and I was admitted.
I ended up staying in the hospital until last Tuesday, November 5. Full 9 days. It turned out to be acute pancreatitis, with my potassium levels quite low (also because of that first day when I threw up a lot) and also a lot of my other levels were going up and down, mostly because I apparently have acidic blood that makes me pee a lot of the enzymes that I should be keeping in my body. So they had to bring all these levels back up, try to help me ride the acute pancreatitis until the pain left (my doc was saying that mine was a mild version, which is also kind of a good thing because they couldn't really do a full treatment with me, given that I am pregnant).
At one point, I was in bed with both hands attached to IV drips, two bottles each. I remember the first two-three days being really bad because at some point during the night, I would wake up from pain and from difficulty of lying down because the pain would radiate to my left side and no matter how I turned, it would be so painful. Reg would talk to the nurses if I could get my painkillers a bit early so I could settle down.
We had two pre-term labour scares, with the second one being the worst. I really felt contractions and they were coming in at about every four minutes. I was taken back into the delivery room so they could do a non-stress test where they tracked contractions. I got medication to stop and control the contractions and I had to stay in a labour room until about 6am the next day so they could observe. Now that I am home, I am on bedrest, with very limited movement. Currently, we are at 31 weeks. When I was in the hospital, we were at 30 weeks. My doc says to hang on until my 35-36th or something. I hope we make it to 37th at least. For now I drink duvadilan until I got my doctor again on the 19th.
So eventually, things got better. I started being able to feel hungry again - I think I woke Reg up twice at 3am and 5am each day looking for food, poor guy. The drips lessened but I got more oral medications. I felt more comfortable. Finally, my levels started getting better but we're still working on my potassium. Then I got my discharge orders. All throughout, I was very thankful that baby is ok, heartbeat was strong, he was still the same malikot baby. Right before leaving, we were able to get an ultrasound and see baby and was super super relieved he is ok.
I'm at home now. On bedrest. Hungry quite a lot but I try my best not to get too full in case that triggers anything (I'm so scared to go back to the hospital again for now). Just taking it easy. I can get all the other treatments I need for my pancreatitis and other things after I give birth. For now, my family is just hoping I'll gain back some weight because they said I've lost quite a bit. Baby, on the other hand, is just the right weight for his age right now according to the ultrasound. Whew.
-==-
So now that I'm bedrest, I'm thinking about all the things I can't do - such as buy christmas gifts, fix Tala's big sister bag, fix baby's stuff, etc. :-s I wonder if my check up on the 19th will give me more mobility but I doubt it :p
So now I'm just trying to figure out ways to fix up the personal errands. I'm very lucky that my family is here to help (in fact, we moved back to my parents' home first so I'll have companions and endless supply of food when needed :p) and a lot of things are found online. I guess with nothing to do really, I should be able to do these errands. :p
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