Friday, October 05, 2007

Home safe

I am home safe...thank you all for your prayers. Actually, I got home late Wednesday night - two days ahead of schedule. Here's the story:

I am standing at baggage claim, waiting for my suitcase, when I get a phone call from the hospital informing me of what time to be there in the morning - 6:15 AM. No problem, because the earlier my surgery, the less time I have to go without food (nothing to eat or drink after midnight) which can be a scary thought for a pregnant gal.

I am standing on the curb with my bag, waiting for my ride, when I get another call, this time from my Doctor's clinic. "Oh, by the way, we aren't going to do your surgery tomorrow since you are 24 weeks pregnant. We hope this isn't too much of an inconvenience for you. The good news is we can do a quick little "zap" with the laser in the Dr's office, and you will be in-and-out."

Hello?! Inconvenience?! No, no problem. I only just got off an AIRPLANE to have this surgery, and have farmed my kids out for THREE DAYS. That's totally fine to let me know the night before the surgery that you don't think a pregnant gal should have surgery. I AM THE SAME PREGNANT GAL WHO WAS IN YOUR OFFICE FOUR WEEKS AGO, QUESTIONING YOU OVER AND OVER ABOUT THE SAFETY OF DOING SURGERY WHILE I AM PREGNANT.

To shorten the story I will just say that it sounds like there were a lot of administrative screw ups that led to the cancellation. The Dr even ended up calling me to try and explain things, and sort of apologize. He started throwing out words like "fetal monitoring" and "viability" and "emergency c-section" which aren't exactly thrilling to hear as a mother. So ultimately after some calming words from Brian I was able to see that this might just be God's way of protecting me and the baby.

So the next morning I went in for the "quick and easy" procedure (which isn't as effective as the surgery) and vowed I would never do that again, as it was the worst experience I can think of that I've gone through. Turns out my nose doesn't like having scopes larger than the size of it's opening shoved up it and into my throat, followed by the electric pulse of a laser and the taste and smell of burning flesh.

My consolation prize was spending the afternoon at some of my favorite stores in the mall, and then getting to see my family early. I was only gone one night, but it was cute how excited the kids were to see me.

So far my voice is even more hoarse than it was, but this morning I am detecting that it might be slowly building strength. In a few more days when the swelling on my vocal cords has gone down I should have a better idea of what the quality of my voice will be.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome home! [:-)
Rachel

Brianna Heldt said...

Shana I'm sorry, that's HORRIBLE!!! Glad you're home safe and sound, and hopefully this will work.

Travis M. Nelson said...

Forgive the comment, please, and feel free to delete it after you've responded to me.

I linked to your blog from my own, one I just started with my wife, chronicling our own Ethiopian adoption experience. I was going to email you to see if you would link back to us, but I can't find anything on the site about how to reach you.

The site is http://addusababy.blogspot.com
and we would greatly appreciate the link.

Thanks,

Travis