A wild ride, but I'm here!

Hey gang!

I know it's been a while since I've posted. It has been a busy few months. My sweet baby was born in the middle of March and we have been blissfully working him in to our routine. He is our third, so life has been a little chaotic and lots of fun watching my two toddlers drool and fawn over him.

Recently, things got a little hairy. Five weeks after sweet pea was born, my husband took me to the ER clinic for abdominal pain. After four hours, three painful attempts at an IV, gobs of blood work and x-rays, and one CT scan, I was released and told it was constipation. I was sent home doped up on morphine and zofran and told to drink magnesium citrate to "move things along". I went home and quickly filled the kids' Easter baskets as it was the night before Easter and all I could think about was if something happened to me, the Easter bunny wouldn't come. I followed the doctor's orders and drank the salty liquid. By then, the pain and nausea medicine had fully worn off. An hour later, I was violently ill and in so much pain I was begging for death. My husband rushed me back to the ER with all three kids in tow. This time, it was 2:00 a.m. Easter morning and I was in more pain than I had ever experienced even with three C-sections under my belt. The doctor refused to give me pain medicine this time and insisted I was "loaded" as he laughed off my pain. I begged him for help and 45 minutes later he finally agreed to admit me. After five painful hours of waiting, they said a room had opened up and I was finally taken by ambulance to the hospital.

Thankfully, I was seen by another doctor who took one look at me and knew something else was wrong. It turns out, I had passed a gallstone and it was lodged in the pancreatic bile duct causing a serious case of acute pancreatitis. Who knew the pancreas was such a mean little organ! I had my gallbladder removed and was hospitalized for 8 days. During this time, I tried as hard as I could to maintain my breast milk for my sweet newborn, but struggled as I wasn't allowed to eat and had become dehydrated. I am still struggling to nurse him and have to supplement with formula. He was the only one out of all three kids that I had successfully nursed from the beginning without having to supplement with formula. That is, until the night I was admitted. In the beginning, I was still producing, but had to pump and dump my liquid gold due to all the barium I had to drink & the contrast entered in my bloodstream for the five CT scans they had run checking on the complications from the pancreatitis.

I've been home for a couple of weeks and am taking things day by day. I've developed stomach ulcers, have 3rd degree burns internally and have a restricted diet, but I am home with my babies and that is the motivation I need to get well. I was so sick in the hospital, I couldn't bear for them to see me until two days before I was released.

I had planned on returning to the shop before now, but recovering from my little battle has been more emotional than anything else. I am finally in a place where I don't cry every day and the thought of leaving my children behind without a mommy doesn't haunt me as much as it did when I was first released. I am getting stronger each day and desperately trying to get life back to normal. I'm fighting to nurse my baby and to comfort my older babies who are scared Mommy will leave again. I have an amazing GI doctor who has a plan for me and is monitoring my development closely. I feel like I am on the mend.

On a trial basis, I am reopening the shop with the hopes to get a little normalcy back and to help with the finances. Thankfully, I'm alive and I have my babies close to me. That is all I could ever ask for from this world. Please keep my family in your prayers.

Sincerely,
Tommie