Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Summer Blog Challenge: Day 12

Whew! This challenge is really keeping me busy! It's fun, though. I hope everyone is enjoying reading them.

Today's Challenge: What was your worst injury? How did it happen? 

Going Green with the Grizls

Now this is an interesting one! I'm not sure how many of these I would want to read, though. It would be like reading a bunch of short horror stories! And I am not going to be putting pictures with this one, for your sake! Heehee.

The answer to this question is simple because I've had two major injuries in my lifetime, but only one was life-threatening. The non-life-threatening injury still plagues me and probably will forever, but the other nearly killed me so I guess it wins, huh?

When I was pregnant with my second child, I had one complication after another. I spent the last trimester at home on bed rest. My doctor decided he was going to induce 3 weeks early because of the size of the baby and my desire to avoid another c-section. However, in the 3 weeks leading up to the that date, I kept going to the hospital in a wierd sort of labor. Finally, when I was about to give birth to my baby girl, they realized she was face first and flipped backward, which explained the previous 3 weeks. Natural delivery would break her neck. After a quick administration of an epidural, I was rushed off for that c-section I had wanted to avoid. 

Things didn't get better there. After the initial joy of delivering my precious baby, she was rushed away. She had an Apgar score of only 4  (out of 10) and my hubby went with her so I sat in recovery worrying. Luckily, she improved enough to go home in just 3 days and off we went, thinking it was uphill from there. Boy were we wrong. 

The day after we got home, we were calling 911. Our baby girl wouldn't eat, didn't cry, and finally the call was made when she stopped breathing long enough to start turning blue in the face. She kept stopping then starting and was re-admitted to the hospital. 

You're probably wondering how this story is about me, huh? Well here's where it turns. 

The first night we are back at the hospital, my hubby wakes me to nurse the baby (because it's time, not because she's crying...she didn't do that which was worrisome). In the midst of feeding her, I start gushing blood, like someone poured a gallon of it in my chair and it was pouring onto the floor. I handed off the baby and rushed to the bathroom, but I had just enough time to press the call button before collapsing into the bathroom floor as my husband stood in the hall screaming for someone. 

Nobody was at the nurse's station, but amazingly a doctor was coming down the hall who happened to have a syringe of medication in his pocket that was exactly what I needed to keep from going into shock. He injected it into my neck and when more help arrived, I was sent to emergency surgery. 15 units of blood and a 2 surgeries later, I had gotten a hysterectomy but was alive and recovering. 

It turns out there was placenta left during the c-section. I bled into my uterus until it burst. The hospital moved my daughter and I into the same room until we were both well enough to go home a few days later. My grandmother came to stay with us for a month to take care of the two of us and by the time she left we were both doing well. A

And that's the story of my worst injury ever. Yuck but true. What's yours? Comment and share your worst injury, if you still have the stomach for it :)

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12 comments:

  1. Holy wow! Thank goodness you were at the hospital when you began bleeding so you could be assisted asap.

    Thankfully my worst injury was just a broken nose. Hopefully it stays that way :)

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  2. WOW! That is totally scary! That's actually my worst fear about having another baby, is the risk of just rupturing my previous c-section scar or leaving some placenta behind and bleeding out!!! I'm sure you feel very lucky that you were in the hospital when it happened. Maybe your little girl saved your life! Thank you for sharing your story!

    Ironically, my brother's baby did the SAME thing on the day they went home from the hospital. They were home for only 45 minutes when my niece stopped breathing. It was so scary!! Nothing ever came of it but she did have a few more episodes like that in the first couple months. She seemed to not handle her saliva and mucous very well. Thankfully it's something she's grown out of!

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  3. Oh, that's horrid! It really was a blessing in disguise though - both being at the hospital and the doctor being there!

    http://www.thevagabondstudio.com

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  4. That's a horrible experience! Glad you were able to at least have 2 kids before the involuntary hysterectomy! And I am glad that after this episode, life returned to normal and you could enjoy life with your family!

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  5. Scary and sad :( Hugs.
    I'm glad you're both well now!

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  6. p.s. I nominated you for the One Lovely Blog Award!!

    http://www.thevagabondstudio.com/2012/06/one-lovely-blog-award.html

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  7. WOW- I hope all is well now. My thoughts are with you and I am going to vote now!!!

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  8. Oh my! What a horrific experience! I'm glad that the doctor was at the right place, at the right time! Stoppin by from the Green Mom's Network ;) simplyhelpinghim.com

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  9. Oh my goodness! You clearly had someone looking out for you!

    http://sadies-story.blogspot.com

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