Daniel’s CaringBridge site is at http://caringbridge.org/visit/danieljameskm — we’ll have updates up as often as possible.
Category Archives: Health
Daniel James
I was sicker than Hades on Sunday and I begged my doctor to admit me on Monday. This was a good thing because my body went into pre-eclampsia around 8:00 pm MDT and they took me down to Great Falls by ambulance. Around 2:30 a.m., they made the decision to do a c-section and take Daniel out as the only treatment for pre-eclampsia is taking the baby out.
Daniel James was born on Tuesday April 7th at 3:46 a.m. by c-section. He was 14 1/2 inches long and weighed 1 lb 15 ounces. He’s in the NICU right now and despite being premature, he’s fighting and doing quite well. I’m spending time in there with him when I can and the staff there is the best around.
My c-section incision is healing and my blood pressure is going down. They haven’t quite told me how sick I was — either that or I’m not comprehending it too well.
Thank you for every prayer, phone call, e-mail, wall posting, and everything else. I appreciate it more than I can express.
Pray for Me
I’m apparently the poster child for pre-eclampsia at the moment so I’ve been put on bedrest until Monday afternoon.Â? That’s four days of being in bed (OK… and cheating by spending some time online) and I swear I am going to go stir crazy.Â? It’s also three days of almost no human contact because Jon will be gone.
Pray for my sanity, OK?
Some Un-Passworded Posting
It’s finally a beautiful day here.Â? It’s above freezing (it was near 0 F on Thursday), I got to sleep in, and Finian is bringing his catnip mouse collection up to me.Â? He is such a good prey-catching cat.
Daniel (the creature inside of me) has starting kicking HARD.Â? I wake up in the middle of the night and it feels like parts of my stomach are numb.Â? I’m not entirely used to it so it makes me jump when he goes into soccer-mode.Â? The funniest part was one of my guys at work talking to my tummy in Spanish and telling Daniel to stop kicking.
Lent
As I was watching the snow fall like powdered sugar this morning, I had just one thought in mind:
WHEN IS THIS FREAKING WINTER GOING TO END?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
I’m becoming like Edda the Puss when it comes to snow.Â? I don’t like it!!!!Â? Make it go away!!!!
So today is Ash Wednesday which is the first day of Lent.Â? (Easter is around Tax Day again.Â? Yes, I’m positively happy that Jesus paid my Death Tax for me.)Â? It’s a meatless day for me which is a royal pain because I’m hellishly depressed and not feeling like eating… and the only things I have the house that fit this have meat in them.Â? Crap!Â? I’m also giving up swearing which means 4-lettered words mostly.Â? (I’m keeping the precursors though.)
I should theoretically go to church tonight.Â? Then again, I should do a lot of things.Â? For example, I should have gone to work today; but called in sick after crying for a good two hours at the thought of having to go deal with people.Â? The thought of going to church tonight is making me similarly upset.Â? Not that I hate everyone — I’m just having “one of those days weeks”.Â? I’m grateful to have a boss who understands but I still feel guilty.
OMG Rlly?
I had someone express shock that I was pregnant yesterday.Â? Considering that I *LOOK* pregnant now, this was a little surprising.Â? It was nice, however, to know that people aren’t just staring at THE BELLEH.
“Scare the Public” Commercials
I was watching “17 Kids and Counting” tonight when one of those “if you’ve taken ______________ and had ______________ side effect” commercials came on.Â? The reason I’m blogging on this one: it was about Paxil and birth defects and pregnancy.Â? Since OMG this is my life right now, here’s the scoop:
I’m not on Paxil — I’m on Effexor XR.Â? The birth defect associated with Paxil is different than the one associated with Effexor and other SSRI/SNRI medications.Â? The news on Paxil and birth defects has also been known for at least the last three years and pretty much every family practice/OB-GYN is aware of it.Â? Heck, they’ve known about the connection between an increased risk of heart defects and most anti-depressants for at least that long if not longer because I’ve known about the risks for at least that long.Â? As for taking it while pregnant, your doctor will try and wean you off BEFORE you get pregnant if they’re aware that you’re trying to conceive.Â? I think if we’d known that I would be pregnant in October, my doctor would have started getting me off of Effexor in July (after my septoplasty) just so that the risk would be minimized.
Having said all of this, there is also the fact that the benefits to the mother outweigh the risk to the fetus in many cases (i.e. MEEEEEEEE).Â? I don’t know what the specific risk is with Paxil (I do know that it’s at least a Category D medication if not completely blackboxed for pregnant chicks) but I know that the risk for the defect with Effexor was a 4 in 10000 chance — 10 times higher than in the general populace but still pretty small compared to the normal risk for things like Down’s Syndrome, autism, and spina bifida.Â? (In comparison, Effexor XR and many anti-depressants are Category C.)Â? If you become pregnant, your doctor pretty much KNOWS everything you take and regulates it down to how much Tylenol you are allowed, what vitamins you take, and all that.Â? If you’re on something like Paxil or Effexor, they will do special testing and ultrasounds to make sure that the heart defect isn’t present or that you have a contingency plan in place (like getting the child emergency surgery, oxygen, whatever after birth) if it is.Â? It’s not like your doctor would allow you to take something like this and leave you in the dark after the kid is born with a heart defect — you’re warned going into the pregnancy.
My take: the law firms with this lawsuit need to take it off the freaking airwaves and focus on more important things than ambulance-chasing.