Good Intentions

I had perfectly good intentions of posting for Father's Day on here. However, I was feeling really crappy, but we had a relatively nice day. We went to church where I almost embarassed myself in the parking lot by throwing up. You see, Archie was running late for church (as usual), and came out in flip flops. He then changed into his dress shoes, and as we were getting out of the car, I said something smelled awful, but thought it was something hidden in the brush near where we'd parked. When we came out from church, and I opened the door, the smell overwhelmed me and I was gagging and saying that horrific smell was coming from my car! I looked to see what was in there that hadn't been when I originally got into the van that morning, and picked up Archie's flip flops to smell them. Oh yeah, that was it, they got put into the church dumpster right then and there while I threatened to throw up in the parking lot. Archie couldn't even smell the stench until he put the shoes up to his nose, but evidently, my pregnancy nose is in overdrive. Lovely.

I continued with my sour stomach at the mall (Jack thought Daddy needed a new hat and new flip flops for Father's Day), and then on our way to lunch with my in-laws. When we got to the restaurant, Jack and I both needed to use the restroom, so I took him with me. Well, when we walked into the restroom, I noticed a musty smell. I brought my shirt up to cover my nose as I was already starting to wretch, but it didn't work. And I had a full bladder. Yup, threw up in the toilet, and thank goodness I had on a pantiliner, because I went myself too. Damn. Then when I went to flush Jack's toilet (he's always afraid it will be loud), I threw up again. I did manage to eat a little lunch, but felt like crud the rest of the day.

Feeling like crud has become my norm. If I'm not nauseous, then I am either wretching, or darn close to it. This hasn't been good because it means I'm snacking (usually on crackers) throughout the day and I'm probably eating one full meal a day (and pared down at that because I can't fill my stomach up like I was when I wasn't pregnant, or I'm running to the toilet). As far as drinking goes, it's either water or ginger ale. Sprite isn't sitting well these days, and to be honest, in a good day where I'm just nauseous, I'm on a steady diet of ginger ale, some water, and tums because fluids just seem to cause me to have bad indigestion which of course, isn't good when you already feel like you're going to be sick. So, my normal fluid intake in a day is about 2 cans of ginger ale, and usually about a 17 oz bottle of water, unless I'm at work when I might take in 20 oz of water if I'm feeling pretty good and it's not talking back.

I called my urologist on Wednesday because I wanted to let him know about the amount of water vs. ginger ale, and make sure that the amount of ginger ale I'm drinking counted towards my fluid intake. He wants water, without all the added sugar. He asked how long I've been drinking like that and I told him probably about 2 weeks. I was trying not to call him as I have an appointment with him in a few more weeks, and with my OB next week, and I could tell from my skin that I wasn't "dehydrated", and I certainly wasn't as sick as I was with Jack. He called me back at 4pm and wanted me to get a PICC line put in to keep my fluid status up so I'm not making stones, and in order to do that, I needed to make 3 liters of urine a day, which I won't be with 32 ounces of fluid intake a day. He called the doc covering for my OB (who is on vacation this week) and was up in arms about what he wants. The other OB called me and said she'd rather have me come into L&D and get tanked up with 3-4 liters of fluid and some iv zofran (I threw up 4 times on Wednesday, but that was the first time since Father's Day), and see how I feel in the morning and go from there. I told her that was fine, and thus, found myself admitted for 24 hours. I was sent home last night after they set up home health to come and put in IV's to give me fluids on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The original plan was to have someone come as needed on days when I'm not making enough urine, but none of the home care agencies thought they'd be able to staff well enough to guarantee someone would be able to come out to start an IV and tank me up. So, today is supposed to be my first appointment (however, I have yet to hear from anyone about a time, and am waiting for them to open so I can ask what the plan is) for a liter of fluids before I go into work. The hospital sent me home with my IV still in, and some saline to flush the line with in the hopes that I wouldn't have to be stuck again, and then I'll just pull the line myself before I head into work. This will work out well at the times when I'm not working the nights between home care appointments because it means as long as I keep the line patent, they won't have to stick me again.

I have no idea the plan for how long this is going to continue, I assume it will continue until I can take in enough fluids myself to keep my urine output up and stones away. I imagine that my secret at work will be out shortly because between the tape marks (you know how it gets dirty around the edges and isn't easy to get off the skin) and needing IV sticks (which will leave little scabs resembling track marks probably), the jig will be up. Oh well, I'm almost 10 weeks and if I can't keep it quiet until 12, then now is just as well I guess.