What a Whirlwind!: The beginning.

~Ok so here is my birth story. This was all written at least a month and a half ago.~
I went in to the doctor’s office on November 22nd, pretty much really sick and in pain. It felt like my gall stone issues but worse and spread all over my abdomen instead of just focused on one side. They tested my urine and blood pressure and the docs wanted me to go to the hospital. They were pretty sure I had pre eclampsia. 2 days later, that’s what I got diagnosed with. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I was actually on the surgical board for cesarian section but the girls looked good and my protein levels and some other stuff decided to behave for the moment so the docs decided that we would try to hold out as long as possible. Over the next 2.5 weeks my levels went up and down but the girls stayed nice and healthy. On the night of Thursday, the 9th, my levels went way up again so they ordered another BioPhysical Profile (in depth ultrasound that includes non-stress test) for the next morning. For those of you on my twitter or Facebook, this was the night that I just was really uncomfortable and unhappy and just really wanted my damn graham crackers and the nurse was about to bring them to me but my levels came back and she had to call the doc first. So it was a “yes but no but yes but maybe….here you go” moment with my graham crackers. I was just not feeling good and for some reason just focused all my anger and angst on getting those damn crackers!
Well, the next morning, after the ultra sound, they found that one of the girls amniotic fluid was low, so they told me not to eat anything (after I already had ordered breakfast and it was sitting in front of me. This does NOT make for a happy Corie!) and to just wait for what the doc might say. Well, the doc ended up moving me back to Labor and Delivery (I had been in post partum for the better part of 2 weeks) for monitoring and said we might deliver the babies that day. Well, that changed from might to “we are” within less than half an hour of being in L&D. I had already given the doc Mishu’s info to get a Red Cross message across to his command (Mishu told me to do this, it’s what his command told him. I guess they were in the middle of a Change of Command ceremony and needed official word he NEEDED to leave.) I called Mishu AS I found out my surgery was scheduled for 1 (this was at 12:30) and thankfully someone had already let him leave. He made it to me about 5 minutes before the team was scheduled to be up. The team was running a little late but I ended up delivering at 2:53 (Anna) and 2:54 (Lorraine) in the afternoon on Friday. They gave me a shot of Diloted in my back (like an epidural) and wowee did that feel weird. Took about 2 hours in recovery and sometime around 5 that evening they were able to wheel me into the NICU to see my baby girls. Anna was born at 5lbs 5oz at 17" and Lorraine was born at 4lbs 8oz at 16".
They are doing ok as of right now. They are off IV and were out of the isolettes but their bilirubens have gone up (they were elevated since birth but borderline so they held off on giving the girls the phototherapy) and are now on phototherapy. Will be on it for at least a few days and because of this, they will most likely be back in the isolettes. This means that they will be in at least a week, maybe a week from when they are done with the phototherapy.
My recovery is going fairly well I think. My incision is healing well, but I got a lot of fluid build up due to the pre e and it’s still here. I’m drinking as much water as I can and walking but it’s the best (as in not effecting me the most) in the morning. As the day goes on it gets worse, heavier and more sensitive. I am really hoping it goes away soon.

~Here are some more recent updates to it.

My c-section incision has been healing well. I have to remind myself that I am still recovering and not to push too far. All of the adema is gone and I am pretty much down to my pre-pregnancy weight. Definitely not size though. Another thing I have to keep reminding myself is that the body, nor the uterus bounces back quickly. I still wear the clothes I wore during pregnancy. I still feel as if people are looking at me that I am pregnant looking. Hopefully common sense should prevail (and it seems it has so far) that I am not that pregnant with two tiny (well, not so tiny any more!) infants.
Off the topic of the c-section, the girls came home 8 days after they were born. We were so thankful to have them home before Christmas. They have been doing great so far. I will get back to them in another post.
On January 3rd, I ended up in the ER with extreme gall bladder pain. I had been dealing with it throughout the pregnancy. Hell, that's how we found out we were having twins! It wasn't easy to deal with throughout the pregnancy but I dealt with it. Now that I was no longer pregnant, for whatever reason, the pain seemed to last longer. It would last for hours before going away, if at all, which by the time I was in the ER and they had me hooked up to IV's. At that time I had gotten in to my doctor's office the next day and had a referral to see a surgeon about finally getting my gall bladder removed. I ended up back in the ER the next day after I came home. I was fully admitted to the hospital at that point and had surgery for them to remove the gall bladder. Well, the day I went home, I ended up BACK in the ER with the same damn pain. Turns out it was a rogue mini gall stone that got stuck in the common bile duct and they did an endoscopy to get rid of it. All in all, I was in the hospital for a full week with all the ER visits and admissions. All went well for about a month and half. All of a sudden, the sharp, long lasting pain came back. I thought I was through all of this. Apparently not. Was sent home, ended back in the next day. *sigh* So now I have a referral to a GI specialist and we will see where that goes. So far (knock on wood) I have not had any more issues. Let's hope it stays that way.
I've also been referred to PT for my knees. These buggers don't seem to be wanting to treat me nicely lately so I'm sure soon I will have some updates about the evil physio-terrorists I will be going to! ;)

I will also soon post a progression of my belly pics. It really helps to see them all together to realize just how BIG I was! I didn't even get one just before the birth. The last one I have is about 1 week before birth.

I will leave you here with some pictures from the girls first few days:
Mishu and me with the girls in the OR: