The Worst 17 Hours of My Life

Let me tell you about my weekend. It started out like any other weekend, well, the past few weekends I’ve went into work on Saturday so it started like those weekends. I don’t mind working Saturdays so much because I get comp time for it so I planned to take today, Monday off. I got home Saturday afternoon from work and started feeling a bit off. Since I just hit my third trimester, I thought that maybe what I’ve been hearing and reading about the third trimester was true. I’d heard that you start feeling exhausted, much like your first trimester. Some women also get their morning sickness back as space becomes prime real estate and your uterus is ginormous.

The rest of this post will be a bit graphic…just a warning.

So when I found myself running to the bathroom to projectile vomit the contents of my stomach, my first thought was that it was “morning” sickness. After the third or fourth time, I knew something was wrong. I proceeded to spend the next 10 or so hours running to the bathroom – sometimes because it was coming from both ends. Sorry, but it’s true. I couldn’t even keep water down. Once my stomach was empty, I tried to sip on some water and within a half hour I was throwing up water. Nothing else but water. I learned this trick around 4am so I put the kabosh on any liquids. I was able to get a couple of hours of sleep and then I called acute care. My mouth was completely dry and I craved water but I refused as I didn’t know if whatever was in my system had passed. The on call doctor advised me to come to the hospital to be admited to Labor & Delivery so they could give me fluids. She said it sounded like the GI bug that has been going around.

The drive to the hospital is an hour long so it was a bit uncomfortable seeing as how I was completely dehydrated. But I didn’t want to take the chance of drinking anything and having to vomit or have diarrhea on the way to the hospital. I just kept reminding myself that within the next hour or so I’d be getting the fluids my body desperately needed.

I was hooked up to a fetal montior and the room was filled with the constant beating of the baby’s heart. That was actually the first time my husband heard the heart beat. The baby was also dancing away in my belly and I was so relieved. When women are dehydrated in their pregnancy, the major concern is contractions and luckily I didn’t have any. I was hooked up to an IV and started my first 3 bags of fluids. Immediately after the first bag was insterted, my mouth started to feel less dry. The nurse gave me some ice chips to help me feel more hydrated and to see if it would stay in my stomach. Every ten minutes I sucked on an ice chip and luckily it stayed down. Then the nurse gave me a small cup of gingerale to sip on and that stayed down as well. They tested my urine and did a fourth bag of fluids. I started a fifth bag and they tested me again. About 3/4 through the fifth bag, they decided I was well enough to go home.

I was advised to follow the BRAT diet slowly. I was grateful that my baby was unaffected and I was starting to feel like myself and not someone who has lost total control of my bodily functions.

However; on the way home, we were on the onramp to the highway – all the way in the left hand land and four lanes over, a red SUV was merging onto the highway. There was a barrier divding the on ramp and the highway slightly which was covered with snow and all of a sudden, the SUV hit the barrier and flipped on its roof. It was unreal – like out of the movies. I had never seen anything like this before. We moved over the three lanes and pulled over and looked behind us and about 10-15 other cars did the same. I had my hand over my mouth saying “Oh my god!” over and over. Because so many people pulled over and I had just come from the hospital, we decided to continue on home. I felt a little guilt over this but we knew that there was tons of help and witnesses. I keep googling to see if I could find anything about the accident to no avail. I really hope the driver and any passengers were wearing seat belts and are doing ok.

I was so shaken up for most of the ride home. My mom called us. Turns out she hit the grocery store and was going to leave us groceries that I could eat and food for my husband as well. But, we were discharged sooner than we all thought so she met us off the highway and gave us the bags of food. This was the best thing ever! It meant we didn’t have to stop at the store and were able to just go home and nap. I desperately needed sleep and sleep I did. When I woke up I ate some crackers and had a small bowl of chicken soup. Everything stayed down.

I was able to sleep in this morning and had some tea and even ate a muffin. I’ve been eating small portions and very slowly but so far everything has stayed in me which is great. It was seriously the worst experience of my life. I have never been that sick before and I never want to ever again! It was very scary.

The staff at the hospital were fantastic and made me feel more comfortable about giving birth there. I just don’t want to be back until April!

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