The Week that Was

Last week was huge! Maybe not huge for everyone, but for pregnant, MS-y, home loving me it was BIG!

Very early Thursday morning Sean and I flew down to Sydney for my best friends wedding. I have been looking forward to this moment since I first met Erin more than ten years ago. She didn't have a traditional wedding, but what she did have was absolutely perfect.

 

Erin and Arron got married in the most gorgeous park overlooking Sydney harbour. After the ceremony we all had lunch back at Darling Harbour where we were staying. It was such a fun day and most importantly Erin and Arron were so happy to be married surrounded by their closest family and friends. Erin is absolutely stunning and I can't wait to see how her professional photos come out!

The next morning the happy couple (and their gorgeous little boy) flew out to Fiji for a honeymoon and Sean and I did some Sydney sight seeing. When we booked our flights we planned a really late flight out of Sydney so that we could spend the day being tourists, my MS was (and still is) being really shitty last week, but we still managed to have a really good day.

We walked and ate our way around Sydney the entire day. It was gorgeous. We had such a good time just being together, we were definitely feeling the love and even got asked if we were on our honeymoon.

That evening at Sydney airport we were snapped out of our loved-up and blissed-out state. I was completely exhausted by the time we got to our gate at 7pm. We arrived an hour and a half before our flight because we didn't want to risk getting stuck in Friday evening Sydney traffic. In the time we were there our gate was changed 7 times. Most of the changes were between just two different gates (that just happened to be at the opposite ends of the Virgin terminal), by the time they announced the last change I burst into tears. I was so fatigued and just wanted to get on the plane and go home. Sean kept trying to get me into a wheelchair, but there is no way I'm going down that route until I physically can not put one foot in front of the other...

Eventually (with no explanation as to the changes or half hour delay) we boarded our plane and headed home. When we got to Brisbane they landed us at the furtherest end of the terminal even though all of the other gates where empty. Jerks.

I was so glad to be home though and the second we walked in the door I had a sound asleep Max wrapped up in my arms. We were only gone for 36 hours, but I missed him like crazy!!

The next day we (Sean, Max, Sean's parents, some friends of ours and I) piled into two cars and drove up the road to Australia Zoo. The smartest thing I could have done would have been to stay in bed and recover, but there was no way I was missing out on Max's first trip to the zoo! I got to see him do all the cool things - feeding elephants, getting up close to a tiger, checking out the African animals, marveling at the crocs and feeding some very friendly kangaroos. After that I went and slept in the car while everyone else finished checking out the rest of the animals.

Max and his Nonna

Captivated by the Tiger

Loving the Elephant (the highlight of the day!)

My favourite part of the day was seeing Max feed these Kangaroos

By the time everyone came back to the car I'd been asleep for almost an hour and was definitely ready to go home. We didn't go home though. We travelled a little further up the coast to Max's great Aunties place. Max had a ball though, so it was definitely worth it!
  

 All in all, it was such a fun week. Exhausting, but filled with so many fun memories :)

20 Weeks

Yep, we're halfway!!

I had my 20 week scan today and I am beyond excited to say that everything went perfectly. We even took Max along with us so that he could 'meet' his little brother for the first time. Max squealed out loud when we showed him the baby on the tv screen and said 'that's my baby!'. He asked a million questions while we were in there about the jelly on my tummy, what the sonographer was doing, if the baby was coming out now and more. He is such a clever little guy :)

I feel the baby kick so much at the moment, so it was no surprise that he wriggled around for most of the ultrasound. We got to see everything we needed to in the end though and our baby is looking healthy and happy.

The absolute highlight for me was when we were watching the baby touch his face and put his fingers in his mouth in 3D. I looked over at Sean and Max and saw that Max was smiling and watching the monitor. As I said to Sean 'do you think Max understands what he's looking at?', Max lifted his hands up to his face just like the baby was doing and said 'look he's touching his face!'. Such a beautiful family moment!

This scan is a real turning point in our pregnancy, from now on in we are no longer considered to be high risk. Such a feeling of relief after the last 5 weeks of uncertainty.

Back on the 16th of May (my birthday, and 6 days after our 13 week scan) we got a phone call from the hospital saying that we had been placed into the high-risk category for genetic defects and that we would need to come in for genetic counseling.

We went in the very next day and they explained to us that whilst my scans looked normal, the blood-test results had indicated that my hormone levels were not in the 'normal' range. We decided to book in for an amniocentisis, but had to wait two and a half weeks before I was far enough along for the procedure to be possible. To be honest I took it pretty hard at first. I got really depressed and was convinced that the baby wasn't going to be ok. I couldn't shake the negativity and kept thinking that this was a continuation of all the health issues I had developed over the last couple of years (MS and the symptoms that accompany it). When I wasn't thinking about that, I was really scared that we would have the amnio, find out everything was ok and then lose the baby (a 1/100 risk that is associated with the test).

Thanks to the most amazing, supportive and positive husband and the support of our family and some of my closest friends I was able to turn myself around in the last week leading up to the amnio and start focusing on being positive, praying for my baby and being grateful for the beautiful family that I already have. Changing my mindset made a huge difference and by the day of the procedure I was really optimistic that we were going to have a positive outcome.

The amnio and scan was done at 16weeks +6 days and went really well, no issues at all and the baby looked really good on the scan. We got a phone call 24 hours later (almost to the minute) saying that our initial results came back showing that all of the baby's chromosomes were exactly as they were supposed to be. Sean was at home with me waiting for the call and I can honestly say that it was one of the happiest moments of our lives. We were elated! We also found out on that phone call that we would be having another boy. Double celebrations!

We were told that within two weeks we would get a phone call if anything abnormal showed up on the other tests and that if all went well at our 20 week scan we would no longer be considered high risk.

Which brings us to today. Our scan went perfectly and we got the confirmed results back from the long-term tests saying everything is a-ok :).

A very happy day for us here in the Riley household!!

Today

I have so much to share with you guys, our trip to Wolgan Valley, my home-made Christmas ornaments, Max's first Christmas Carols, my Christmas decorating and more...

But instead I'm back in bed. This stupid illness that I have seems to sneak up on me when I do too much. My legs are barely working, I have a cold sore and my face is breaking out, I've got a cold and my eyes have puffed up to the point that I can see my own eyelids when I look straight ahead.

Attractive huh?!

The disease I have is called MS (multiple sclerosis). I will do a post about it at some point, but right now I don't feel like I even know enough about it myself.

I first started getting symptoms a little over two years ago when I was pregnant with Max, and its taken from then until a couple of months ago to get a diagnosis. So its still all very new to me.

Most days my life is perfectly normal. But on the days where it's not (like today) it starts to really get me down. I'm not going to go into too much detail today because I would rather write a post about it on one of those days where I'm not feeling sorry for myself. Which is definitely not today!

So I'm back off to bed to rest up and get better.

I promise I'll be back soon with some festive cheer :)

Blogging From Bed

I'm just checking in quickly to explain my lack of posting this week. I'm sick. Again.

I've recently been diagnosed with an auto-immune disease (more on that when I'm ready to talk about it) and it has left me a bit run down. I seem to pick up every bug that comes my way at the moment.

We're waiting on tests to come back to see if I have glandular fever, but I'm fairly confident I don't have it. The antibiotics finally seem to be doing their thing.

I have so many posts to share from the past week. Fingers crossed I will be better soon!

x Tamsyn


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Lumbar Punctures Can Bite Me

Last Wednesday I went in to the hospital for a scheduled lumbar puncture. My doctor said it really wasn't going to be a big deal, worse case I might get a headache... Either she was lying or has no idea.

The evening I got home from having the procedure I started getting a spinal headache (caused by a change in the pressure in my brain due to slow leaking spinal fluid). I could make it go away by lying down, so I spent that night and most of Thursday sleeping in bed (and snuggling with my puppy).

By Friday the headache was horrific when I stood or sat up, so I called the hospital and asked if I could come in for a blood patch (a follow up procedure where your own blood is injected into the epidural space around your spine - with the aim to seal up the leak and fix the spinal headache). Because I wasn't able to sit up without severe pain they hospital asked me to come in by ambulance through emergency.

When I was lying down I felt perfectly good, so whist we were waiting for the ambulance my sister helped me do my hair and make-up. Apart from the spinal headache I was a-ok.

Once I got to hospital they put a drip in for dehydration and then went about testing me for other things before agreeing that I had a spinal headache and doing the blood patch.

My Mum arrived just after the patch, which was a good thing because I was really emotional by then and struggling to hold back the tears. The original lumbar puncture hadn't hurt at all, but the patch felt a bit more painful.

We were in good spirits though, because the doctors were sure that the patch had worked. I spent the next four hours in the hospital lying flat in my bed, chatting with my Mum and playing hangman with my sister (via the internet).

After 4 hours was up they gave me some sandwiches to eat and I then was allowed to get up and go to the bathroom. I felt dizzy and nauseous, but I figured it was just because I had been lying down for the last 36 hours. The doctor came by and decided to keep me overnight for observation, but after running through my insurance card we found out that it wouldn't be covered (I was at a private hospital and I have only just re-joined my health-fund). The doctor (who was the nicest man on the planet) assured me that he was just keeping me in as a precaution so we decided to go home rather than pay the $2000 for an overnight stay.

While I was waiting for Mum to bring the car around I started to get really, really dizzy and nauseous. I ducked back in to the nurses station to triple check with them if I should be going home and they said I would be fine. The loaded me up with anti-nausea wafers and half a dozen sick bags and sent me on my way.

The ride home from the hospital was horrific. I was lying flat in the front passenger seat, to try and stop the headache that had come back, but was also fighting off wave after wave of nausea. We made it about halfway home before I started throwing up. It wasn't pretty. I actually threw up so hard that I wet my pants (bet you really wanted to know that huh!). It also triggered even more headaches, at the time I thought I had pulled something in my neck, but later a doctor explained that the throwing up would have messed further with the pressure in my brain. Mum and I decided to keep going home and get me into bed. It would have been a horrible car ride for my Mum, the car smelt like vomit and I was sobbing for most of the way home.

I took the painkillers and nausea wafers that the hospital had given me when I got home and thankfully slept through the night.

The next day I was still in a really bad way so about lunchtime we decided to call for another ambulance (I still couldn't sit up) and go back to the hospital. Only this time we went to a public hospital in case I needed to be admitted (ha - in Queensland, shows how delirious I was - our public health system is in seriously bad shape!!)

The beauty of going there by ambulance meant that I was seen immediately. They put me back on a drip and dosed me up on Maxalon (for the nausea), something else for the dizziness and morphine for the intense head pain. After about half an hour I was moved to my own room and I managed to have the best 15 minute sleep I have ever had in my life.

A couple of doctors came in and offered their thoughts. Originally the wanted to send me back to Holy Spirit, but I explained that I was still within insurance waiting periods and I vetoed that idea. They then sent down an anesthetist who wanted to do another blood patch, but I really wasn't keen on another spinal procedure.

In the end they dosed me up on more pain killers, gave me a few days worth to take with me and sent me home. I pushed hard for them to admit me, but the doctor said that they didn't have enough beds to take patients that weren't critical. I totally get that, but it made me wish like crazy I had already served the waiting periods on my private insurance. I was so frightened about getting back in the car to go home and going through the same thing that I had the previous night.

In the end (thanks to the pain killers, anti-nausea meds and being re-hydrated I was fine in the car.

I spent the next couple of days dosed up and in bed recovering. And now today, I am finally out of bed, walking around, eating like a normal person and feeling human again.

It was quite the ordeal and I am so happy to be out the other side of it.

I have to say an absolute huge thank you to my family. My sister spent five days (including her birthday) looking after me, as well as Max and her two girls. My Mum, who kept my house clean, sat with me for hours on end in the  hospital, looked after Max and me and didn't blink when I threw up in her car. Sean, who was working through a brand launch at work, yet still came and sat with me at the hospital and gave me the love and support I needed. My Dad, for dropping around and visiting me as often as he could. Aggie, my Mother-in-Law for taking a few days away from her business and looking after Max and I once everyone else had gone home. A big thank you to my work as well, for sending me the most beautiful bunch of flowers.

Hopefully everything is back to normal now. I have a big few weeks coming up. I'm planning a baby shower for my BFF, my niece is turning one and I am planning on stenciling the pantry.

Stay tuned!