silver linings (kendra)

Hard to believe it's been almost a week since Jason wisked me away to the hospital. Yet at the same time, it feels like ages ago...or like it didn't really happen at all. The memory of it seems somewhat like a dream. Maybe that's the morphine's fault.

For those of you who haven't heard the story, last Tuesday night just before bedtime I started having a good deal of lower abdominal pain. Jason called our midwife and explained what I was feeling, and she told us that we should go to the hospital...straight to the labor and delivery unit. We did, and a long night of tests and pain and needles and drugs ensued. Jason was super supportive. He stayed up with me, cared for me, comforted me when I threw up for the first time in 7 years or so. It was not a fun night. Painful and scary. But we found out pretty early on that baby was doing just fine. And that was some of the best news we could hear.

They aren't exactly certain what the cause of the pain was. But in the process of investigating, they did find a cyst on my left ovary. At first, they weren't too concerned about that. Smaller, "simple" cysts are actually quite common and can often resolve themselves with no intervention. The plan was to send me home with some ibuprofen and see if the pain subsided over the next day or two. They seemed rather certain that it would.

As we waited to see the midwife one more time before being discharged, we talked about what we might do that evening. But then we continued to wait. And wait. When she finally did come, she told us that the story had changed a bit. Turns out the cyst was larger than they'd originally thought, and that made it more of an issue. Larger cysts are more likely to cause problems than smaller ones. The ob/gyn that our midwife had been consulting with was going to come talk to us about it. So we waited some more.

Soon it became apparent that we weren't going to be doing anything later that evening except hanging out at the hospital. The ob/gyn was rather busy and at one point she was about to come talk to us, but had to deliver a baby next door instead. Finally, she did make it in. She gave us the full story and answered all of our questions. Surgery was an option, but somewhat of a complicated one due to the fact that I'm pregnant. The other option was to wait and see if the pain subsided and check the cyst again in a few weeks to look for any changes in size. There were risks associated with both options. She told us that we were welcome to go home and take some time to think about it. And that is what we did.

We got home between 10 and 10:30pm. We went straight to bed and both slept like rocks that night. We'd gotten some sleep during the day after having been awake most of the night...but we were obviously still exhausted from it all.

Needless to say, it was quite the experience. I'd never spent the night in the hospital before. I'd never had an IV. I'd probably never been in that much pain. But through it all, I had many things to be thankful for. First and foremost, my amazing husband. I don't know how I would have done it without him. I am thankful that baby is doing just fine. In fact, I think baby was pretty oblivious to it all...just kicking away like normal...even the next day when my belly was sore and those little kicks hurt! :-) I am thankful for the timing of it all. If it had to happen, the timing was pretty darn good. It happened when I was home with Jason. I wasn't in FL like I had been 3 nights before. We weren't in Mexico like we would have been a week and a half later. I wasn't even out running errands like I had been earlier that day. I was at home, 5 minutes from the hospital. And Jason was with me. It is true that God does not allow us to face more than we are able to handle. He is faithful to give us what we need to endure. And for that, I am thankful.