Mastitis

While we were at the hospital w/my Mom I missed a pumping time. By 12:30am I am in complete agony and I tell my brother I have to go home to pump and feed Ryan. Well, I pump 4oz and I feed him for 15min on top of that and I am still in more pain than I can remember being in in a long time. John makes me a rice sock and that doesn't help at all. I put hot compresses on and then cold - nothing. I am shivering and shaking uncontrollably. I tell John that I can't wait 6hrs for my midwife to open so he takes me to the ER. (SIL stayed w/the kids) Right before we left I took my temp and it was only 98.2 so I was hoping that meant I didn't have any infection. We get to the hosp (less than 10min later) they take my vitals and my temp is 100. They check me in and give me 3 Tylenol. Take my temp again in an hour and it's 100.5. Turns out I have Mastitis. My right boob is TWICE the size of my left and from 12:00 to 6:00 is hard as a rock. They put me on 500mg of an antibiotic, give me Motrin and tell me, as many of you already know, that the only way to clear it up is to keep pumping and feeding. Which I am doing.

5 wks

Ryan is 5wks old now. He didn't have a one month appt b/c at his two week our pedi said he was doing so well he didn't need to see him until 2mon. At 2wks old he was 9lbs, 2oz. I weighed him today - my gf has an infant scale - and he is a whopping 12lbs, 8oz!! He's gained 3+lbs in three weeks! My little heffer.

Eye Specialist

Aidan had his appt with the eye specialist today. He is definitely going to need some help. He has "Strabismus and Amblyopia" of the right eye. Strabismus is the term for the eye turning inward. Amblyopia is the brain essentially shutting off his right eye b/c it's confused. The brain doesn't know which eye to focus on so it shuts off the one that turns in. We go back next Tues. We have to put drops in his eye twice on Sun and twice on Mon. They will check his eye vision and function on Tues. He will then need to get a patch for his left eye to make the brain start using his right eye again and he will need glasses to correct the turning in. This works in 80% of kids with these issues and the other 20% need surgery to correct but we're hoping it doesn't come to that.

Surgery Update

She *just* called me finally. She is going in for surgery at 3pm. It will take about 2hrs. I asked if anyone is there with her. She said NO. UN-effing-believable. I just can't believe she is going in for this major surgery and her damn gf isn't even there with her. She said she will ask a nurse to call me when she is out of surgery. I'm not going to hang hope on it b/c I know how busy they are and they might not get a chance. I told my sister to call me when she is alert enough to.

Update 3-18-08

My sister is having her finger amputated tomorrow. I know I haven't updated but it's b/c things were going back and forth all over the damn place. I didn't want to keep updating every. single. day. Bottom line is she loses her index finger tomorrow. They are hoping they can still save the thumb and middle finger but it's a waiting game. She called me today to go over all of her paperwork. Her surgery is considered "high risk" b/c of her situation with her veins and arteries. The dr's have also determined that she has had 3 "TIA's" which from what she explained to me are mini strokes. I'm praying as hard as I can that she is just fine during her surgery but having her call me and tell me I'm her Healthcare Surrogate and having to talk over her wants and want nots if anything *should* happen didn't exactly make me feel all warm and cozy inside if you know what I mean. Of course I can't express my concerns or worries with her b/c SHE is counting on ME to keep HER calm. OY!!! Well, who the hell keeps ME calm??