Ben's Pregnancy

 Ben's pregnancy was nothing like I imagined it would be. In all my wildest dreams I never thought that I would end up so sick that I almost died, have my doctor tell me to abort my baby, get a picc line, have to move back home for home health, have a zofran pump put into my legs, and honestly pray to just be put in a coma. I've never been so sick in my life. 

When I got home I was sick, but just thought I was dehydrated from the travel home from Hawaii. I went into work the next day at the ER and had my boss come ask me what was wrong. Jerry, my boss, was one of a kind. I told him I was not feeling well and he took it from there. In just over a week I ended up having to quit my job and instead of checking in patients in the ER, i was the one being checked in. 

At this point Christopher and I still thought things were normal. People get sick when they are pregnant. It wasn't until my brother Mike came down to visit me for my birthday that he called my mom and told her things were bad, very bad. She flew in and took over. Before I knew it I was moved into a hotel in Orem, had my doctor fired, and had a ticket booked back to California. I'm not sure Christopher even knew she was planning this. We were both deer in the headlights and totally scared.

My body was so dehydrated they couldn't find any veins (even in my feet) to hook me up to an IV. Jerry went to bat for me and championed hard for me to get a PICC line. He knew I wasn't a fussy person so for me to be so out of it I must be really sick. When they do the PICC line they thread a tube from your vein in your arm, up through your shoulder and into your heart cavity. Normally it takes 10-15 minutes. Mine took 3 hours. My veins, normally the size of a straw, were mostly collapsed and closed. I could feel the tube going in my body and it hurt like heck! It took me 5 days in the hotel to get me stable enough to fly home. Christopher had to stay behind to finish his semester which only had 2 or 3 weeks left at this point. I was terrified, but also completely out of it.

This was a really hard time for us and not what we thought it was going to be at all. Christopher moved down to California and in with Nini and Bebe, I literally did nothing but throw up and try to block all sounds, light, and smells. I ended up gaining 80 lbs and never felt good. It was rough.

Poor Dad was such a good sport, but this was really hard on him. It's not easy living in your in-laws house, working night audit shifts for your mother in law, and trying to take full credit hours as independent study. This was before internet so everything had to be mailed in and all tests had to be proctored in person. These were really hard months.