in the early hours of wednesday morning, i woke up suddenly with horrible chest pains. part of me worried it was my gall bladder, just because every woman in my family has had theirs removed i think, so i kind of knew my time was coming. another part of me thought it was just really bad gas. the pains continued to get worse, i was sweating, throwing up, and couldn't breathe. i waited it out for a few hours before i couldn't handle it anymore and called my doctor's answering service. i wanted to reach through the phone when she asked if it was really an emergency or if i could wait until business hours. seriously? i was gasping for air. i kindly informed her that i was a high risk pregnancy, that i had seen dr. gayle every week since i got pregnant, and that he'd want to know what was going on. he called me back about 20 minutes later and told me to go to the ER right away. the next day he told me that he though i had a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in my lung) because of the way i sounded. he was really worried. i could barely walk, but managed to make it to the car.
to the ER we went. wouldn't you know, when you say "pregnant" and "chest pains" in the same sentence, they get you in fast. within 2 minutes, they had me in a bed, robe on, doing an EKG, which came back perfect. they got me hooked up to an IV because i was also dehydrated and added some zofran and pain meds in with it. i was feeling better fast. next up was an ultrasound, which did reveal that i had "gall stones and sludge" in my gall bladder. sludge just doesn't sound very pleasant. they sent me home later on and had me follow up with dr. gayle.
dr. gayle called and wanted to see me at 8am the next morning and had also arranged for me to meet with a surgeon (whose name i still can't remember. how ridiculous is that?). dr. gayle's first words to me were "if it's going to happen, it's going to happen to erin hill." i'm unsure now how many times he's said that in the last 8 months. he did an ultrasound to check on the baby, who was thriving. the baby is doing so well and was wiggling all around, which was such a blessing to see. the heart looks great, the brain looks great, and everything is developing as it should. i immediately praised Him!!!
dr. gayle discussed with me the risks of having gall bladder surgery as well as the risks of not having it. my mind was kind of already made up that i wanted the surgery because i knew that it was safe for the baby and i didn't really want to experience that pain ever again. he directed me to be on a no fat, lots of liquid diet and lots of extra rest. we discussed bed rest, just because he's being extra cautious about any added stress to the baby since i'm still in the first trimester, but i simply promised that i'd rest as much as i could.
meeting with the surgeon brought even more comfort in the decision to have surgery. it would have to wait until i was at least 14 weeks, but he has performed this surgery on lots of pregnant women with much success. we are tentatively planning the surgery for the last week of april.
as i was leaving the surgeon's office, dr. gayle was walking in the hallway, so i was able to update him on what all the surgeon had to say and our decision to do the surgery. i let him know that the surgeon would keep him informed on how the surgery goes and that they would be monitoring the baby the entire time. dr. gayle immediately said "oh, i'll be there for the surgery." i can't say enough how grateful i am for such a wonderful doctor. he has truly been amazing.
even better, here's another situation in which God is forcing me to trust Him. i can't be worried. i can't stress out about it. He is orchestrating the entire process. and there's a peace about it. once again, there is peace.
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