Kinky Bowels and Other Life Changes

The last few months have been full of changes for the Payne family.  We experienced two deaths in the family when we lost Tim's father and brother within a week of each other in March.  We lived through it though and even experienced some of God's incredible grace through the whole thing.  Next on the list of events was an exciting re-appointment for Tim.  We found out that Tim is to become the new pastor of Wellspring UMC in McKinney in early April.  This means a move for us so we began searching for a home in that area.  Our search continues and while this is a wonderful exciting opportunity - I have to say it is a stressful thing in light of the fact that we are having a baby in a few months.

This brings me to where I am at this very moment - in the Antepartum unit of Baylor University Medical Center in downtown Dallas.  I had been looking forward to my baby shower for months now.  My wonderful friends Brianne and Keri, along with my Mom and sisters Missy and Michelle worked so hard to make it a special day for me and baby Luke.  During the night on Friday night, I started to feel what I thought were uncomfortable gas pains.  I got up and took some Colace and even some gas-x, hoping things would move through my system.  When I woke up Saturday morning I ate my usual little bowl of raisin bran and started to get ready for the shower, trying to work through the pain.  About 9am, Tim and I loaded up in the car and headed toward Brianne's house.  As we drove, the pain got worse and worse.  I turned myself in every possible position to give myself some relief but it just was not letting up.  About halfway through the drive I broke out in a cold sweat and my vision started to turn really bright, but all I could see was dots and a tunnel.  The same with my hearing - it started to go.  I kept telling myself, just lay back, you'll come through it and be fine, you can't disappoint all of the folks who worked so hard on the shower, or who are attending the shower.  Reality finally set in though, and I had to tell Tim, "Hon, I think I need you to take me to the hospital."  Flashers on, we raced toward Baylor UMC.  I called my new OBs office on the way and left a message with the answering service that we were en route.  We came in through the emergency room entrance but they quickly whisked me away to the Labor and Delivery unit.  All the while I'm thinking... "what? i'm not having this baby today... it's just gas people!"  I got settled in the L&D room and the OB on call for my OB called Tim and proceeded to scold him for not calling her before going to the emergency room.  Still having trouble understanding this.  Would she have told us to just tough it out?  Anyway - while I lay in the bed in that L&D room, my pain increased to a true 10.  They finally gave me some hydrocodone, which then made me vomit violently because I had nothing on my stomach.  About three hours in, Mom, Missy and Michelle joined us in the room.  Because of my abdominal surgery history, a gastric bypass in 2000 and a gallbladder removal in 2001, the OB residents decided to consult a surgeon who does these surgeries to rule out that my pain had anything to do with those.  I kept thinking... it's been 10 years and I haven't really had any problems - why would there be now?  So a nice little guy from radiology came down and gave me two cups of liquid that tasted like lotion mixed with water that I had to chug down so that I could get a CT scan.  Lots of ick faces and paperwork later, I was wheeled down for a CT scan.  About 30 minutes after that, the nurse poked her head in the room and told me I was to eat or drink nothing from that point forward - that they had seen something on the CT, but that was all she could say.  So we sat in the room for the next hour or so, speculating on what was going on, and what could be done about it.  Finally, the resident OB entered the room and told us what she knew.  They could see an internal hernia in my bowels resulting from my gastric bypass 10 years ago.  Because of the pregnancy, my bowels had been pushed up, making the problem much more apparent.  She said that she was waiting on the on-call Doc for gastro surgery, but that she suspected that surgery was in order.  I was shocked.... I had not at all expected to end up having surgery the day of my baby shower!  Not long after, Dr. Koon, a hugely respected Doc at Baylor entered my room with one of his assistants.  The neo-natal doc was also in the room explaining all the things that could happen if Luke was born at 25 1/2 weeks - scaring me to death.  Dr. Koon explained that this happens in about 1 to 2% of patients who have gastric bypass.  Baylor sees 1 or 2 of these surgeries a year, but if I had gone to any other hospital - they most likely would never have seen this before.  He explained that there were two kinks in my bowels that were obstructing them.  He said they needed to go in and un-kink them.  He explained that they would try to do the surgery laproscopically, but that there was a possibility that part of my bowel was dead from having the blood supply cut off, and that if they found that, they would likely have to make a large incision to repair it.  Oh and by the way - we were doing this surgery in 20 minutes.  He said it was an emergency.  Yep - so if I wasn't freaked out already, I sure was now.  Scared to death more for Luke, than for myself.  About 15 minutes later, a nice orderly named Bear showed up to transport me to the OR.  My dad also showed up about that time and accompanied all of us there.  I felt like I was on an episode of Grey's Anatomy.  Outside the OR, we met the anesthesiologist.  He was the nicest man and tried to make us all feel at ease.  Lots of kisses from my family and then I was wheeled into the bright white OR.  The next think I knew I woke up in recovery and the pain in my stomach was gone.  I was whoozy, but could hear the people around me telling me that the surgery had gone great.  All I could do was give a thumbs up.  Baby Luke held strong throughout the entire thing - he was healthy and staying put.  Praise God!

So, here I sit, in the antepartum unit - recovering.  I haven't had anything to eat since the raisin bran yesterday morning, and I won't get anything to eat until I pass gas (sorry - there is not better way to put that).  I'm starving!!!  Not sure exactly how long I will be here, or how long my recovery time will be, but I'm feeling stronger by the hour.  Luke is still doing great.

A couple of things come to mind that my loved ones either said to me or did for me yesterday:

My wonderful husband: "We just do the next right thing and leave the results up to God."
My sweet sister Missy: "God never gives us more than we can handle." and right before I was wheeled into surgery "God's hands are on each of those doctors."
My sweet sister Shell put my hair up for me so that I wouldnt' vomit all over it.
My Mom brought me pictures of my shower that I missed.
My Dad: "if you need anything (while I was in the OR - knocked out) - call me" LOL
Brianne: "when you poot - i'll bring you anything you want to eat" LOL!

You see - God surrounds us with his loving arms in the sweet voices and actions of our loved ones during these times.  It's those things we cling to and remember when we come out the other side.  Praise God for the challenges set before us that truly show us we belong to Him.