Kadence's Journey Pt 2

Ok, it's really hard for me not to post every day along Kadence's month long journey. So much happened and it's hard to condense it all. This post will be July 7th through July 13th.

As life flight was getting Kadence ready for her life flight to PCMC, her grandma Green sat with her and rubbed her little foot. We found great comfort in knowing that she wasn't alone. She then arrived at PCMC where they were able to give her the medical attention that McKay couldn't. They performed an EEG (That weeks later they would tell us the results said she was brain dead) and they had a great team of doctors and nurses trying to give her the best chance at living. She was slowly making progress. She had peed which was great news because it meant her kidneys were working, she had chest tubes put in on both sides to help get the fluid out and she was losing weight like crazy. (Which was a good thing because it meant the swelling was going down) She still had a long way to go, and we still couldn't get a for sure answer on if she would or wouldn't make it.

July 8th

I was stuck up in Logan Regional hospital and not feeling great. My legs were super swollen and I couldn't hardly move. The nurses kept trying to get me to walk, but it hurt so bad because of the swelling. I also ended up with some fluid in my lungs so I had to be monitored closely. I was released on June 9th even though I kept telling them that something wasn't right. My blood pressure was high which is SO abnormal for me, and they just kept telling me it was because I was stressed. My legs were so swollen I could barely fit a pair of mens PJ pants on, but they just told me that it was because some women get swollen after delivery. We went home and stayed the evening there so that I could rest, shower, and pack. Of course I wanted to go straight down and see my baby, I knew I had to take care of myself too. I found comfort in knowing she had visitors daily.

On July 10th we loaded up the car and headed down to Ogden for a short break, and then off to Salt Lake to stay at the Ronald McDonald charity house. I was still in a lot of pain from my c-section so an hour car ride was about all I could handle at once. We stopped at my moms house, and I started feeling terrible. We called my OB, and he said to go check my blood pressure. David ran to the store and bought a blood pressure monitor, and my blood pressure was higher than it was in the hospital, which freaked me out because I am always at the low end of normal. The doctor told us to just keep monitoring it. My mom went with us down to Salt Lake. We got the tour of Ronald McDonald, the rules, and our room. We rested there for a minute before heading up to see Kadence. I had troubles walking so David had to get me a wheelchair to help save some of my energy. We stopped at the cafeteria to get a bite to eat because I was feeling like I was going to pass out. After eating we headed up. It was strange to me because David knew exactly where to go and it was all so new to me. He showed me how to get into the NICU by calling, how to scrub up, and where our little princess was. This was something I would get very used to, but the first time was very overwhelming. Kadence was in the furthest back room in the corner. As I sat there looking at her I felt so helpless. I talked with her and I set a goal for her. I told her that she should work on opening her eyes so that I could see them. I wanted her to do it by the next day...I know that sounds like an unattainable goal, but I knew she was strong and I knew she could hear me. It was so hard to leave her, but I was not feeling well and knew I needed to go rest.

July 10th

The next day I wanted to go see Kadence first thing, but I wasn't feeling very good still. We took my blood pressure and it was VERY high. I think it was 174/114. Compared to my usual 110/70 that was incredibly high! We called the doctor who then ordered us to go to the ER immediately. I was heartbroken. I had only seen my daughter twice in her whole life and now I wasn't able to see her again today?! How would she ever know that I loved her? We arrived at the U of U ER and were seen very quickly. They put me on a monitor and we watched my blood pressure climb. Doctors and nurses were running in and out of the room which made me nervous. I hadn't ever had such attention in a hospital before. The doctor immediately recognized that I had severe post partum pre eclampsia. Normally with pre eclampsia you deliver the baby to remedy it, but I had already delivered my baby. The only thing they can do to try to help is to give you a steady drip of magnesium sulfate. This stuff was HELL! It made you burn on the inside and freeze on the outside. They brought me to 4 different rooms before deciding where to leave me for good. Dale and Uncle Brian gave me a very powerful blessing which offered me enough comfort to get some rest. While I was in the hospital, a lot of family came to see both Kadence and I. It made it easy because there was a bridge that connected U of U to PCMC. I didn't really want David to leave me because I was so worried and stressed, but I finally let him go see Kadence. I knew she needed him more than I did. When he came back, he was so excited! He explained to me that Kadence opened her eyes! He was able to get a picture of it to show me. She held up her end of the deal and I was so happy!

July 11th

I stayed in the hospital for a few more days and struggled every second of it. In fact, the first time they got me out of bed I ended up passing out. It was incredibly embarrassing! I tried to get better quickly so that I could go see my baby. Everybody else was bonding with her and I had only been able to see her for about 35 minutes total in her week of life. I was released on July 13th. We decided to leave the Ronald McDonald house and stay at my parents house because it was so depressing there. It was a great opportunity, and we really appreciate the chance we had to stay there but it made it hard to take our mind off of our situation. We went to my parents so that we had a little bit of home and we could get better sleep.

On July 13th Kadence started making huge improvements. One of the two chest tubes was removed, she came off the nitrous oxide that was helping her lungs function, quite a bit of the swelling was gone, she weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce, and her blood pressure had started to stabilize. (Yep, we both struggled with hypertension) She was headed in the right direction and we were starting to feel like she might actually make it.