What a Difference a Year Makes

One year ago today I got some amazing news…..but let me start from the beginning.

At the end of April 2013, I was hospitalized and had an emergency surgery. My intestines had perforated and I was 2 hours from death, to use the doctors words. He had to put in a temporary colostomy. If you know me, you know I have incredibly sensitive skin. (Where the Indian, French and Mexican genes I am supposed to have are, I will never know.)

After 3 months of being miserable and in pain, trying over and over again to find good colostomy supplies, I was somewhat used to what was happening, but also had an end in sight. We picked July 24th as the day to reverse the colostomy and let me get back to a normal life. I was SO ready!! Fast forward to waking up from sedation and surgery and I feel the colostomy bag still attached. I wanted to cry. All I could think was something terrible happened and I would be stuck with it forever. (If you are, and have the skin I have, I really feel for you.)

The doctor comes in and I ask him what went wrong. Please keep in mind I am still incredibly groggy, was having oxygen and pain issues, etc so it all felt very dream like in the room. The doctor tells me he couldn’t do the surgery because I had an enlarged uterus. For those of you who don’t know, in Fall of 2012 we found some serious cells the dr called pre-cancer but close to turning and advised we do an ablation or a hysterectomy. I opted for the ablation as a more non-invasive choice knowing we could do a full surgery if needed. Needless to say, hearing my uterus was enlarged led me down the path of assuming it was a large tumor. I argued with the doctor for hours about what it was. Finally, they took me down for a scan. Little did I know/believe that what they were going to show me was a baby.

Next step, serious panic. I had never been blessed enough to carry a baby to term. I also had almost died in April and they were telling me I was already pregnant then, so the baby had been through two surgeries, poison in my system and lots, and I mean LOTS of pain meds and other drugs to save me. Between having had so many miscarriages and having been through all this, I knew there was no way this baby would survive, let alone be normal and healthy.

Then I make the call to his daddy. He lives out-of-town and if you think my shock was big, you should have heard his. You see, he had a vasectomy 9 years ago. How is this possible he wanted to know. (Clearly his doctor never told him they could reverse themselves)

Together we prepared for the worst. We scheduled genetic tests, scans to see the babies organs and body, etc. We did not share the news with anyone because we just knew this baby would not survive.

Fast forward to September. We finally have all the results back, all the scans have been done and we have amazing news…..the baby appears to be perfect. Being one not to question God, I just accepted it for what it was, but with the niggling in the back of my mind that January (the due date) was still very far away and anything could happen, as it always had in the past. We decided to go ahead and share the news with family and some friends. As we got further along we did decide to share the news publicly. Not that people couldn’t tell by taking one look at me. 🙂

January arrives….the end of the pregnancy was incredibly easy, other than our little one trying to come early, and I was almost sad it was about over. January 5th around 2pm my water breaks. I call my mom who wants to rush right to the hospital, but I was in the middle of laundry. I mean who doesn’t finish their laundry before going to the hospital in labor?!? We got to the hospital around 4 and they started Pitocin because I was not thinning and dilating. As we went through the day, things were not changing so they did some other things to try to help. Pitocin contractions for hours on end are not fun, but at least it was tolerable. They kept offering an epidural, but I kept declining. Finally at 9pm the next night (yes, 29 hours in labor on Pitocin is LOADS of fun) we decided to do a C-section. They were worried about infection because my water had broken so many hours before. Because I still had the colostomy, we had tried to avoid surgery at all costs, but here it was…happening. They called in the Doctor who handles colorectal cases. He brought a friend. I guess a woman having a baby is rare when a colostomy is present. Nothing like being a show horse when you are already opening up everything for everyone, to give birth.

The C-section couldn’t have gone better. The OB had a few problems with the placenta and the baby aspirated some fluids coming out, but other than that, perfection. That moment of seeing your baby for the first time is amazing. To see that he seemed to be perfectly normal and healthy was just icing on the cake. There are no words to describe it…ever.

Two days before he was born, I lost an amazing friend who was like a brother to me. It was very unexpected and my heart was broken. It was such a bittersweet week, losing him but getting this miracle baby. We suddenly decided we needed to add another middle name to our son, to honor this lost friend.

I now have such an amazing little miracle boy. He is so handsome and smart and I just know God has some big plans for this little guy. How could He not given what happened to get him here?

In March I was lucky enough to finally have the surgery that removed the colostomy and thankfully that went incredibly well. What was not going well was that I was still having some issue with having had the baby. I went back to the dr and heard the news, “Jean, you have a large mass in your uterus.” I was shocked. This is what I expected to hear last July, not now. So here we are again, seeing doctors and having tests. The decision has been made and the surgery has been scheduled, I will be having a hysterectomy in a few weeks. I think a lot of women struggle with this and are devastated. Given my history and the last year and a half of my life, I could care less. Take it all….I already have the most amazing miracle gift ever!

My Gift from God