On September 11, at 9 days postpartum, I had a regularly scheduled doctors appointment to check up on me and Phoebe. Because the appointment was during nap time Becky so graciously took Jack. I went to the appointment and told them I was feeling really good and had stopped bleeding in the last 12 hours. They checked over Phoebe and let us know we looked good and could head on our way. As I was getting Phoebe packed up to go I had a sudden gush of blood. I called the doctor back in and let her know that I had soaked a pad in minutes. She said that if I soaked another in an hour I should give them a call and think about going to the hospital. I went to the bathroom to change my pad and started having intense pain. I sat in the bathroom for about an hour not really knowing what to do. I was in too much pain to drive home. The pain eventually subsided and I realized I had passed a large amounts of clots. I figured it was just a big gush that was over. I headed to the pharmacy that was in the building. While standing there for the 5 minutes it took to fill the prescription I soaked another pad. I decided that I really couldn't go home with out talking to my doctor again as I would just worry. I went back into the clinic and talked to my doctor. My blood pressure had spiked and I was continuing to soak pads. The decision was made that I needed to go to the doctors office. I called Chrissy to come pick me up as I was starting to have a headache and feeling dizzy. By the time I reached the emergency room I really wasn't feeling good. I was light headed and the pain was starting to ramp back up. Tim arrived shortly after I did and was able to take Phoebe as I didn't feel safe holding her. After going through triage and waiting to get seen the pain really intensified. I lay down on a little couch and shed a few tears while trying to breathe through the pain. It felt like I had a contraction that wouldn't go away. Tim was really stressed out and trying to find somebody to get me seen as fast as possible. The kindest lady approached us and held my hand. She said she had also had a postpartum hemorrhage long ago with her daughter and she knew how scared I was. It helped to take my mind off the pain. She said, "I know how weird this is but I am going to leave you my pillow for a little bit of comfort." She had been a patient and was just being a kind human. I couldn't have appreciated her more and the pillow was super nice to have while at the hospital. We were finally taken in and seen by a doctor. The ER doctor felt that I had a bit of retained placenta. I was given some pain management, dilaudid, and sent for an ultra sound. While at the ultra sound I could hardly move I was in so much pain. Going from the wheelchair to the table was more than I could take and put me into full shakes. Unfortunately nothing was seen on ultrasound so the ER doctor did an internal exam and removed a bunch of clots. This helped to relieve some of the pain but I was still bleeding. Dr. Albrecht, a high risk OB, consulted and made the decision to admit me as I would need a D&C. She was fabulous and managed to get me a private room so that Tim and Phoebe could stay with me. This was great so that I could continue to nurse Phoebe. 
Side Note: The med student with Dr. Albrecht took my history and asked what meds I was on. I told him what I had been on for pregnancy and that now I was just taking the prenatal vitamin. He was shocked and thought we were trying to get pregnant already.... The next day I was taken in for the D&C. I was told that the procedure would take about 10 minutes. I came out of the OR about 2 1/2 hours later feeling like I had been run over by a bus. Dr. Birch had taken over my care from Dr. Albrecht. During the D&C, the blood and clots were cleaned out but I started to really bleed and they couldn't get it stopped. They had to put in a Bakari uterine catheter. This applied pressure to my uterus to slow the bleeding. Dr. Birch estimated I lost 500ml- 1000ml of blood. When I went into the OR the my Hgb was 83. When I came out of the OR my Hgb was 63. I received 2 units of blood. The 2 units were incredible and made me feel so much more alive. The next morning I was taken for another ultrasound. Due to the large amount of blood loss during surgery Dr. Birch wondered if I had an atrio-ventricular malformation (AVM). This is where an artery and vein grow together and eventually rupture. They saw a bright spot of bleeding but not necessarily an AVM. Regardless they couldn't get the bleeding to stop so they decided they would have to do an angiogram with ablation. I went down to the angio suite where they did the procedure. It was super crazy to see all my arteries light up. They were able to locate my uterine arteries and shoot this foam in that blocked the blood flow to stop the bleeding. They mentioned in the beginning that it might be slightly painful when the foam went in but I could possibly have something for pain. When the time came I asked for more pain management. My body was exhausted and I did not want to deal with anymore intense pain. Through out this entire process we kept thinking just this one more procedure and I will be fine but things kept getting worse. Tim and my Uncle Mark gave me a blessing of peace and comfort before I went for the angiogram. I was starting to get stressed and panicked. I had a lot of postpartum hormones coursing through me and all I wanted to do was feed and care for my sweet little baby. Tim was amazing from the very beginning. He went to the NICU and knocked on the door to the RT room. The RT's took care of us and gave us diapers and bottles. My family also stepped in and cared for Jack. Tannis came down that night and stayed with Jack. Tannis then packed Jack up and took him to Edmonton where he stayed for a week with the Dudley's. I missed Jack and was really looking forward to our family being together but I could not have Jack with me as I was in far too much pain and things were changing too fast. People from our ward brought meals and took care of our food drive route. We were blessed beyond measure and truly had a village taking care of us.
Not too sure what to think of the bottle. She took it like a champ. Unfortunately once I was able to return to breastfeeding she was no longer interested in a bottle.
Grandma to the rescue.
After 4 days I was so ready to go home.
We sure love cousins. Apparently Jack slipped right back into his old routine. He is obsessed with Quinn going to school and continues to tell us on the regular.
Massive thank you to all those who came to our rescue. We literally couldn't have survived without all the help.
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