Counting My Blessings... :)

The day after I wrote my last blog update I found out that one of the ladies in our church had to be hospitalised due to her and her 2 month old foetus (is that technically correct?) being dehydrated. A few days after that, on Sunday, I was chatting with a friend on the EM (English Ministry) side at church and she told me about an Australian couple also having to go through the same ordeal, receiving iv treatment while being hospitalised due to dehydration. She's just over 3 months, at a very similar stage to me.

Lots of people & a lot of the literature out there say that morning sickness usually finishes around 12 weeks. The iVillage weekly email update I received read like this:

You are now 14 weeks pregnant!

WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH YOU
You open the refrigerator door, only to be greeted by the nauseating smell of garlic. But you love garlic. Or rather, you did. Now all sorts of smells seem unappealing at best, and gut-wrenching at worst. What's going on? It might be hormones, or it might be your body's way of keeping anything that may be harmful to your baby out of your system.

WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH YOUR BABY
Your baby is now about 3 1/2 inches long and weighs about 2 ounces. His or her neck is complete, and your baby even has fingerprints. The ears may not be fully developed just yet, but he or she has been absorbing the sound of your voice since day one so that he or she can recognize Mommy the moment after you give birth.

*****

I wrote the above nearly a month ago, put it in draft and today, Saturday, 21 July 2007, am finally updating it with intentions of posting it as well today!!!

I'm definitely counting my blessings. I haven't had problems with dehydration and although I'm still "suffering" from morning sickness in my 18th week, baby's ok and so am I.

I've actually just come out from being hospitalised for the past few days. Mum rushed me to A&E (ER) Thursday night with severe abdominal pain. I was able to sort of walk all hunched to the car and into A&E but that was it. The pain got worse and worse till it was so bad I couldn't even lift my legs when they tried to sit me in a wheelchair and they had to pull me from one trolley / bed to another. They suspected appendicitis as that's the area where most of the pain was and because my WBC count was way above normal (around 1200, danger zone starts at 1000). They gave me morphine for the pain and then more morphine 'cause I was still in a lot of pain. Despite the two doses I was still in pain but they couldn't give me anymore 'cause of the baby. It did make me extremely drowsy though which was a definite blessing 'cause I really didn't want to be in pain anymore! They performed two ultrasounds, one in Maternity to check on the baby (heartbeat was fine! Thanks God!) and then another one in the A&E area to check my appendix. On Friday they performed both checks in the latter so not sure why they had to do two separate ones on Thursday but anyway... Mum left the hospital at 3am once they told her that I'd have to stay overnight for observation and that it'd be a while before there'd be a room free for me. Sometime in the middle of the night they took me up to the 5th floor and that's where I stayed till around about lunchtime today.

Yesterday morning my WBC count was lower but still high but I wasn't in anywhere near as much pain as the night before - phew! I still couldn't move without wincing and a struggle but I was much much better. After more blood tests, urine collections, another ultrasound, more prodding by the doctors, I was told that the likelihood of me having appendicitis was extremely low as my WBC had gone to 800 by the afternoon but that it was still a possibility so they wanted to keep me in one more night for observation. Also, because I'd been Nil by Mouth for 24 hours they didn't want to send me home, me eat something, and then be rushed back to hospital again so I was given a Clear Liquid meal for dinner (clear chicken broth type thing & apple juice). Two of our church pastors came to pray for me and the baby and my in-laws came for a visit too. By evening I felt much better and was able to take a walk down the hallway! It was a slow walk but I was walking!!! :)

This (Saturday) morning my WBC count was down to 500 so whatever infection I had was gone (they came to draw blood @ 5:20am!!!), I was able to keep down my upgraded Full Liquid breakfast of "cream" of wheat and OJ (I so wanted the bacon & eggs the grandpa in the room across from mine was having!), and the pain was only present in half of the areas and only when the doctor prodded so I was discharged! Hurray!!! My father-in-law came and stayed with me for a few hours and one of the Korean School teachers came to check on me too. She was feeling guilty 'cause she thought it was partly her fault for stressing me out about the Korean School Yearbook. :)

Counting blessings: baby seems to have been untouched by the whole event and received a bit of extra nutrition from all the i.v. I received. Mum didn't say anything Thursday night but when we had visitors Friday evening she told them how frightened she was on Thursday 'cause I was in so much pain during my 17th week and that's when she had her 2nd miscarriage about 20 years ago in the exact same hospital... It was all a bit too dejavu-ish for her and she didn't want what happened to her to happen to me. She had both of her miscarriages outside of what people call the "safety" period - 13th & 17th weeks. I'm not eating well but I'm eating well enough, I'm being well taken care of and the baby's heartbeat is nice and strong & is very active in my tummy (according to ultrasound, haven't felt anything yet) so I'm very very grateful!!!

Diagnosis: enteritis. As I'd been eating only about half a portion of food 2 - 3 times a day, had probably been working a bit too much at the beginning of the week, and had had hardly any meat over the past four months, the combination of fatigue, suddenly eating meat and a full portion at that too took its toll and my intestines doth protesteth!

Treatment: rest, porridge for the rest of today, can eat "normal" food from tomorrow but must watch carefully what I eat (avoid spicy, salty, oily meat like bacon, deep fried stuff like tempura) for the next week as it takes about a week for full recovery and then can eat slightly more normally but try to maintain eating 6 small portions per day from today till the end of my pregnancy. And no over-doing things and plenty of rest.

I still have sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much to do too!!! I was wiped out by Wednesday this week but I felt good at the same time 'cause I was finally starting to see progress in some areas. But then... I think I'll just really need to pace myself 'cause I don't want to re-live the past 48 hours again!

6 bags of i.v, 6 blood tests, only two meals, excruciating pain, causing so much worry to those around me, countless trips back and forth to the hospital and home for mum, numerous visits from my Obs & Gynae doc + a surgeon, and poor Peter worried and feeling helpless being away from home traveling with ten teenagers in charge of our Youth Mexico Mission trip!

We were supposed to find out the sex of our baby this Thursday just gone but I delayed our four-weekly appointment for a week so that Peter, Jade (sis), and mum can all be there with me when we find out. Jade, like Peter, is also currently on a Mission Trip but she's gone to an Indian reserve near Vancouver, Canada. My brother John is with Peter and Jade's boyfriend Jon is with Jade. All four come back late Wednesday, we'll go to see Dr Noh, my Obs & Gynae doc, early Thursday morning and then mum leaves for Korea on Thursday. Mum was a bit disappointed and cross that I'd changed the appointment 'cause she's dying of curiosity! :) Peter and Jade were delighted though 'cause Peter wanted to be there for this very special occasion and Jade wants to get a peep at her niece / nephew. Dr Noh wants to see me next week for a check-up anyway now so we'll be killing lots of birds with one stone during that trip.

For someone who has so much to do, I'm probably spending too much time on my blog but I've written so many drafts of so many different topics in my head over the past few weeks and have been disappointed at myself when going to bed so many times 'cause I didn't have time to update my blog, I think I definitely owe a slightly long blog posting to myself and to my friends who've been so patient with me!

Thank you for keeping me in your thought & prayers and please continue to do so!

Lots of love,
Jenny :)

Being Pregnant...

It's hard being pregnant. I'm not enjoying it AT ALL at the moment and am just waiting for the day my "morning" sickness and constant fatigue will be gone. I don't want to sleep anymore... But I'm so tired... Not being able to eat properly leaves me really drained and energy-less too. I'm tired, emotional, feel helpless, useless, and even slightly claustrophobic. I haven't ever stayed at home so it's frustrating and depressing. Even when I'm at home resting I don't usually have the energy to do all of the things I still need to... Haven't done any of my visa stuff yet, still have about 400 Thank You cards to write, still haven't unpacked my stuff from the UK... I think that might be part of the reason why I don't quite feel 'at home' yet here. That and the fact that we've been constantly switching between mum's place and ours 'cause of my morning sickness... I can't even go food shopping on my own 'cause I can't lift heavy things!

I'm 12 weeks pregnant and am still lighter now than I was on my wedding day!

The last few weeks have been hard. The beginning of June was crazy with the end of the Korean School (KS) semester, having to create colourful exams for the kids, marking them, preparing them for the end of year performance, sorting out prizes, writing report cards for all of them, trying to see if the parents could help out with the food on our last day...

The day after our KS Graduation Day was the day of our church play 'Shim Chung (kind of like a Korean Cinderella) Jun (story)' and I played the main character Shim Chung.

Having looked up Shim Chung on google:

A young girl, Shim Chung, gives her life to a sea dragon so that her blind father may see again - and is rewarded for her filial piety by becoming an empress.

Very short version of a very old Korean folktale. This is a slightly longer version:

The story of Shim Chung has its roots in the shamanistic rituals conducted for fishing vessels on the East Sea, tracing back 1,500 years.

According to the story, Shim Chung’s blind father stumbles one day while walking alone and falls into the river. A Buddhist monk rescues him and tells him that he can regain his sight if he donates 300 sacks of rice to the temple. When a ship’s captain arrives in the village looking for a maiden to sacrifice to the Sea Dragon King during his next voyage, Shim Chung volunteers, planning to use the money from selling herself to purchase the 300 sacks of rice needed to restore her father’s sight. Willingly accepting her fate, Shim Chung plunges into the sea when a ferocious storm breaks. At the bottom of the sea, the Sea Dragon King proclaims her Daughter of Filial Piety and asks her to become his undersea goddess. After she declines his offer, pleading to be allowed to return to earth to care for her father, he sends her back to Earth in a beautiful lotus flower. The lotus flower appears in the Korean king’s courtyard and Shim Chung emerges from the flower. After Shim Chung tells the king of her search for her father, he orders his subjects to gather all the blind men of the country. The king proposes to Shim Chung and she accepts. At her wedding banquet, Shim Chung meets each of the blind men and is disappointed not to find her father. Finally, one last blind man approaches and she is overjoyed to realize that he is her father. As he touches her face, he regains his sight.

The play I was in a was a Christian version written by one of our church members as part of our church move celebration events. So in our version, my father is a Christian, the seas are calmed by the prayers of my father and the church members and also due to their prayers, I follow my father and become a Christian as well. :) So our 'Shim Chung Jun' was called 'Shin Shim Chung Jun'. 'Shin' as in 'faith / belief' rather than 'new' or 'spicy' (as in Shin Ramen sold at Tesco's).

Peter was worried 'cause play practice usually went on till late at night and also because I fall to my knees a couple of times and get pulled in different directions so it was a bit physical. It's all over now though, more people than we thought came to watch and the response was really good too! So all's well that ends well.

Which goes for Korean School too! I don't know which class I'll be teaching yet next year but I hope I'll be able to teach the 2nd generation Beginners' class again as I already know what I need to teach and have most of the material for the spring semester.

Peter doesn't want me to teach next year though 'cause he says that since becoming pregnant ever bit of energy I did have I used to prepare for KS and that I neglected everything else because of it. So as I'll be in my third trimester during the autumn term and then recovering from child birth during the spring term... I love being involved with KS though so I'm going to try my best but definitely not over do it. At least I won't have a rush engagement party or wedding to organise, a non-honeymoon honeymoon to go and recover from, and hundreds of Thank You cards to write! :)

We actually have our first baby pic but I haven't had the energy to scan it in yet. It was amazing seeing the little 3.8 cm being kicking and waving its arms! And the heartbeat! Oh my goodness!!! It was beating so fast and we could see it thumping away too! :)

I'll scan it in and upload it soon.. someday!

Our next appointment is this coming Thursday, only two weeks after our first one but apparently the doc needs to do a full medical on me which he didn't have time to do the last time. Every trip to the doc we pay $25 as our insurance is "co-pay". Absolutely nothing in the States is free in terms of medical treatment! Even an ambulance ride costs you $1,000 and that's just for the ride! If you see a doc / nurse or get a prescription / medication then all of that's extra on top!

Need to go... It's taken me a few tries and a few rests and a meal in between but I'm glad I've finally managed to update my blog after 3 weeks!


Miss you and love you lots,
Jenny xxx