Almost two weeks ago, on a Monday, I started having back pain. Nothing major, just some soreness to the left of the middle of my spine. I figured it was probably my body adjusting. By that Sunday, my sleep had become sparing because of the pain, and I was praying I would be able to make it through church. God answered my prayers, and I survived pretty comfortably throughout the service, but once it was over, the pain hit. I tried my best to grit and bear it, as we were supposed to go eat at Chuy's with some friends for lunch, however, Doug saw the tears rolling down my cheeks as we drove off and said . . . ok, this is REAL pain, we're eating at home. The next day I decided to call my doctor. After speaking with the nurse I was told that Ollie was probably laying on a nerve and that was causing the discomfort- just take some Tylenol, use a heating pad on a low setting for no longer than 30 minutes, and invest in a maternity belt. I did as I was told, but nothing was working all that well. The pain increased, and was starting to hang around for longer periods of time.
I thought for sure that the maternity belt I had purchased would do the trick- it's basically a bra for a pregnant belly. Ollie wasn't a fan, though, and proceeded to kick me like crazy whenever I wore it. After a few days of thinking I would do well to "break it in," I realized that it wasn't doing much good. I tried to relax the rest of the week and seemed to be doing okay, until this last Thursday. I spent the day with my parents in Katy, running errands mostly. I noticed that my pain was now started to move along the middle of my back to my left side. We had to leave several stores because I began to feel faint and incredibly uncomfortable. I left their house early to go home and rest, thinking I just needed to put my feet up and have a visit with my new best friend, the heating pad. I was doing well until about midnight that night. I woke up constantly in excruciating pain, crying, and doing my best to make the pain stop. Poor Doug would try to massage the area, but nothing was working. I would fall asleep here and there, probably from exhaustion, and by morning I had maybe 2 hours sleep total and the pain had lessened slightly. I immediately made a plan to call my doctor when their office opened, and added a post to a pregnancy forum about my horrible night. Responses from veteran mommas quickly came back with, 'That's not normal . . call your doc ASAP."
Around 10am, after leaving a message for my nurse, I finally got a call back. I filled the nurse in on the week's past issues as well as the night before and she suggested I come in within the hour. Doug got a call at work from me in a panic, and thankfully, he was able to meet me at the doctor's office- which was so amazing since I was starting to fall apart emotionally. After doing the normal check-in (weight, pee in a cup, blood pressure), the doctor came in and began to examine the area giving me pain. After a few minutes he said, "Wow . . . okay, you have a bruised rib." He felt over to the right side to check the severity, and again I got a, "WOW, it's very inflamed!" We talked for a few minutes about how in the world that would have happened- he says I could have twisted it, lifted something too heavy, bumped it, or it could be my body adjusting to all the weight I'm carrying in front. He says he didn't think Ollie was big enough to do it- although, Doug and I have started to wonder, because this kiddo is strong, and later that I day I felt him kick my ribs. The good news was that Ollie was perfectly healthy, even kicking the doppler while doc checked the heartbeat. However, the bad news was that I couldn't be given any drugs to deal with the pain, as they might affect my baby boy. My instructions were to keep it wrapped with an ace bandage to reset the rib, take Tylenol, and use a thermapak when needed (NO heating pad- oops!).
The moment I got home, I began to research bruised ribs to see if I was being a big baby about the pain. Apparently, I am NOT- my pride in my pain threshold remains. I'm a trooper :) This gives me hope in my plans for having a natural birth. I just hope my ribs are all healed in time- and let's pray that is so, as I still have 15 weeks left! It's been a full day since finding out what was really going on, I've stayed bandaged up, and the pain is more tolerable- although sleeping is not awesome. I can only sleep on my right side, and not for an extended length of time, so my bed has moved to the couch where I do my best to "lay" sitting at a 45 degree angle. Not fun. According to my research, bruised ribs take between 4-6 weeks to heal, sometimes longer. I'm hoping it's the shortest time frame, and I'm doing my best to not lift anything over 10 pounds and bend my knees when I need to pick something up.
Other than having a bruised rib, things have been great. I go back to the doctor Monday for a glucose test to make sure I don't have gestational diabetes- but I'll save that for my next post in two weeks :)
If you've never witnessed the weirdness/coolness of a pregnant belly being kicked, I got a little something the other night of our growing boy being active. There's about 5 or more good kicks below my belly button- look close :)
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