Continuing on from my “Settling In” post...this may be a long post so I do apologise! We arrive at the Maternity Day Unit bright and breezy for an appointment with the anaesthetist. Ready for a morning of answered questions and hopefully a solution to this nightmare we were in.
We waited an hour and a half, patiently pacing the waiting room and corridor. The anaesthetist finally saw us and did numerous checks as I curled up in agony on the bed - I could tell by his face he was concerned. Either empathy for me, or the possible thought they had done something to cause this with the epidural or spinal block during labour.
We were moved to a lovely midwifery led delivery suite that was free to feed Averly and waited patiently whilst another anaesthetist was called up...and the top neurologist. After seeing them all, it was decided I was to be booked straight for an MRI scan that day. That alone is massive for our hospital! People wait months for tests like that. They were trying to confirm it was definitely sciatica and not the worst case scenario, which was a blood clot on the nerve of the spine, which would have been a blue light to Walton Hospital for surgery. So we were instantly praying against the latter. We filled that room with lots of prayers and worship and understandable some worry and tears.
We hadn’t anticipated being there so long and still expected to be home later that day, back with Wesley continuing on with our day. We had a private physio appointment planned, Wesley had nursery and we had booked to get Averly registered at the registry office. Thankfully Luke’s Parents, Brother and Sister in Law dropped everything to rally around Wesley getting him to and from nursery. Until now I never truly realised how blessed we are to have both our families so close and this is just the tip of the iceberg of how incredible everyone is. The MRI was showing something but they wanted me to have the contrast dye to see more. This meant not being able to feed Averly for 24 hours. This upset me the most because that’s the only thing I felt I’d actually been able to do the last two months. Nobody would agree because they knew how poorly I was, but I felt I was a really useless mum the last few weeks. The sciatica had completely absorbed my life. Luke pretty much picked Averly up and passed her to me to feed her and that was it.
So the second MRI was the following day which meant a sleep over in hospital - hurray... Averly stayed with me though, I just had to get some help from the midwives throughout the night. They also booked me in for a CT scan at the same time.
So the following day Luke appeared. I’d tried during the night to express off some breast milk but Averly just wanted constant feeding so I got about an ounce. We decided that she can be cup fed formula for the 24 hours then back to breast, much to the heartbreak it caused me. I felt I’d lost a part of me, like I was giving up, letting her down. She’d taken to it so well, what if she preferred formula? What if she couldn‘t cup feed and preferred a bottle? (which she did) all tiny things - but massive to me.
During the morning, multiple anaesthetists came in to ask questions. The doctor on shift that came to introduce herself to me and asked the routine questions (little did we know how significant of a role she would play in our journey). The midwife who was on shift that day happened to be my midwife whilst I was pregnant with Wesley so it was reassuring seeing a familiar face.
Off I go for my MRI and CT, leaving Averly with Luke, who was equipped to cup feed her 10ml of breast milk then formula the rest. Again family had Wesley.
I’ve met some amazing people on this journey so far, I wish I could remember them all, one being a radiologist when I was getting my MRI scan, she knew how petrified I was. They wanted me head first with what I could only describe as a storm trooper mask on. So screwed down to the bed from your shoulders and with a great bit shield part over the top (it probably wasn’t that bad but it sure felt like it!) but this young radiographer, who did tell me her name but I’m useless and have forgotten, said she’d stay with me and constantly reassured me by stroking my leg (the only part out of the machine) and explaining what happens next. She even came to the CT scan with me to make sure I managed that ok. So completely went above and beyond.
In my CT scan I could see a couple of gents behind the glass, one in a suit the other in a shirt. It only dawned on me as I was heading back that one was one of the anaesthetists and the other the main consultant. I thought this is either really good as they’re chasing this before the weekend, so hopefully I’ll be home today - or really bad meaning they’ve seen something they need clarification on... I hoped it wasn’t the latter but deep down I think I must have known.
Anyway the thought passed and as I was being wheeled back up to the room I was feeling pretty smug and proud of myself going head first into the MRI machine with this Star Wars like contraption on me. So back in the room to see Luke and tell him all about it and give my gorgeous daughter some cuddles and as a bonus - lunch had arrived - well a tuna sandwich was the most I’d fancied at all but I got through half of it which was a double bonus. Food (which is my life) hadn’t interested me at all whilst being in so much pain.
But lunch came to a swift end as the consultant came and parked himself in the chair next to me in this very tiny room. I remember thinking, why are you here? You told me it takes 2-3 hours for results to develop and the girl in the CT scan had said they’d just sent copies to Walton too so I expected it to be a while, thinking that over the couple of hours Walton would be able to view the images. So I was a bit confused. Maybe he just needed more information? Maybe he needed more scans to support his findings? I’m going to continue on the next entry, other wise this one is going to be even longer - that’s if you’ve even made it this far! To be continued..
PS - This was the only picture I had taken whilst in hospital at this time. This is Averly at 2 weeks old. Completely oblivious.
Gorgeous x
So brave x