I'm sorry I've been gone so long, but you'll never believe what has been happening. My daughter, Melissa, was due to give birth to a little girl June 15th. I'd taken the month of June off to help the last few weeks of pregnancy and the first few weeks after the birth. And the baby was born without a hitch on June 1st. I was in Georgia. Little did we know at the time just how lucky we were.
Melissa was discharged from the hospital a couple of days later and was not looking good. I kept looking at her and wanting to take her to the ER. She'd have none of it. The 2nd day I said, listen, your husband is at work, the kids are sleeping, the lights are low and your heart rate is 132. Something is wrong. Tomorrow you will call the doctor's office and this is what you say, and I gave her a long list of horrid symptoms from constant headaches, shortness of breath, water retention worsening, upper gastric pain, etc., and they had her an appointment in two hours. They sent her right to the ER.
There she was registered and instead of being sent to the crowded waiting room, was taken right into a room. I listened to two doctors converse between themselves about the many possibilities that could be going on with my daughter and then with shock heard the ER doc tell the clerk to put Melissa in front of the trauma coming in regarding her CT scan. Without a doubt I knew this to be a bad, bad thing. Now to wait for a diagnosis with trepidation in my heart.
And diagnosed it was. Her heart!!! HER HEART!!!
HER HEART!!! That was June 6th and she was admitted to the Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital at OSU where she spent 9 nine days getting stabilized and was sent home with five prescriptions and an appt. with a cardiac surgeon for July 19th.
The next day she threw a p.e., as in pulmonary embolism. She was spitting up bright red blood. And she hasn't been the same since. June 27th she had a mitral valve replacement. July 1st she was told she'd be going home in a couple of days. And July 2nd she was moved off the surgical floor and onto a medical floor.
July 4th I received a phone call from her doctor saying that my daughter wanted him to call me and give me an update. Yes, would you please tell me why my daughter was moved to the medical floor? I was told, her mitral valve replacement surgery was successful, however, it was unknown the extent of the damage to the heart. Specifically the right side of the heart. I asked if she was going to have to go on a transplant list and the answer was no. They just needed some time to get her stabilized and taken off IV medications and given oral medications.
And my daughter is just a shadow of what she was a year ago. She barely eats, she's so weak she can't shower herself and is constantly sleeping.
And I'm sorry, but should I be angry at the OB doctors? How can it be that they missed this diagnosis? How different would things be if they had in fact caught this condition? Where is this all going to end?
If you would please take a moment to say a prayer for Melissa. Thank you.
And I almost forgot, with all this going on, the baby is perfect. Healthy and getting larger and larger day to day. And Melissa can't pick her up for 6 weeks. And she believes I'm her momma as I'm the one taking care of this little sugar dumpling.
Little did I know as I headed north just what I was heading into.
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