The Perfect Storm

I have been so blessed. I have such a wonderful hard working husband. I am also so glad to live in a time when health care is where it is. True we have a lot to learn still but I am sure that all of you know several people who would not be alive today were it not for modern medicine.

For those of you who have not heard yet I am pregnant. I am about 8 weeks along and am due around June 1st. At the beginning of my pregnancy I was feeling great. Not even feeling very morning sick. I slowly began to feel dizzy and tiered, both common side effects of building a baby. As it got worse I looked for advise and found that it could be low iron, low blood sugar, or dehydration. All of which can usually be taken care of with a change of eating habits. After this did not work and I was continuing to get worse I decided to go to the local clinic to get my prenatal lab work done. In Point Hope there are no regular doctors or nurses just certified health aids.

If I was low on iron it just took a simple test and they could give me a prescription to take care of it but my iron level was normal. They did find evidence of an infection, though. They gave me a type of antibiotic that was very specific to that type of infection. Despite the antibiotic the next day I was much worse and could not even get up off the couch with out feeling as though I might collapse.

Over the next few days this came and went. Some days I had the energy to take minimal care of the girls, meaning feeding them and making sure they didn't kill them self but Tom would usually have to come home at the end of the day and wash the dishes, clean the house and put the girls to bed. On other days Tom had to come home and feed us because I couldn't.

Tuesday night I got really bad again this time with a high fever so I decided to go to the clinic again. The health aids found that I had lost some weight and that I was very dehydrated. After 3 health aids and 7 pokes they managed to get an IV in me to rehydrate me. After the IV I was still feeling pretty rotten but the woman's health practitioner was visiting. She checked to make sure the baby was in the right place and she was even able to find the heart beat! She gave me a few ideas to why I was feeling sick but said that is was probably just because I was pregnant. She suggested going to where I could let some help me take care of my girls but this was not the first time the thought crossed my mind. Tom had taken a lot of sick days and we didn't know anyone else who didn't work during the days so after praying we decided that I needed to be closer to family and doctors. As my condition was only worsening I left as soon as I could with the girls.

Before I left, Tom gave me a blessing. He said that God would place angels in my way to help me on the trip. The nurse practitioner was on the same flight out of the village. She was very helpful with the girls. After we landed I needed to take my luggage and the girls across a parking lot to check in for our next flight. Out of nowhere one of the pilots for Bering came over to take my luggage over for me. All along the trip people were very helpful and we arrive the next morning very tiered but very glad to be done with our journey.

The Doctor here in Utah told me that I was the perfect storm. Pregnant, an infection, a virus, and he diagnosed a second infection. He gave me a new antibiotic and said that when my infection and my virus clear up that if a am still feeling dizzy and low on energy that it is likely just the pregnancy. Hopefully when it does I will feel well enough to return home with Tom. He will be down for Thanksgiving.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.