Praying for Chris

Tuesday April 14, 1992

I wake about 6 a.m. but force myself back to sleep until 8 a.m. At 8:30 Frank takes off to walk to his carving class at the senior center. I spend the morning finishing the huge wash I started yesterday. Then I change my clothes, bringing my summer clothes into our closet. My left foot heel still has the same pain in the bone since we went to Florida.

Chris called last night. They now think she is diabetic. She knows now her blood pressure was 80/0 when she had her heart problem. She's worried about damage to the baby at that time. The diabetes could cause complications too. She's still sick everyday and must go back to work on 2 days and doesn't know how. I said we must continue to pray for her health and for a healthy baby. I pray daily for her and others. Please God give her a normal healthy baby and restore Chris' health.

A few months before my appendectomy I had to visit the emergency room at Memorial Hospital in Santa Rosa due to my racing heart (tachycardia) that refused to slow down. They checked my blood pressure at that time and it was 80/0. My pulse was 180 beats per minute, about 3 times faster than normal. I was very uncomfortable and was sweating profusely. I had these episodes several times per year since I was a little girl, but had learned how to slow down my racing heart. I was told by my doctor that during pregnancy the volume of blood increases dramatically in the mother, putting more stress on the heart. I was no longer able to get my heart to slow down when it was racing. The resulting low blood pressure was indeed dangerous to the baby. Before I got pregnant with my last child, Ryan, I had heart surgery in San Jose to burn (called "Ablation") the portion of my heart that had an electrical malfunction. Amazingly, when Ryan was born the following year (1995) he too had a heart issue and had heart surgery when he was 5 years old. So six months into my pregnancy I had already experienced heart problems, appendicitis, possible diabetes, and the neverending nausea and vomiting that kept me bedridden much of the day. Maybe that is why they suspected diabetes. My diet consisted of a box of soda crackers everyday along with 7-Up! I couldn't keep much of anything else down.

Blood Pressure Problems

Tuesday October 8, 1991

Slept most of the night in a stupor. They kept taking my blood pressure as it went very high and very low the first 24 hours.

My roommate on 5th floor coughed constantly. I think she has lung cancer.

The tube down my throat is making my throat very sore and my nose too.

About 3 p.m. they moved all the 5th floor patients to the 4th floor. My new roommate is a chronic complainer. She has nothing good to say. The nurses make so much noise outside that we cannot sleep. Besides, they wake us often for vitals. At 6 a.m. I give up trying to sleep.

Oh my how I remember being in the hospital after giving birth by C-section to all 3 of my boys. After having a sleepless night in labor and then giving birth, all I wanted to do was sleep, but no, the nurses leave the door to the room open and chat outside at the nurses station, keeping me awake. Then every 2 hours they would come in and check my incision, my temperature, my blood pressure, my IV fluids. Some women enjoy being in the hospital, but I found it always the opposite of restful and could not wait to get home. Granted with a new baby, I still did not get any rest at night, but at least I could doze during the day when the baby slept. I had 3 surgeries in 2009-2010 and was so thankful that they were outpatient procedures, check in early in the morning and go home that night.

Too bad mom had such a grumpy roommate on top of everything else. I wonder why in the world they would move the entire floor of patients to another floor? Weird and disruptive!