Stress Incontinence, not a "Pretty" subject for today.

Hi family & friends!

I'm just popping on here to ask for you to say a little prayer for me, Ian, and Aaron. Mostly for me, as Ian & Aaron are not as "bad" as I am. (Boy, isn't that the truth, in so many ways...)

It's been about 2 weeks since we started with what I originally thought was allergies... and then it turned into a cold. Just a normal cold, it seemed, until the "traditional" 7-10 days for a virus was coming to a close with no end in the symptoms...

I've literally been suffering with both a head and chest cold for 2 weeks now. And the coughing part is REALLY bad. I don't normally get too deep in the "yucky" stuff on here, but people... I need you to know.

When you've been pregnant for 28 of the last 48 months, given birth to 2 babies and have a 4.5 pound baby pushing down on your bladder, controlling accidental urine escapes is difficult. It's called stress incontinence and it is NO fun. If you've had a baby, you know what I'm talking about. Towards the end of pregnancy, a little cough or sneeze or laughter and, well, you're running to the potty and most likely changing your underpants. If you're lucky, it didn't seep all the way to your pants-pants and you can continue on your day, but if you're not-so-lucky, you're changing the whole outfit. It sucks. Just one of "those" pregnancy things that most ladies prefer not to talk about and it doesn't stop when you've had your baby. You have to work at getting full control back and sometimes you don't! And sometimes... you get pregnant again and start all over.

And then sometimes, you're pregnant for the third time in 3 years and you get a really bad cold. When that happens, forget about it.

Just put a towel on your chair and plan on changing your pants and underwear many times. It's worst at night, when you're laying down and a coughing fit attacks you... there's no stopping it.

It's really frustrating. And it makes you feel really gross. Since your nose is stuffed up, you walk around wondering if you smell like pee. Wearing pantyliners is not a fix, those things don't have any authority against the coughing-fit-induced-pee. In fact, wearing a regular pad doesn't either. You'll probably try depends or poise pads or something, in hopes of not having to change your pants 20 times a day and end up with 6 extra loads of laundry only to find that they are both very uncomfortable and unable to control the problem anyway.

All I have to say is, this baby girl pushing on my bladder better be really stinkin' cute. (Just kidding, of course, I'd love her even if she wasn't.) And if this is the "new normal" for the next 6 weeks and 6 days, I'm toast.

So anyway, please pray for me. Please pray that this cough goes away today. I've been coughing all week and it does seem to be improving, but the peeing-while-coughing is only getting worse.

Also, just so this post isn't entirely about me... Ian and Aaron are both coughing too. They're not as bad as me... and as far as I know, they're not peeing when they cough. Of course they could be, because they wear diapers anyway and I wouldn't know. I'm taking them to the doctor today to make sure THEY don't have pneumonia or sinus infections or ear infections. I've been on amoxicillin since Wednesday. It's about time for us to be over this.

*sigh*



PS- If you were laughing at this post, that's fine. I meant for it to be entertaining. Laughing, although it makes me pee my pants, is a good way to keep myself from screaming into a pillow. That would be bad too, because screaming would probably make me cough, and then... well, you know.


***UPDATE***

Back from the doctor... both have Ear infections and "probable" sinus infections. Both are now on antibiotics. Awesome.

Recovery is Slow Going

But Hannah is smiling again!

Hannah Update

This update comes directly from Hannah's mom Sharon. (with permission to repost it!) Please continue to pray for sweet little Hannah & her parents as they continue this journey. They really need it!

Hello All-

I am so sorry that I haven’t been updating this much. We’ve been at the hospital all day, every day, and at night when we return to the hotel, we’ve been crashing from exhaustion!!

Rather than give a blow by blow description of the week, here’s where we are right now. Tomorrow Hannah is scheduled for a cardiac catheter. This is the same procedure that she had done last winter. Her O2 saturation is sitting in the 70s, and it needs to be higher. There are two possible reasons for this, both of which can be fixed via cath. The first potential issue is that she may have more collaterals forming, which are bypassing the necessary parts of her heart, and mixing blue and red blood. If this is the case, they will need to coil them off. The second option is that when they put a fenestration in Hannah during her Fontan, it might have been too big, and rather than working as an overflow valve, it is continuously letting the blue and red blood mix. If that`s the case, they will need to temporarily plug the hole, see what happens, and if she tolerates and responds well to that, they will plug it permanently.

Another ongoing issue is Hannah`s eating. We have created a mini-mart in the hospital room fridge, and nothing is appetizing to Hannah. So, tomorrow when they knock her out for her cath, they will be putting in a feeding tube. Hopefully is won`t last long, and will just get her over the hump and on the road to recovery.

The next new development is that Hannah has somehow caught RSV. Apparently many of the children in the PICU have caught it, and some of the medical staff has been sent home for being sick. Both Hannah and the 5 week old baby in her room have caught it, and though neither child is showing the true symptoms, they are now isolated from the other children. When we go in, we now have to wear masks, gowns, and gloves...IT SUCKS!!!! I am so mad that I cannot kiss my baby goodnight or hold her hand without a mask or gloves getting in the way. It is so not fair!!!

On the brightside, Hannah has been able to go for walks with us in her stroller, stand and play at the indoor play area, and we were able to wheel her outside for a bit today!! Unfortunately because of her RSV, we won`t be able to do this anymore, but it was wonderful while it lasted!!!

Aside from all of that, Hannah is now breathing room air and doesn`t require oxygen. She has also had her IV line disconnected, and had her central chest tube removed. All that is left are two chest tubes that drain her lungs, an arterial line that will be replaced by a venus line tomorrow, pacer wires that are connected to her pacemaker (which is still using when she is sleeping...grrr), and an IV in her hand that isn`t being used. All in all, not bad.

Prayer Request for Hannah

**UPDATE**
Hannah is out of surgery, she did not need a pacemaker or a breathing tube! Great news! Will post again after her parents have gotten to spend some time with her and can give us the "full" update. (5:05pm EST, 5/11/10)


Original Post:

This sweet peach...


**
is having surgery tomorrow morning.

Sharon, Hannah's mom & I became friends through a message board before our 3 year olds were even born. So over the past 3+ years we've shared quite a bit with each other, though the beauty of the Internet, and journeyed though life as first time mothers together.

Hannah has a congenital heart defect. To be honest, I don't know much of the particulars about it. What I do know is that this surgery has been a long time coming. A lot of worry, a lot of waiting, a lot of time to love on sweet little Hannah as her heart surgery approached.

Tomorrow morning, Hannah's doctors will try to repair her heart defect. I think I remember Sharon saying at one time the procedure was called Fontan. I will update that if I am remembering incorrectly.

Please pray for Hannah. Pray for Sharon. Pray for their whole family. Pray for her surgeons, nurses, & medical staff. I've been in the waiting room during heart surgeries on my loved ones. I've also been in the waiting room during surgeries on my children. I've never been in the waiting room during heart surgery on my child. I can only imagine what tomorrow will be like for Hannah's parents... that's why I'm asking you to lift them up!

I will update this as information about how Hannah is doing comes to me (and I get permission from Sharon to share publicly).

Thank you! God Bless Sweet Hannah!

**This photo was taken yesterday, by Sharon, on the way to the hospital. I'm using it with her permission just for this post, a prayer request for her daughter.

"You've really latched on to this one"

That's what Roger just said to me. And I think he was using his "teasing" tone. I didn't really appreciate it because you know what? WHO WOULDN'T LATCH ON TO THIS? If you don't latch on to this, if your heart isn't at least stirred by this, you are not a human I want to be associated with. I know he's probably going to feel like a jerk and be mad at me for posting what he said and rightfully so, because I know if he wasn't super busy with work he'd be taking the time to follow this story too. He's not really heartless and he gets passionate about the things I get passionate about when he has 2 minutes to actually think about stuff that isn't work related. So I forgive him for teasing me and making me feel like I shouldn't be "latching on."

Anyway, now that my little disclaimer and rant is out of the way...

There is an orphanage in Haiti that is being run by 2 young women from Pittsburgh. You can read the back story on them here: Love and Haiti


You can read their current situation here: It's Getting Real Bad

You can continue to read updates by following @JanePitt on twitter. She has been faithfully tweeting/blogging the updates on this story as they come in.

My current feeling is this: I know that there are probably hundreds of stories just like the BRESMA orphanage and the McMurtie sisters. I DID latch onto this one because it is local to me. It is being lived by girls for Pittsburgh (Western PA), one of whom is exactly the same age as me. They are working to save children who are the same age as mine. They are doing good work (the Lord's work) down there and darn it, if I can't help them in a tangible way, I'm at least going to try to help them in whatever way I can.

Please do continue to pray over the people in Haiti. Most of us cannot help them in any other way, but we all know that prayer works. So do it. Now.