Thursday, August 27, 2015

Mallory May's Story: Part 1

I kept telling myself it's too soon, it's too soon.  But I keep getting promptings to share Mallory's story.  I feel that if I don't share her story I am being selfish and keeping her all to myself. So here I go.  This in no way will be easy but I feel it will help me grow and heal.

The Good News: In February of 2013 Lance and I were so excited to find out we were expecting our 5th child. The Due date was December 17th 2013.  We were excited to be having a baby in a month other than June or October. The anticipation of welcoming another precious gift  from God was so exciting.  I had never pictured us having five kids but it was happening.  While I was still pregnant with Bria I kept having dreams that there was another one in heaven waiting to join our family so we decided it wasn't just a dream it was a prompting from Heavenly Father so we followed the prompting.  Like most of my pregnancies I was always really sick with "morning sickness" and had to be prescribed medicine so I could keep food down.

The Other News: In June we made an appointment for the all anticipated ultrasound to find out the gender. We had gotten a babysitter so Lance and I could go together.  As many of you know we already had 3 girls and 1 boy so naturally we were  hoping for a boy.  "It' a girl" the ultrasound tech announced.  To be honest I cried all the way home from the appointment.  What was I going to tell Cohen? I though. How do I break the news that he wasn't going to get a little brother after all.  Cohen was bummed a little but he was excited either way.  Before I could even sit down and take it all in at home my phone rang.  It was Rhonda my midwife.  She said: "I am on my way home from Phoenix and just got a call saying you are having a girl". Then she paused..."I haven't seen the results yet but there were some abnormalities on the ultrasound and I wanted to make you aware.  A specialist from Women's Health Specialists  (another OBGYN office here in Yuma) would be contacting me soon.  A soon and I get back to The office I will review the ultrasound results and get back to you."  Within an hour of Rhonda's call we were contacted and an appointment with Dr. Freeman was scheduled for the next day. The appointment consisted of a hour ultrasound and then a 45 minutes meeting with Dr. Freeman a specialist at women's health. We were informed that our little girl had extra fluid building up in abdomen and that she seemed to be anemic, he was  not sure why but he wanted me to get a second opinion from a few Dr.'s in Phoenix.  We made an appointment on Thursday of the same week.  Lance and I drove up together.  We got to talk about our thoughts and concerns on the way there.  Our appointment was about the same thing that we had in Yuma only her little tummy had already gotten bigger.  We talked about doing an amino synthase but they wanted me to wait a few weeks because of the risks.  We made another appointment for next Thursday in Phoenix. Lance and I drove to Phoenix once a week for 4 weeks.  Each appointment the ultrasounds showed she was continuing to accumulate fluid just in the abdomen.  The results of the amino synthase was inconclusive and we just had to wait until she was born to run more test.  After many blessing and prayers Lance and I knew the Lord was in charge and would take care of me and our unborn child.  On one of our many trips to Phoenix we felt that she needed a name soon incase something was to go wrong we had a name to give her.  We decided on the name Mallory May Kerestes.  From then on we called her by her name.  I continued to have appointments in Yuma with Dr. Freeman weekly. By September morning sickness had worn off  but there were some red flags that I over looked.  I over looked the idea that I was drinking lots of water but not using the restroom like a normal pregnant woman,  my maternity clothes were getting to small really fast, and I was gaining weight a lot faster too.  By the end of September I got on the scale and realized I had gained 5lbs in a day. Strange I thought so I weighed my self the next night and I had gained 5more lbs and I was starting to swell in my hands and ankles I started to drinking more and more water to help with the swelling. Weighed myself a few nights latter and I had gained another 10lbs.  Scared I called a friend of mine that was a nurse the next morning and she had my come over and check my blood pressure and heart rate and made sure I wasn't seeing double and wasn't having head aches. Everything looked normal.  The next day I started getting a head ache so she told me to go to the hospital and get checked out.  I did and they sent me home and told me to keep my feet up and take it easy.  2 days later I had gained another 10lbs.  This time my nurse friend took me to the hospital and demanded that they admit me.  I was admitted and I weighed in at 260lbs.  My weight the day I found I  was expecting was 199lbs.  I was put on Magnesium and other IV fluids to try and get me to pee the weight off.  No such luck.  On October 9th the morning I was told I would be air lifted to Phoenix.  It was Kaelyn's 9th birthday and I was going to miss it.  I had planed that I would not be feeling up to making her a cake so I had bought cupcakes a few days earlier.   When I arrived at Banner Good Samaritan hospital they admitted me and ran blood test and did an ultrasound, they even wanted to weigh me. By then I could barely get out of bed and stand up.  I weighed in at 280lbs.  20lbs over night I had gained 20lbs over night.  The took a chest X-ray and the Dr.'s said I would be delivering soon.  They told me I had Mirrors Syndrome.  Since Mallory was retaining fluid so was I and the only way to get me to stop gaining weight was to have Mallory right away.   I delivered Mallory at 3pm on October 11th via C-section I was 30 weeks and 5 days along.  Mallory May weighed 5lb 8oz at birth.  I know that is big for only 30 weeks.  I don't do anything small I  guess it was go big or go home. I heard her cry out once and that was it.  There was a large team of Dr.'s and nurses for the both of us.  Mallory was whisked away by the NICU team but before they took her they let me kiss her little head.  That was the last time I saw her for about 3 days.  I was still really sick and so was Mallory.  I was on oxygen and lots of medication for 3 days.  I finally was able to get out of bed and see Mallory as long as Lance pushed me in a wheel chair.  I was discharged a few days later. This is where I will leave it for now.  Stay tuned for the next installment coming soon.