and then this happened...

you would've thought that having a newborn would be enough excitement for one family to handle, but apparently not in the McCool house. just 12 days after Miss Pink exploded out of my belly, i started to notice a stiffness in my elbow. i just assumed it was part of the new "mom arm" i was acquiring from the constant feeding and carrying, but once the pain started and the swelling...yikes! i like to think i'm pretty tough, but after letting it go for a few days, it was obvious i had to do something other than popping the leftover pain meds from the c-section.

after a call to a friend (who just happens to be family with an orthopedist) we were immediately on our way to get some answers. the first diagnosis was severe arthritis (aka tennis elbow), but even the doctor wasn't 100% on that. he knew it didn't look right, and just having had a baby just complicated things. i was sent home with instructions for ice and ibuprofen. well, a couple days later the swelling and pain just got immensely worse. it was to the point where i couldn't hold Miss Pink, i couldn't burp her, i couldn't change a diaper, i couldn't even get myself dressed. my arm was so jacked up, and did i forget to mention that on top of the pain and swelling, my arm was pretty much immobile. so, after another call to the doctor, we were off for an x-ray (which didn't see much) and then for a MRI. i'm going to skip over the MRI description, because it was by far the most painfully horrific experience i have ever endured. still with no answers to what was going on, we headed to an E-care place to get some blood work done. well, i guess i looked pretty bad, because after 3 hours at the E-care place i was put in an ambulance and shipped off to the closest hospital.

i'm not going to lie, i was pretty damn scared at this point. not knowing what's going on with your body is pretty scary, especially when you have a 2 week old baby at home. the first night in the hospital wasn't so bad, except for the constant monitoring from the nurses, having to get up and pump & dump (just another painful thing to do with a 2 week old) every couple hours, and the constant beeping from machines. i was seen by 3 different doctors, an internal medicine doc, an orthopedic surgeon, and the infectious disease guy. talk about fun times. the consensus was that i had some kind of infection, but no one knew what kind or from what. i stayed on IV antibiotics for the next 4 days. by the end of the week, the surgeon said they were going in to surgically drain the fluid from my arm and remove and infected areas. what the what?! exactly what i said.

let's just say that surgery went extremely well. they removed the bursa from my elbow, which was the most infected area. i was told it was septic bursitis and cellulitis, but still no clue how i got it. after a few more days of IV antibiotics, the swelling finally went down. i spent 7 days in the hospital from some freak unknown infection. i was away from my family for a week, and it wasn't even a vacation. you know you've been in a hospital too long when the food there actually starts to taste decent. i will say that i was lucky to have the best family a girl could ask for. my mom was here, my mother-in-law came, and my sister left her own family to come take care of mine. and i can't forget the awesome group of friends who also helped take care of my family. i might have been eating some fabulous watered down mashed potatoes, but the rest of my gang was happily eating some well prepared meals from some very caring friends. 

i've been home for a couple weeks now, but it's been tough getting back into the swing of things. surgery alone is tough to recover from (and don't forget i just had a c-section a couple weeks before this), but then throw in a newborn and 3 active boys...WTF?! wonder what the rest of the year has to offer...