When we last left you, I had peacefully dozed off in the glow of my perfect birthday.  I’m telling you folks, this day couldn’t have been any better.  Cindy took painstaking lengths to make sure that this was my day, and she did a great job.  Thank you to her for that.  She bought me a new bottle of my favorite cologne (Polo Black), got me a couple of new shirts that I needed, and got me this nifty video camera that the past two video blogs were filmed with.  She pretty much hit a grand slam on my birthday. 

Since about the three month mark of our pregnancy, Cindy doesn’t sleep all that well, and you can pretty much count on a bathroom visit per night.  On the way home on Tuesday night, Cindy told me that she had a pain in a very specific part of her back and we both wondered what it was, but sort of sluffed it off.  She did get up once that nice to use the restroom, but then got up again around 5AM…she didnt come back to bed.  Usually that means she has heartburn or just can’t sleep.  I stopped checking on her about the 4th time she did that, and since I had to get up at 6AM for work this day, I stayed in bed.  My alarm went off around 5:50, and I reset it for 6:30 expecting to take a later commute to work.  That’s about the time my roller coaster car crested over the hill…

Around 6:15AM, Cindy came in and sat on the bed.  I could immediately tell that something was wrong, and I needed to wake up quickly.  Cindy said “Something is wrong, I don’t feel very good”.  I asked her to describe what she was feeling, and after that explanation, I said “let’s go to the hospital”.  Cindy, being the wo-MAN that she is, said “no, I’ll be fine, let’s just call the doctor’s office and see if they’re on call”.  I reluctantly agreed, and tried to help Cindy get comfortable on the couch with her feet raised to take pressure off her back.  We placed a call to the answering service and patiently waited for a call back.  

While we waited for the call back, and only speaking for myself, the worst case scenario flashed through my head.  I didn’t want to ask too many questions because its sort of “the unmentionable”.  I’m pretty sure that Cindy was reading my mind because she said that the baby hadn’t moved yet this morning.  This wasn’t uncommon because she usually sleeps pretty late in the morning until she gets her coffee and chosen breakfast food.  Obviously Cindy was thinking the same thing that I was, and I’m sure also considering the unmentionable.  We both didn’t know what to say, but when my eyes begin to well up with tears and her’s did the same, I did the only thing I knew how to do…I prayed.  I held Cindy’s hand and I prayed that this was something small and our little girl was happily sleeping in the safe confines of the womb.  About five minutes later, our little girl began poking and prodding Cindy’s tummy and we were able to breath a small sigh of relief that things were fine on that front.  Cindy was still feeling horrible, so we knew that all was not well.  After another call to the answering service (they had called, but our ringer was off…duhhhhh), I finally convinced Cindy to go to the hospital.  She was having odd sensations that could be similar to contractions, so we weren’t going to mess around with it. 

Now, remember we didn’t have any kids, luckily, so we loaded into the van, and left for the ER…literally five blocks from my house.  I could have carried her there if I really felt it necessary.  In this case, not so much   When we arrived at the ER registration, we explained the situation, and could see the concern on the faces of the nurses in the ER.  They called labor and delivery and within minutes were were being wisked into the labor and delivery section of the hospital.  When we walked past the nursery and I saw about six new born babies, I can’t be sure, but this could have been the time that the words “HOLY SHIT” were running through my head.  We weren’t, aren’t, and couldn’t be ready to have a baby three months early.  No way, no how. 

I told myself that this was merely a precaution and not to panic.  I took alot of pride when Avery and Carson were born because I felt I did a pretty good job of remaining calm and completing my supportive dad role.  So I tried to remember that role regardless of the prematurity of the situation.  They got Cindy strapped up to the baby monitor so we could hear the baby’s heartbeat and know that everything was good there.  She (the baby)…(and Cindy)..was handling the situation like a champ.  We got registered into the system, and got Cindy some pain medication to calm everything down.  They ran some blood tests, made sure we weren’t in early delivery, and things seemed to calm down.  We were there about 4 hours before they sent us home without a true diagnosis.  They mentioned a possible UTI, but said they weren’t sure.   They gave Cindy some antibiotics, pain medications, and assurances that our little girl was good. 

Cindy slept the majority of the day while I tried to get some work done, and also took a quick nap myself.  Being Daddy is tiresome every now and then  

Our roller coaster car leveled out as we caught our breath and took inventory of our day. 

Thursday morning, Avery’s birthday, I had originally taken the day off to take Avery to the beach with a school friend, but since I had to take Wednesday off for the hospital visit, I agreed to work half day.  I got up early, asked Cindy no less than 17 times if she was okay, and drove to Chicago.  I continued to IM, text, call, pony express, skywrite, and carrier pidgeon Cindy to make sure if she was doing okay, and got an A-OK every time.  I tried to calm down so that I could have a good time with Avery on her birthday but knew that we never really got an answer.  I didn’t see the gigantic 10 story decline we were about to take. 

I left work and drove to the beach.  I helped Cindy unload the van to take things down to the beach.  The kids were off playing when Cindy said “Can you sit down and talk to me for a few minutes?”…Now, guys, this is NEVER good.  This is never “I just wanted to tell you how much I love you and how supportive you were yesterday”…or…”I can’t believe how sexy you look in that bathing suit”…or…”You’re the best Daddy in all the land”…its always bad. 

I took a deep breath and sat down.  When she said the Doctor called, her eyes welled up a little and I inched ever so closer to her in my chair.  She said that the doctor told her she had a very high concentrate of liver enzyme that wasn’t a normal thing.  The explanations were many, but not all were good news.  Ranging from some type of liver disease to gall bladder issues.  They asked us to come to the doctors office the next day and also to go to the hospital and get an ultrasound done on her gall bladder. 

We muddled through the next several hours and tried to have some fun at the beach.  Honestly, I don’t remember much about it.  I know that Avery was happily playing with her friend, and didn’t rely on Daddy or Cindy to keep her entertained, so that was the good news. I wish I could say that we played games and had a grand time at the beach, but that simply isn’t the truth.  I ran through different scenarios, did some research on my phone, and managed to cancel and reschedule about 7 work meetings I was supposed to have on Friday. 

We got home, had dinner with the kids, and got everyone in bed.   If anyone has ready Cindy’s Roller Coaster blog, you know that she is good at internalizing everything and looking as calm as a duck on a pond.  Luckily I’ve learned that her little feet are churning under the water about 100 MPH.  When she told me she was fine and there weren’t any worries, I called her bluff.   We talked about our fears and admitted that we were both scared. 

The doctor had asked that she not have a high fat meal that night, because it can mess with the tests.  That triggered our memories of Tuesday night when we ate every known meat on the planet (wrapped in bacon).  We were hoping that this caused the high test result and had nothing to worry about.  We went to bed, and both slept intermittenly. 

Friday morning I got the two oldest off to the YMCA, and dropped Xavier off at a friend’s house.  (thanks JB), and headed to the Hospital.  We sat in the waiting room for a few minutes before her name was called to come back for the ultrasound.  My worst fear came true when the Nurse Tech put her hand up and told me I couldn’t come back for the exam.  Much like my Mother, I don’t do waiting rooms very well.  I thumbed around on my phone a little bit, texted a few friends hoping to have someone to talk to, and waited what seemed like six hours for her to come out.  It was only 10 minutes or so, but when your soulmate’s well-being hangs in the balance, 10 minutes can seem like an eternity. 

The nurse tech, or Doyle Brunson, as I like to call her, didn’t tip Cindy off to anything from the exam.  She did the exam, asked a few questions, and told Cindy they would call the Doctor.  When we got to the doctor’s office, they immediately did another blood test for the liver enzyme and a few other things.  We sat up front for about 15 minutes before our nurse Melanie (whom we love to death) came out into the waiting room and said “I didn’t want you sitting up here and worrying about the results, so I wanted you to know that they said you have gall stones”  She could see the terror in my face because truly, I had no freaking clue what that meant.  I’m assuming my face read something close to whisky, tango, foxtrot because she immediately said “its okay, this is actually good news”.  She explained the situation and said that our doctor would see us soon.  I gave Cindy a huge hug, took a deep breath, and sat back in my chair as the ride slowly decelerated and leveled out. 

Our doctor suggested a low fat diet until we could get everything under control and we’d discuss other options later after we had the baby.  Melanie let us hear the heartbeat again and our blessing kicked back a few times with my hand right there, as our ride met another steep incline…tick tick tick tick…

Our incline never stopped all weekend, as we took the kids to the drive in and had a fantastic fourth of july weekend with friends and family. 

I know this roller coaster is inevitable, and I manage things the best I can, but I can sit here and tell you that I feel safe knowing I’m strapped into this car with God in my heart, and Cindy by my side.  It may be heart wrenching sometimes and thrilling others, but Cindy makes it fun.  I couldn’t possibly imagine having my hands up screaming all the way down with anyone else.