Down but Not Out

Right about the time you feel you have something figured out, is about the time it comes back and knocks you to your knees.  As many of you know, Chris' pregnancy has been challenging from the start.  First we dealt with 15 weeks of severe morning sickness and right about the time it started to subside, Chris started to have back pains.  Her back pains started in late April, but she had been getting progessively better as a result of multiple trips to the physical therapist and chiropractor each week.  So once again, we thought we were figuring this out.  And once again, we get knocked to our knees, or more figuritively, Chris got knocked to her knees. 

I was scheduled to be in Chicago all day on Wednesday for meetings, but apparently that wasn't where I was suppose to be.  My phone began ringing over lunch with Chris in tears on the other end.  She was in severe pain and couldn't move.  Fortunately, my Mom and Dad were able to rush to town so that my Dad could watch Blake and my Mom could take Chris to the hospital.

I finally arrived at the hospital to find Chris in the ER in more pain than I have ever seen her in.  After hours in the ER with nothing really being effective at controlling the pain, they admitted her and scheduled her to have an MRI.  And for any of you that have had an MRI, you understand how uncomfortable of an experience that is let alone having to go through it with severe back pain while having to lay on our back the entire time.

She didn't get much sleep on Wednesday night, but Thursday had some positive developments.  After many consultations with the doctors, the MRI results showed that Chris has a bulging disc and SI joint issues that are causing quite a few problems.  The doctors seem to believe that bed rest is going to be effective to manage through these issues and that it is possible that physical therapy after pregnancy will correct the issue.  Chris was very pleased to hear that as she is very opposed to going through back surgery.

All along the way, our little girl seems to be doing well.  Her heartrate has remained strong and the doctors have made sure to not doing anything that would have any negative impacts on her.  We continue to pray that Chris' back will improve so that she can manage through the pain for a couple more months until her due date.  While we aren't certain, we are optimistic that we might be able to go home Friday afternoon.

We want to thank our family and friends for their continued support and prayers.  My parents have been watching Blake for us and I am sure that he is having a blast on the farm with Grandpa and Grandma.  And we have always known that we have great friends, but times like these are when you realize how great of friends you have.  We have been able to call many of our friends and they have dropped what they are doing to come help and we greatly appreciate it.

So I wanted to provide an update for some of you that might not have heard of the events over the past couple of days.  Please forgive us if we haven't been able to respond to your emails or texts but we definitely appreciate all of your concerns, thoughts, and prayers.   

Eric