Update on Camille

First of all, I speak for both Camille and myself (she's sleeping right now) in saying how grateful we are for all of your love, prayers, and support. It has been a very long three days, but I think we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

As I mentioned before, Camille and I went to the hospital at about 1 am Friday morning because she was having very intense contractions and constant nausea.  To our relief, it turned out that her body was not actually going into labor, but just causing her a great deal pain (as if that were a positive note).  Apparently there was some miscommunication between us and the nurses because we were discharged and sent home around 5 am; it wasn't long until the the medications wore off and we realized that we probably should not have left the hospital.  Her doctor had us come into her office around 9 am and in less than 5 minutes of examining Camille rushed us to the Emergency Room.

The rest of that day was pretty miserable.  The pain and nausea meds only seemed to provide brief relief from the pain and endless pokes and prods and our frustration continued to mount as each test and examination came back negative for any internal problems and/ or infections.  Once all of the blood, ultra sound, and MRI test came back normal we hesitantly agreed to go ahead with an amniocentesis test where amniotic fluid around the baby would be tested for an infection.  The risks felt really high - a positive result would have required us to give up our baby boy and an accident of any kind would have likely sent Camille directly into labor way too early to save the baby - but the risk of not knowing seemed even higher.  What a relief it was to hear that everything in the uterus was healthy and working correctly.  At this point, even thought the Doctors has ruled out the possibility of all of this being caused by an infected appendix, they felt like it was necessary to visually check it.  At approximately 11:30 pm on Friday night Camille and I were separated for the first time during this ordeal as she was rolled down the hall to surgery.  When the surgeon returned he, as you can probably guess by now, informed us that nothing was wrong, out of place, or abnormal; the appendix however, even though it was healthy, was removed as a precaution.  No one had a clue as to what could be causing There was no sleep that night.

Saturday was less eventful, but was just as busy: hourly blood tests, IV changes, nausea, pain, and a constant flow of specialists and consulting doctors kept us wide awake throughout the day.  It was decided that Camille needed closer attention by a neonatalogist group of doctors who specialize in uncommon and unsolvable pregnancy issues, so she was transferred to a much larger, more central hospital here in Salt Lake.

Things began to turn around late Saturday night and early Sunday Morning.  Her white blood count dropped to half the level it had been and the contractions faded off and stopped.  We spent Sunday in recovery mode: sleeping a lot, walking around a little bit, and drinking.  We were transferred to the post-partum area on Sunday night, so that she could rest more without as much interruption and tests.

So far this morning things are really looking good.  They removed the IV and are slowing trying her on crackers and liquids.  Camille is starting to move around a lot more and we took a short walk around the floor.  Actually, we're listening to our baby's heart beat right now.  I think he's starved for attention because he keeps kicking the Doppler.  Strong heart beat, 144 beets per minute.  Unless anything drastically changes, we were told that she is making good progress and that we should be able to go home either later tonight or first thing on Tuesday.

I am so proud of Camille, she has gone through so much in the past couple days and though in a lot of pain and frustration, has stayed positive throughout.  It's nice to see her smiling a little bit again and such a relief to know that things are finally past us and that she's on the road to being healthy again.  I love you Camille and I'll never leave your side.

Thanks again to everyone for your kind words, calls, and visits.  It means a lot to know how many people out there are thinking and praying for Camille.  We love you all and hope to see you soon.