Slice of Life # 43~ Illness

I can say that illnesses have been in my life a few times.

When I was 4 I tested positive for TB, but never really had all the symptoms of it.  I did spend some time in the hospital just to make sure.  I remember receiving a pretty pink doll to keep me company.  I then had to take medicine for 6 months when I went to go on my mission, just to make sure.

When I was 12 I missed two weeks of school because I had a bad case of bronchitics.  I remember my dad taking me to the doctor and they couldn't get a blood pressure reading.

When I was 14 I started getting really sick and tired all the time.  I would sleep all day be up for two hours and then sleep all night.  We found out that I had mono, and no I didn't get it from kissing a boy.  They told us  I could of picked it up from a drinking fountain at school.  It got so bad that by Oct, I was pulled out of school and did home school until we went back to school from Christmas break.  I remember my doctor at the time wanted to give me shots to help my energy.  I had to have a really big needle in my bottom every two weeks.  It seemed to help.  I was told I will always have mono, just it may not be active.  As a result most of my sisters also ended up with mono, just not as bad.

There have been more, but I think the one I will remember the most was 5 years ago.  In March 2006 we found out we were pregnant with baby #2.  Dillon was just 4 months old.  I went to Spokane, WA in April 2006 to spend two weeks with my in-laws, and then go to Utah and spend two weeks with my parents and attend my baby sister's wedding in the Salt Lake City Temple.  While I was in Spokane, I stared cramping and bleeding.  I went into the ER and they said I was miscarrying, but couldn't find the baby during the ultrasound.  After a day the bleeding stopped and everything seemed fine until one week later, I had gone onto Utah and the day before my sister's wedding I started to hurt and have a bad case of diarrhea, I thought I had eaten some bad Chinese food when we had gone out to dinner.  During the night, I was staying with my friend Jamie, and I was cramping so bad, I got up to go talk to Jamie and I passed out onto the floor.  Dillon was sleeping on some blankets made into a bed on the floor, I am lucky I didn't pass out and fall on top of him.  When I came too I went into Jamie's room and had her call my dad.  Dad and Grandpa Alcorn came and gave me a blessing.  I then was able to sleep, but by morning I was in so much pain.  My dad came back and took me to urgent care.  They took my blood work and said my white blood cell count was sky rocket, I had internal bleeding, which is why I had passed out.  They sent me straight to the hosptial.  I was told I had a ruptured tubal pregnancy.  I had lost one of my tubes.  We called Dan, but he was in New York working, and it took us a while to get a hold of him.  By the time it was done there was nothing he could do, so he stayed and continued to work, so we didn't miss out on the income he was providing.  My dad stayed with me until he had to go to the wedding, and then came back until he was needed at the wedding reception.  They moved me to surgery just after my dad left.  Jamie stayed with me and some family friends had Dillon with them.  As they moved me to the operating table I passed out from the pain again.  When I came too after the surgery, I looked at the clock, and told Jamie, well we missed the wedding.  I ended up staying with my parents for two extra weeks before I went home as the doctor wouldn't clear me for travel until then.  I made it back home to Dan after having been gone for 6 weeks just a couple days after my birthday.  We have gone on to have 2 more pregnancies since this happened.  We now have Dillon, Jennilyn, and the twins Ruth and Irene.  It is a miracle that I had twins since I only have one tube, but I am grateful for them.  When I recently had a miscarriage a month ago, my new doctor was being very cautious because he didn't want me to have to go through this ordeal again.  I am glad I found someone I could trust and who is looking out for me.

Well this is one long post for Slice of Life, but I am glad that I have recorded it, and if I have have my post printed into a book, at least it is recorded for my children to know about my life.

38 weeks

Here I am at 38 weeks. The c-section is scheduled for Tues Jan 20 at 330pm.

Take care,

Netty

still waiting again

Well the Dr just sent me home and scheduled me for a c-section on Tuesday Jan 20Th at 330 pm pacific time. I feel a little scared as I have not had a c-section before. Dan's job got changed so this is good he doesn't go to Utah until the end of next week so that is good at least he will be here when the twins are born.

I felt a little frustrated because they kept telling me full term for twins is 36 weeks, but the Dr said they couldn't do anything until I was 38 weeks which I will be on Sunday. I almost feel like they are treating me like a single baby and not twins. I was told that the twins are weighting in at 7 lbs, which if that is tree the preemie cloths that I got at my baby shower most likely won't fit.

Well I will post sometime after the twins are born.

Netty

Still Waiting

Well I am 37 weeks along right now I will be 38 on Sunday. We had an ultrasound done yesterday and baby A is still breached so when we see the Dr today we will be setting a c-section. After the drive home from my appointment yesterday I have hardly been able to walk. I have a feeling that when we go to the Dr's today that they will send us over to the hospital next door and get this over with. I don't have regular contractions, but I have been having some contractions over the last 2 days. I am hoping to have the babies by Saturday night as Dan leaves out of town Sunday morning to fly to Utah for a job Monday and won't be back until Monday night.

We had a good Christmas. We got up and had breakfast and then we got my parents on the web cam and they got to see the kids open their gifts. They have loved playing with the kitchen set that I had gotten for them. If they had gotten nothing else for Christmas they would have been happy. My parents then drove from Kenniwick WA that afternoon and I finally got to see them. I saw each of them separately this summer, but I hadn't seen both of them together since they had come to WI 17 months ago for the baby blessing of Jennilyn. They stayed for a few days and then they came back with my aunt Peggy and her girls for a baby shower that my sister in law did for me. My mom has stayed to help with the kids and be here when the twins are born. I really appreciate her help. My dad went to Utah with Grandma and Grandpa and won't be back until the end of January so my mom is staying until then. I feel so lucky to have her come to stay so long.

Well hopefully we will be posting some pictures of the twins really soon.
Until then.
Netty

Here I am at 30 weeks!

All right now I am 32 weeks, but here is a picture of me at 30 weeks on Thanksgiving Day.

Doing to much!

Well today I learned what it is like to do to much and feel the pain for it later. My mother-in-law and I went to do some arrends and get a few grocyers and even though we were only gone for about 2 1/2 hours I was feeling the pain with the twins by the time we got to the car at Walmart. As a result I stayed off my feet the rest of the day and she took care of the kids until Dan got home. She also made dinner for all of us so that I wouldn't have to be on my feet again. I have found it is easier to go upstairs and stay up there for a while rather then going up and down all day. This morning knowing I was going out after the kids had breakfest, when I came down to get dressed, I got the things I knew I would need for the kids and I took them back upstaires with me so that I could avoid going up and down the stairs. I think it helps to try and plan a little that way. The kids were good today which helped a lot while we were doing our shopping. Now if they can just be good fo my appointments for the rest of the week as I am not fitting behind the steering wheel very well, my sweet mother-in-law is driving me everywhere.

Until next time.
Netty

Update

Update!

Well we had another ultrasound yesturday. Everything is still looking good.

We had another 3-d picture done, but baby "b" wouldn't wasn't in the right position to get "a" picture so here is baby a's picture.

People have been asking if we have names picked out. Yes we do

Ruth Lois and Irene Marlyn. These are family names and we thought it would be great to honor our grandmother's and mother's in this way. Ruth is acutally my Grandma Dillon's middle name, but since we didn't want to do double naming (My sister shares the same first name as my grandmother) as has happened alot on Dan's side, even I share the same first name as one of his sisters and we are the same age. Lois is after my Grandma Alcorn, Irene is the first name of both of Dan's Grandmother's and Marlyn is my mom's name. We liked how the names sounded together even though people have told us they are so old fashion.

Well that is it for today.

Netty

Twins!

Well here it is finally we have scanned in the pictures of the twins. 3-D.

It is amazing how technology has come to were we can see them this way before they are born. I didn't have this done with any of the other kids so this is neat.

Netty

Well it has been awhile since I last posted and I promise that I will do better.

Well since I last posted we have found out that we are having twin girls. Poor Dillon, he will have to be the lonely big brother with all those girls around.

Dillon and Jennilyn have been enjoying playing outside a lot right now and even run and get their shoes and bring them to us when they want to go out. Jennilyn is into saying bye-bye and waving to you all the time. She is a cutie. I will try and update some pictures this weekend when I have the laptop back. Dan is out of town again and I am using a different computer that dosen't have all my pictures on it.

We have another ultrasound this Friday to see how the twins are growing. Dan has had his first job with our new computer repair business that we have started. He even gets to go back this Saturday and do another job for the them that they requested. Hopefully we will continue to see more jobs come in.

Yesturday, I had a some vistors come see me. My great-Aunt Orba who lives down in Zillia, WA (4 hrs away) and her husband Nick, my grandfathers cousin Russell, and my great-great- aunt Elma who lives here in Spokane came to see me. Orba called and said she was in town and wanted to come and visit me and say hello. I was really greatful for the visit. It is nice to know that I have family willing to call and stop by when they are in town.

Well the day is a busy one for me so I better get going.

Netty

Hello,

Well it has been awhile since I last posted. We found out last week that we are pregnant with twins. So come January we will have 4 kids 3 years old and younger. I have also learned how to add the slideshow on this so check out some of the recent pictures of the kids from Jennilyn's 1st birthday last week.

Take care.
Netty

Dillon Archibald Burke is now over a week old. After getting tired of the Hospital scene, we were finally able to bring him home this Tuesday. So, now we have pictures of the little boy. Pictures taken without ultrasound.

It looks like I will have to Blog this one picture at a time. Hmm.... This presents problems and opportunities. So, we will start off with a picture of Annette as we waited at the hospital for an ultrasound.

I had been on the way to Rochester, Minnesota for work when Annette called my about 7:30 AM to tell me that her water had broken. After a couple phone calls, I was turned around and headed to my brother’s place in River Falls, Wisconsin. Sarah was going over to my place to pick up my wife and bring her over to her place, and so we met up there.

It would be about two-thirty that Annette and I would go over to the hospital. Although she had no contractions or additional leakage, it was a good idea. The first two tests they conducted showed no sign of her water having broke. They were almost going to send us home when the doctor asked us to stay around for an ultrasound just to be sure. This picture was taken while we waited those couple hours.

When the doc did get around to us and the ultrasound, there wasn’t much water to be found. It wasn’t completely gone, just not as much as should be there. It seems little Dillon had plugged the hole very nicely when the water broke and gushed out a bit.

Dr. Hallman suggested a gel applied to the cervix to help stimulate labor. This seemed to work, and Annette had some escalation in her contractions as the night went on. However, as her blood pressure went up, the staff became nervous about possible seizures. They put her on magnesium sulfate to help prevent this. This would be the first IV, and one more needle than Annette wanted. This first day, that needle was causing more discomfort than any of the contractions. As for the contractions, they disappeared completely despite the steady escalation thus far when a vaginal exam caused my wife some additional pain. Getting the report that there had been no additional dilation, the pain of the exam, and the magnesium sulfate drip probably all added up to end the labor thus far.

We learned in our birthing class that the mind is a powerful thing. It can stop labor with fear, and this isn’t usually a good thing. Resolving the fear can often restart labor. It was late at night, and we were both tired, although neither of us got good sleep. That was probably the lightest I have slept. Worried about my wife, I was listening to her breathe and the beeps of the monitors they had her on much of the night.

Well, it is late at night, and I cannot sleep, so I thought I would write something. I am becoming more uncomfortable by the day and ready to have the baby come, but Dan keeps telling me to be patient. My contractions are getting worse, so I am inclined to believe it will happen soon. We will be moving into our new place on Saturday. I am excited about that. I really want to get a place set up to bring the baby home to. Dan has been gone out of town this week, but it is nice to have him home again, but he leaves again on Monday, but he will only be going to the Mayo Clinic, which is just about 2 hrs away, so he will be a lot closer to home then the 5 hrs he was this week.

Well, I know this is short, but I have ran out of things to say.

Until next time.

Netty