**I must apologize for this blog having no pictures. I can't, for the life of me, find our camera right now. I even remember packing it and making a mental note of exactly where it was placed. Crap.
Well, we have officially been Winterset residents for 6 days now and we're enjoying our new little town. The move went quite smoothly, thanks to the rockstar help of our family and some old (and new) friends! I was a touch "out of commission" during portions of the move, but I'll get to that in a bit. If you didn't know, we are staying in a one-bedroom apartment (above the Ben Franklin, no less) until we can move into our new house in September. Yes, it's a bit of a bummer, but luckily Dameon and I really never get sick of each other so we're making it work. The worst part is always having to walk the dog right in the middle of the town square. Ya know, first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Ah, anonymity.
Dameon has basically had to jump right into his new job, while also continuing to work on drill writing in his free moments. I think it's a weight off his shoulders to actually be here in town and have face-to-face contact with his students. He's getting things squared away in his office and preparing for marching band camp next week! Even though it's a crazy nutty time of year, I love marching band season!!
Okay, now for the little bump in the road. Baby Place is thriving, which we are incredibly grateful for, but I'm learning that mental toughness is going to be key. Early Monday morning I woke up with a bad pain on the right side of my middle back. It only lasted about 20 minutes or so, but I mentioned it to my OB the next day at my appointment. She didn't say much about it and I didn't think much about it. By the time I got home from my appointment, the pain was back and it was worse. I ended up calling back to the clinic and talked with a nurse. She said it sounded like deep muscle pain and suggested I try a heating pad. She told me any problem with my kidneys would have shown up in my urine specimen earlier that day. I was finally able to find a comfortable position on the couch, but continued to battle the pain the rest of the day and thru the night. The next morning I got up and drove to my meetings for work, which were held about 45 minutes away from here. By noon the pain was so bad, that I knew something was really wrong. I felt like something inside was going to burst. I called Dameon and told him I needed a doctor. He thought I should call my OB first to see what she thought I should do. After speaking with the clinic, I drove back to Winterset to get Dameon and we headed to Des Moines (where our clinic is). The baby's heartbeat was the same as the day before, so no trouble there. The doctor examined me and determined there was likely something going on with my right kidney. She sent me on to have an ultrasound of both kidneys to find the problem. During the ultrasound, the tech gave us a sneak peek of Baby! That kid just never stops moving!! He/she kept flipping from back to front so we'd see face and then spine. It looked a little alien-like, but we could definitely make out eyes, nose, and mouth! So incredible :)
The doctor called the next day to fill me in on what the ultrasound showed. She said I am experiencing some kidney nephritis. (By the way, don't google that. It'll just freak you out.) Basically it means my uterus is tilting a little to the right. It's pushing on spot where my kidney empties and is causing my kidney to swell. It causes me to feel like someone has punched me really hard right in that spot. The bad news is there's really nothing they can do for me, besides encourage me to lay on my left side as much as possible. This problem is very common in pregnancy, but it isn't likely to get better. Probably just worse until the baby is born. The good news is that this condition doesn't affect the baby at all. SO thankful for that!! So for now I'm just taking things one day at a time. I do find relief laying on my side and not staying on my feet for too long. Yesterday I went to my work meetings all day and only had two bad bouts of pain. We have our big ultrasound on August 23rd and our 20 week appointment after that, so they'll take another look at my kidney to see how things are going. The doc said in rare cases, they put in a stint to drain the kidney, but right now my kidney is draining pretty well, so no need to worry about that.
Still, we'd appreciate your prayers that I will learn how to manage the pain when it does come. And also prayer that no kidney stones develop. Thanks, friends!!
