Our world got turned upside down on February 21, 2013. I was sitting on the couch by the piano when Sean rushed upstairs with Samantha gasping for air. Apparently she choked on a little green pea downstairs. They did the heimlich and she started crying and breathing, but couldn't catch her breath. They decided to run her to the Instacare down the street. As they rushed through, I could see her little face turning blue. They forgot to take their phones with them, so for the next 3 hours Josh and I were sick to our stomachs as we waited to find out what was going on. On the way to the Instacare Samantha stopped breathing and went limp. Rachelle started CPR in the car, then rushed her into the Instacare where the doctors continued CPR and called 911. The paramedics showed up and were finally able to find a faint heartbeat by the time they loaded her on the life flight helicopter. Rachelle and Sean then headed down to Primary Children's Hospital to meet up with Samantha. As soon as the helicopter landed they took her straight to the operating room where they were able to determine that the pea she choked on ended up in her lung. They were able to remove it and sent her to the Pediatric ICU where Sean and Rachelle were able to finally see her.
Rachelle was finally able to find a phone and find my phone number to let us know what was going on. I gave her my parent's number so she could call and talk to them. At this point they were waiting for her to come out of the anesthesia and wake up, so their spirits were pretty high. My parents immediately hopped in the car and headed to our house to grab their phones and a few other things for them and headed up to Primary's. Along with our bishop, they were able to give Samantha a blessing. As she was coming out of the anesthetic she started having seizures, so they had to give her a paralytic to keep her body from moving.
Friday morning they met with the neurologist and received some bad news. Her organs were looking good, but early tests were showing severe brain damage. They wouldn't know how bad until they were able to do an MRI on Monday. So for 3 days it was a lot of waiting. Sean's family all came up from Cedar City, and my family was able to visit all weekend. My sweet neighbors were so kind to take care of my kids so that Josh and I could be there as much as we could. Samantha made little improvements all weekend, giving Sean and Rachelle a lot of hope. But we all knew we had to wait until the MRI to really see what was going on.
Monday morning they were able to do the MRI at 9:30. By 12:30 the doctors were able to sit down with Sean and Rachelle to discuss Sammie's condition. It ended up being the worst case scenario...there was little to no brain activity. Her brain stem was still functioning, which is how she continued to breathe on her own, but the rest of her brain was not going to function again. The reality was that she would not be able to ever wake up. Josh and I immediately headed down to Primary's. Once we got there Sean and Rachelle sat and talked to all the family to explain that they had already made the decision that Samantha would not like to live the rest of her life in that state. So they would take her off the life support machines later in the week. This was very devastating to them as well as all of us family. We couldn't imagine life without little Sammie, as she had grown up in our home with us and our kids.
So I went into my normal checkup at 31 weeks expecting everything to go the same as always. My dr. was out of town, so his nurse and a nurse practitioner were taking care of his patients. Everything started off normal, then I started asking the nurse questions about contractions. My dr. has been monitoring them ever since they started to get pretty intense at the beginning of January. I just couldn't remember how many per hour warranted a call to the dr. The nurse asked details about the contractions I was having and ended up asking the nurse practitioner what she thought. They ended up ordering a urine test, which tested positive for a bladder infection. No big deal. I came back 2 hrs later to run a more thorough test. On the way out I asked the nurse practitioner if the infection was anything I needed to worry about. She said no, but decided to check me anyway to just make sure everything was ok. Well...it wasn't. I had started dilating and softening. So we had to come back 2 hrs later for an ultrasound to see how thick the cervix still was. Everything went well with the ultrasound and the nurse sent me home telling me to take it easy. The next morning the nurse practitioner called me and told me that the nurse that sent me home was wrong, and that I needed to be on full bed rest until my dr. got back in town and could reassess how big of a risk we were for having the baby early. What a long week! It was difficult emotionally, worrying about the baby coming early. Physically it started out fine, but my body deteriorated quickly and I really was struggling by the end of the week. Luckily we have great family and neighbors that stepped in and helped with the kids and the upkeep of our house. Tuesday finally came and I was able to see my dr. He took me off full bed rest and changed it to light bed rest. It was nice to be able to drive the kids to school again and do light cleaning and upkeep of the house. I've still needed a lot of help, which my family and neighbors have continued to provide. Hopefully everything continues to go well and the baby will stay in much longer!!!
