Hi guys – Recently Clay posted a Q&A asking if we have any celebrities among us in the Minti world. As I stated then, yes there are BUT this is not about them and their stories this is about my story.
The term celebrity
is usually a term by many referring to a famous person in the movies, Rock’n’Roll, T.V dramas etc.
Celebrity is about being famous, recognised and thought of, sadly there are the unsung celebrities that have helped with medical research and or that have saved lives.
I do not consider myself a celebrity but there are many Doctors, professors and other medical personnel that may very well disagree. To them I always say thank you and they ALL understand. Here is my story:
In 1991 and at the tender age of 17 I found myself pregnant. No-one was more shocked than me and my then partner as a few months earlier we had been told that I would never be the mother of a child. I had only just started coming to terms with this when I found out I was pregnant.
My pregnancy progressed as a normal pregnancy and I busily prepared for the birth of my baby. Each scan had me more and more excited especially when my little one was sucking her thumb, which she seemed to always be doing at every scan.
Then at 6 ½ months I fell over at the clothesline, I landed face first and was in severe pain. I called my partner home from work and he rushed me to the hospital. We were relieved to find out that our baby was fine and I was told my pain would settle after a few days of light duties only. This was where things went wrong.
Within days of my fall I was unable to walk, I was in severe pain and would cry constantly. My partner tried everything but nothing worked, he took me into the hospital everyday and everyday we were sent home. The hospital kept saying that it was just hormones and that I was young and over-reacting.
I knew the hormones would loosen my pelvis area but I did not believe that they would cause so much pain that I would be unable to walk. Needles to say a pattern of my partner and I going to the hospital continued, friends came and sat with me by day as my partner worked. It was a very stressful time, the only good thing was that my baby was still thriving and felt like a football star!
When my labour finally began I felt a great sense of relief as somewhere in my head I knew that I would be able to walk after my bub was delivered. My labour was long and very difficult. I’m not going to go onto great detail but needless to say my baby became stressed and an emergency C-section was ordered! . . My final memory before being knocked out was trying like hell not to push and this junior midwife holding my legs together. I have no idea what she thought that would do!
I woke up several hours later to the news that I had a very healthy baby girl weighing in at 8pound 7 ½ ounces and a whopping 55cms in length. Then there were the apologies from my gynaecologist, as it seemed my baby was in-fact 3 weeks late! (We had been arguing over the dates for 3 weeks) Then a shocked midwife informed me that my daughter was a stubborn little one with very loud lungs. She had drunk a few bottles and had in all swallowed 150mls in her first hour of being in the big wide world.
Things progressed really well, my daughter was named Samantha, and she took to breast-feeding like a charm. My pain seemed to have completely vanished and I went home on day 5. Being at home was great but Samantha was a greedy little thing and often demanded feeds every two hours. As I began to get tireder I noticed the pain returning in my hips. I wasn’t overly concerned as I thought it would go away again.
Then 3 days later my landlord found me unconscious on my lounge room floor, little Sam was screaming as he called an ambulance. I had developed an infection from my c-section and was so ill that I was no longer allowed to breastfeed. The pain in my groin was increasing and once again was being ignored.
One day a visiting South African gynaecologist came to visit me while doing her round. (I had been in hospital for 3 weeks and many called in to eyeball Samantha) While talking she noticed that something was odd about my left leg and she begun to ask my lots and lots of questions . . The next 4 hours is a huge blur the only thing I can really remember was the very nice Dr holding my hand through some of the most painful tests a person should have to endure!!!
The next day I awoke to find drips going into me everywhere and there were so many machines all around me. Then my South African Dr who now introduced herself to me as “Judy” explained that I was a one in a million case and that lots of Dr’s etc from all over would be coming to see me. Judy went on to explain that I had a 7.5cm DVT (blood clot) in my Femoral Artery in my left hip! For those who don’t know the femoral artery is one of the most important artery in our bodies!
The next few weeks whizzed by in a bit of a blur of doctors and more doctors, some even came from other parts of Australia and one even came over from New Zealand! After things settled down Judy came to tell me how rare and very lucky I was. It seems that I was the first female in the Southern Hemisphere to have a DVT in a major artery that size whilst being pregnant and survive!!!!! . . Not only did I survive a pregnancy but I also survived an operation and to top it all off Sam survived as well.
Imagine being 18 (I had a b’day whilst pregnant) and being told and going through all this! . . Doctors from everywhere bombarded me and medical students seemed to have moved in permanently. I was the subject of many medical papers and also became the subject in many medical journals. .
It seems that my life and my health had become the subject of many medical journals and Judy explained to me that my story would help to save others in my situation! . . Not only was I the first female to survive BUT I went on to becoming the first female to give herself “Fragmin” injections at home. I also became a regular at my local hospital and many nurses would ask me my tricks to using these needles as most nurses dreaded having to give them to patients!
I endured a further series of tests within Sam’s first yr of life, there were also many hospital stays as my left leg and hip routinely became unstable. Doctors tried many different medications on me but nothing seemed to stabilize me! . .
Throughout the next 18months I suffered from several other smaller blood clots but these ones were only in my smaller veins and although painful were not life-threatening. My relationship ended and I also lost my son. . .
Life had certainly became a roller coaster and as I look back I am amazed at how I survived and still managed to give my daughter a relatively normal upbringing . . Things however were NOT over by a long shot . . More to follow in part 2
Cheers Kellzacar
© Copyright 2008 Kellzacar. . All writings by Kellzacar remain the property of Kellzacar and should not be republished or copied without written permission. Kellzacar can be emailed via Minti
