"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view! May your mountains rise into and above the clouds." Edward Abbey

It always seems when Brynlee's doing good then mommy - well, not so much. Monday I had my 2 week check up and had an awesome talk with the Dr. She was really upset that the Greeley hospital sent me home twice with "heartburn" when it was really a swollen liver that had me in so much pain.... For 2 1/2 weeks, I might add. She mentioned how serious of a condition it is and how lucky I was that I didn't have seizures, a stroke, or have my liver rupture. Then, Monday night as I was getting ready for bed, I was trying to update our blog and noticed my left arm was tingling/numb. I figured it had fallen asleep so I was waving it around like a crazy woman trying to get it to come back at 10:30 at night. Then it slowly moved to the left side of my face. I then began to freak out. Just earlier that day, my Dr. was telling me how lucky I was I didn't have any seizures, strokes, my liver rupture, etc. with my severe preeclampsia/HELLP. And now the left side of my body was numb?! Every possible bad scenario was running through my mind. After about 10-15 minutes I decided to go to the ER. After all, we were right down the street and we've already met our deductible, so why not, right!? When I got there and told them what had been happening, doctors started moving a little faster, in and out of the room, then all of a sudden I heard them come over the intercom that they have a stroke alert. Yup, that was me. They drew blood, did a stroke test on me, an ekg, took me back to get a CT scan, and started an IV of fluids. The doctor then told me I needed an MRI, so he admitted me into the hospital so I could get an MRI the next morning.

 Tuesday morning I got an ultrasound and bubble test done on my heart to make sure there wasn't a hole. Then I got my MRI and another CT scan. They then told me from looking at the results of all 3, they were happy to say that I did not have a stroke, but they did find something else. They sent the neurologist in to talk to us. He told us they found blood on the surface of my brain on the back right side. They thought a vessel had popped or something (possibly during and because of my preeclampsia and HELLP) and the area that it was on, actually was irritating my brain. He wasn't really concerned because he could tell that it wasn't brand new blood and he could also tell it wasn't still bleeding, and my body was already breaking it down and absorbing it. He was actually more concerned that my feet were still tingly/numb and had been since I was 7 weeks pregnant. So he wanted to keep me another night to get 2 more MRIs (on my neck and my spine) in the morning. I was totally bummed because it was Darren's 26th birthday and our 3 year anniversary and being in the hospital wasn't exactly how we had planned to spend it. But being the awesome hubby he is, he spent the whole day at the hospital with me. It was nice because we were in walking distance to go see Brynlee. 

Wednesday morning I got my 2 other MRIs and they both came back normal. To me it's a good and bad feeling. I'm glad nothing else is wrong with me but it sucks not having an answer to why my feet have been tingly for so long. I have another CT scan and follow up with the neurologist in a month and finally got discharged from the hospital Wednesday afternoon. The neurologist said I may have a couple more left sided numbness episodes until my body absorbs the rest of the blood. Which I did have 3 Monday night, 2 Tuesday night and 1 Wednesday night so far. So hopefully it's almost done. 

As far as our beautiful Brynlee Jo, she's doing great. The infection she has is just some infection in her blood  and they gave her a new antibiotic that is more specific for her infection. She'll have to be on that for at least another 7 days. She's off her CPAP machine and just on the comfort flow for oxygen. They're slowly turning her oxygen down and everyday she's getting closer and closer to breathing room air oxygen like us! Monday night they moved her up diaper sizes from a preemie extra small to preemie small. She weighs 2 lbs 9.5 oz (1177 grams) and once she hits 1200 grams they're going to start to ween her off her humidity in her isollette. Once she's off her humidity, we get to put cute outfits on her!!! She's eating 22 ml of breast milk every 3 hours and they add a supplement to it to add more calories. She also started her protein yesterday and multivitamins today. It's all liquid form they just add to her food. Darren got to hold her Tuesday night, and I got to hold her Wednesday and today for like 2 hours! I just love it!! I could hold her all day everyday!! I'm just in heaven! She's more awake and alert. When we talk to her she looks towards the sound. So if I'm holding her and talking, she'll turn her head and look towards me. Then when Darren starts talking she'll look at him. It's so cute!! She's also started sucking! She loves her paci and her thumb when she can find it.