My Miracle(warning this is extremly long)

So I have been blessed in my life to witness many miracles...my dad being cured from cancer before they even did surgery, getting into BYU, meeting my Stevie, the birth of all my kids, the doctor being inspired enough to remove all my thyroid and finding out there was cancer there and that I was cured, and now the biggest one of all my life being saved because of quick decisions and inspiration from amazing doctors.  I can testify that all of these miracles have occurred in my life because of a few main things...priesthood blessings, faith, and a loving and caring Heavenly Father.  How blessed I am to have gone or be going through these trials so I can be a first hand witness to these miracles.  So for those who haven't heard this is the story of my latest miracle, the one that Heavenly Father decided to keep me here for a longer time to accomplish more things...

Friday, May 20th Steve and I went to the Timpanogos Hospital at 6:30 AM all excited to be induced and thinking we should have this baby here by lunch time.  We got checked in and settled in, and the dr and nurse came and checked me and started my IV and pitosin.  Then they said we will wait and see if you change before the dr's first appointment at 9.  Not much improvement so he decided to come back around noonish to break my water, meanwhile they did my epidural.  When he arrived I had progressed to about 7 cm and so he decided to break my water at 12:45.  At 1:30 we started pushing and Steve was all pumped to catch our baby...he had the head in his hands when the shoulders got stuck and so the dr had to step in to deliver the rest of the way, while Steve helped me.  The baby came out and it was a girl!!! Now the task at hand was to decide what this baby girl's name was...after several minutes we decided she looked like a Mary Elaine.  She was 20in. 8 lb 9 oz, and healthy...even though when they tested her reflexes she was so tired she just laid there and finally gave them some reaction to satisfy them. She has dark black hair and deep blue eyes. She is beautiful.  I held her for about a half hour after they cleaned her all up and then handed her to Steve. 

That is when things began to change for me.  All of a sudden I felt gushing and it seemed abnormal.  The nurse checked and they said it was a little too much bleeding and called the dr in.  He decided to check to make sure again that nothing was left inside from the placenta.  Then decided my uterus wasn't contracting the way it should.  They put a balloon inside of me filled with fluid that would cause it to start performing the way it should.  The whole time it was in me I felt pain and an urge to push, little gushes here and there and they informed it was all normal.  After about a half hour I was in excruciating pain to where all my body would do was moan, cry, and beg for the pain to go away.  They got very concerned and decided they better take me into the OR to perform another D&C.  But before they wheeled me off after me begging for awhile they hooked up the epidural to relieve my pain.  They wheeled me in the OR, strapped my arms down, put my legs in stirrups and then from there I was in and out of consciousness.  Now in the meantime I had asked if Steve could go with me and they said no.  They left him all alone in the room with our baby, until a medical tech found him and brought him some snacks, and then a nurse showed him where to wait for me...where he stayed with his parents and our amazing friend Jody. 

Now back to the OR.  All I remember feeling is it felt like all the dr's arms and bodies were inside of me pulling on things and seeing lots of dr's and nurses watching my vitals and hooking me up to all kinds of things.  Then I remember waking up to a familiar voice saying I am DR Woolsey, I said President Woolsey(realizing he was my old Stake President from when I was in the Stake YW's), he said Yes.  And I said it is Adrienne....Jensen.  HE looked down with a kind smile and said Is Steve here, I said yes and he went out to go and find him.  How blessed I felt to know I was in the best OB/GYN in the valley's hands, along with my amazing dr.  I feel asleep again to wake up to Dr Woolsey asking me if we were done having kids, and I said I think so, and he said well you will have to be because we are doing an Emergency Hysterectomy because you are losing too much blood.  And then said I will go and tell Steve what is going on.  Then the anesthesia dr. said we are going to put a mask on you to put you under for the procedure.  That was the last thing I remember in the OR.

Next I remember waking up to seeing Steve sobbing over me several times, then to hearing Cliff start a priesthood blessing for me, then to see STeve sobbing again over me.  Do you know how awful you feel when you see a man like Steve who never cries over anything sobbing like a child and you have no idea why?  Next I remember waking up feeling like I was choking and numb and the only thing I could move was my head back and forth and my fingers and hand on my left hand.  I waved to the nurse who came over to help me relax and ask questions.  And the whole time all I could do was shake my head no.  Steve said they told me about my baby being fine, that Steve was there, that I was in the ICU...I just kept shaking no, and finally they decided to sedate me some more to help me relax.  I woke up again about 3:30 in the morning where they told me I had a breathing tube and to relax and sleep through it so it would be easier on me.  Now if you have never had a breathing tube it feels as though someone is choking your throat and forcing you to breath how they want you to.  You feel like you need to swallow and cough but you can't no matter what you do.  I fell asleep off and on until 5:00 when I couldn't sleep anymore and began to learn the breathing pattern and sign with motions to my nurses to find out how long this would be in me.  To my amazement my head nurse was Taylor Cousins, Steve's old neighbor and a guy from our old ward.  I was relieved to see his face and grateful to be in his care, the other nurse who was amazing was Cory.  I tried to sleep until 7, when they told me the dr and Steve would be in.  The respiratory guys came in after 6 and slowed the breathing machine down so I could try and breath on my own.  My I still had problems every time I fell asleep I would stop breathing, so I tried to stay awake.  Then they had a shift change and I got Sean and I don't remember the other guys name but they were also amazing.  Steve came and I wrote notes back and forth to him since I couldn't talk to ask what had happened, how were the kids, how was Mary, etc.  I looked around at all the things I was hooked up to and there wasn't a single part of my arm not covered by some kindof needle, tube, etc.  Steve had told me I was hooked up to at least 9 bags the night before, and Taylor said I had gotten up to 12. 

Now the details of what happened when I was asleep.  Apparently I had started hemorrhaging, and when they pulled the balloon out to do the second one I sprayed all the dr's with my blood soaking their scrubs.  They did a partial vertical hysterectomy just removing the uterus due to me losing so much blood.  My blood had turned into water with no clotting capabilities, known as DIC.  There was a moment that the dr's shared the next day that they said they thought they were going to lose me and then a peace came over the room that everyone felt and they knew they had to perform the hysterectomy.  And that is what they did, they put a special gel to help me clot in the incision.  Before it was all over I had lost 5000 cc's of blood, a normal vaginal birth is 300 cc's and a cesection is 800 cc's.  Then they took me to the ICU to recover with IV's of fluids, vitamins, 9 units of blood and 4 units of plasma, along with antibiotics  and other things running into my veins and arteries (by the way when they did the artery one, I felt like someone drilling a hole in my arm, good thing I went under quickly for that one.)

Back to the ICU and me being awake.  Dr Mendez finally came and said I could remove the breathing tube, which felt like someone pulling all the gunk out of your body through your mouth, but I could finally breath and talk on my own.  Then he said it would be a couple of days until I could get out of there to see my baby.  I cried over that thought and was determined to do everything to get better.  I had excruciating pain from delivering, the surgery, and gas.  But I did everything the nurses told me to do.  While I was there Bishop Boshard stopped by to check on me and my sister.  And then finally the dr came back and said I had progressed so much that evening I could go to the Women's Center and see my baby and kids again.  The nurses and Steve wheeled me down in a wheel chair and helped me get into my bed down there and then they hooked up my IV and brought me my baby.  I have never been so grateful to see my child and just hugged and kissed her and cried.  Then later that evening my other kids came and I was overjoyed to see them. 

Now in the beginning they thought I would be in the ICU until Sunday or Monday (I was out Saturday afternoon), they thought I would be in the hospital until Wednesday, I was home by Monday afternoon.  My story is a miracle of faith, hope, and it shows what a lot of prayers can do for someone.  I am humbled to have had this experience, to know how loved I am, to know how important I am, to know that my Heavenly Father knows me and loves me and that I am his daughter and he has blessed me with this opportunity to stay on this Earth a little longer to be with all of kids, my husband, and my friends and family.  I will be forever grateful for this trial and the miracle that came from it, and I know without a doubt that the priesthood is real and that blessings work, and so do prayers.  I know that the Holy Ghost and angels were there watching my loved ones and me and to inspire doctors and nurses on what to do to help me and my family.  I will forever be grateful to all of them for all of their sacrifices.  And I will be forever grateful for the miracle that occurred in my life.