The uncommon cold

Today makes 10 days that I've had a cold. It started as chest congestion, and a few days later moved up to include head congestion as well. Although I started feeling symptoms on Wednesday, I didn't begin to feel really lousy until Saturday night or Sunday. I missed work Monday through Wednesday, and then returned to work on Thursday. I was starting to feel quite a bit better, although still really congested.

Since Sunday I've been taking Sudafed, Mucinex, and Benadryl -- all ok substances to take while pregnant. Unfortunately, they haven't seemed to be doing much to cut the congestion.

On Wednesday before returning to work, I started having pain in the lower left side of my rib cage when coughing. I had a distinct feeling that I should support that spot with my left arm when coughing, or else it felt like I would blow out something. I thought that quite unlikely, but I continued to support my left side when coughing. I have been through several bouts of bronchitis and pneumonia at other times in my life, which involved much more violent and prolonged coughing. My ribs would get sore, but I never injured myself. That's an obvious lead in to what happened to me this week.

Thursday night I was sleeping, occasionally half-waking up to cough, roll over, and return to sleep. At around 2am, I had a short coughing fit during which I didn't support my left side. While coughing, I felt something snap in my rib cage, followed by sharp pain. It took me about 15 minutes to get myself maneuvered out of bed and down the hall to call CMS. (I've been sleeping in my own bed because I like it much, much cooler these pregnant days.) I tried calling out to him, but couldn't speak very loudly due to the rib pain. Once he could hear, he jumped right out of bed to help. We called the OB to find out what we should do, and he sent us to the ER where they took x-rays, determined that it's probably a fractured rib, and gave me some pain killers. With fractured ribs, there's not really anything that can be done other than taking it easy and waiting for healing to happen.

We were told to see the OB yesterday to check on everything with the baby in light of the cold and fractured rib. We got to see our first ultrasound in 12 weeks or so, and we have pics to show for it! Introducing Baby P-S at 33+ weeks. On the right side, you can see his face and notably his high cheekbones. Handsome little guy!
And then down here we have the money shot. Apparently the free-floating kidney-shaped form is Baby P-S's scrotum, complete with descended testicles. The kid's got balls, and we've got pictures to prove it. I think the large white blob just to the right of the scrotum is a side shot of the baby's rump.
So I got a cold and fractured rib, and I got baby pics to show for it.