Friday, June 8, 2012

The final couple weeks, pre-Ellie



JooYeon's due date was June 27th, which timed out perfectly. Our classes all finished on June 8th and her mom had a ticket to fly in on the 11th, just in case Ellie came a bit early. It was a good plan, but there were two large surprises hiding behind the corner (no, this doesn't mean twins).



One of the more relaxed and self-exploratory classes I've had in the doctoral program was Reframing Organizations. Our group redesigned the game Settlers of Catan to engage students in the political frame that exists in all organizations.


We met Mike, his wife, and child at the baby fair. It wasn't quite as large as we had hoped, but we did win two nice door prizes and got lots of good information (which was nice as we really didn't have much to go on before that on childbirth or beyond).




We also spent time getting the place ready for Ellie, and for JooYeon's mom who will be living with us for a few months. The hope is that I'll get some before and after pictures compiled at some point, but until then, here are a few shots of the family pitching in to beautify our junglish lawn. Mom and Dad's birthday gift to me this year was landscaping - definitely something that I had been neglecting during my grad studies!




And then surprise numero uno hit. Poison ivy. JooYeon's first run in with the evil plant, and it was a baaaaaad run in. It started off with some annoying bumps here and there that intensified the already existent frustrations of carrying an extra pounds around in the third trimester. But it was bearable.


And then, things got worse. It spread across her belly, her back, her legs, face, arms. She went to the doctor, but he decided it was too risky to give her the normal treatment because it might hurt the fetus. We kept checking constantly for signs that it was subsiding, but it kept getting worse.


By the time it hit the two-week mark, her skin had turned into a crusted mess and things were still getting worse. When we went to the doctor again, he took one look and instantly gave her three strong medicines; at that point, the risk to the fetus from infection outweighed the risk via the drugs. He said it was so bad that he was one step away from admitting her to the hospital.







The medicine was not quick - the next week was still bad - but at least there were signs of improvement. Which was a good thing considering what happened next.

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