Well I have been meaning to update all weekend, but just haven't got to it till now.
If you read my blog you are probably a FB friend or a TMP friend and probably already know what's going on with me, but in case you don't, read on. Also this will be the long story, not the brief update I gave on Facebook.
So after a fairly productive day on Monday, I had a doctors appt on Tuesday. There was protein in my urine and my blood pressure was high. Not even sure how high, if they told me, I don't remember. But it was enough that they sent me over to OB triage to be checked out some more. I got there, and the nurse hooked me up to fetal monitors took a urine sample and my BP and after a few minutes someone came to draw my blood. My bloodwork came back good, my urine actually came back good at that time. But my blood pressure never went down and stayed down. It was best when laying on my left side, never good when sitting upright. They doctor didn't want to send me all the way back to Bagdad with a BP like that, so they admitted me. I was so not prepared for that!! But they wanted to monitor me some more, and do a 24 hour urine collection.
Clint was on nights and had just gone into work when I called to tell him that I was being admitted. He was the man in charge of his crew that night and I told him he didn't have to come. I actually had my computer with me and felt like I'd be okay till morning. He went along with that, and I got admitted and settled into my room. Ordered a sandwich from hospital room service for dinner, which was actually really good. By like 8 Clint had called saying he was arranging to take off work to come be with me. He was just stressing out and couldn't just sit at work. Aww love him! So I gave him a list of things to bring and buy and he got there around midnight I think. I didn't realize how much I wanted him there till he got there. I was so excited to see him!!
We went to sleep pretty late obviously and he slept like a baby but I can't say the same for me. Every hour I was woken up for something. Either I had to pee or a nurse came in or something. They were checking my BP about every 4 hours. Someone came to draw my blood at 5:30 AM (awful way to wake up) and at 8 something room service called asking if I wanted breakfast. No... actually, I wanted to continue sleeping. Grr. Why do they have to call?? I'll call them when I'm hungry darnit! After that I stayed awake. Ordered breakfast eventually. I was just laying around all day. I don't think I quite grasped what was going on all this time...
Finally around 11 something, the on-call doctor came to talk to us! Gosh he talked about all kinds of things. I guess I had no idea how important blood pressure is. He talked about the possibility of induction and C section and time frame on all that and factors that could come into play. All a bunch of medical stuff that I have a hard time remembering and understanding. He said they'd been randomly checking my urine and that the preliminary tests showed little to know protein which is good. He stressed that I need to by laying on my left side to keep my BP down. He said that if things are really bad with me we could be inducing any day now and Zane would be fine just not breathing on his own. But he'd pull through. He said they weigh the risks of whether he's safer on the inside or the outside and at that moment he was safer on the inside so the goal was to keep me pregnant until that's not true, assuming that its also safe for me. He said I definitely won't make it to my due date though. He told me that IF they released me, I had to be good and lay on my side all the time, strict bed rest, but he didn't give us much hope that we'd be going home that night.
It was after this talk, that I had my first little anxiety attack over the whole thing. I started to realize the magnitude of the whole thing, and realized that we could be having this baby very soon, and I was feeling so not ready. The crib isn't even assembled!! The nursery is a mess. When I washed his clothes I just threw the tags on the floor intending to deal with them later, once the crib was assembled and I was able to start really putting the nursery together. I cried and freaked out a little and had to lean on Clint. But I got past it. We'll be fine. He really doesn't need the crib right away anyway. That's why we have the pack & play. We've got everything we need.
So the day went on and I got really good about staying on my left side. It took about half a dozen pillows to make it comfortable, but I made it work! I became kind of determined to do my part to get my BP down. The rest of the day my BP was pretty good. Not always great. Always a little higher if they took it right after I'd been up to pee or eat or whatever. But I was really good that day! Clint went to home to get some things and spend some time with Zoey (who had spent the night alone :( ) and on his way back to the hospital he dropped her off with Auntie Robin and the kids, and of course Lala! He got back around 6 or so. Then I stressed out about Zoey. He told me that Robin & her husband were going out for dinner and that Zoey could go out through the doggie door but there's big dogs out there which she's scared of, and he didn't check to make sure she couldn't get out of the yard! So I kinda freaked out thinking she'd get out and get eaten by a coyote or something crazy. LOL I just worry about her. I know it was probably really weird for her spending the night some place without us. That's only happened one other time I think. Well and one time at our house with my in-laws there and not us. I just worry about her anxiety. So that brought on anxiety attack number two. I started crying about that (I know I know..) and got past it.. but started crying again.. LOL I made Clint come lay in bed with me and calm me down. I was just stressed out about the whole situation.
Around 9 that night, the doctor came back in to talk to us. He had the results of my urine collection. Annnnnd it was bad! There was lots of protein in my urine and so I have preeclampsia. Weird because I don't have a lot of the other symptoms. I have some headaches, but don't have swelling or vision problems. Preeclampsia can be really bad news. It can lead to seizures. We caught it early enough that its not so severe, so hopefully it doesn't get to that point for me! The only way to get rid of it is to deliver the baby, so the goal is to keep it under control until its safe to deliver. The dr wants me to make it to at least 36weeks, which is a week from today (going by LMP). 37 weeks would be ideal. But it just depends.
So obviously I didn't go home that night. But I slept MUCH better than the night before, thank God. I barely woke up when the nurses came in, even when they had to draw blood (this time at 4:30 :/ ). The next morning the doctor was really busy, making it hard to get any real info. Zane was still being monitored and I should say that I had very few contractions (which are normal at this point) and everyone said that he was very happy in there. I guess based on his heart rate they can tell. Like he's not distressed. His heartrate was all over the place which I guess is a good thing! So that made me feel good!! I can stand to be uncomfortable if he is happy and healthy!
So the thing about pre-e is its silent. At least for me it is. Aside from the occasional headache, I feel FINE. Like completely fine. So its really hard to wrap my head around the fact that I'm sick. I don't feel sick. At all. But I am sick. And I'm on bed rest and its so hard to stay in bed when you don't feel like you need to. It causes all kinds of aches and pains.. My back, neck, shoulders, hips, legs.. ugh!!
Anyway Zane was doing so well that by late morning or early afternoon they took off the fetal monitors. This felt great!! Not having to unplug them every time I had to pee and just not having them on was great! But they also weren't collecting my urine anymore. So we were confused as to why we were still there. 0_o Clint went to the store that afternoon to get some things for our stay, since we figured we'd be there another night or two. While he was gone, the doctor came in to talk.. finally! So I put Clint on speaker phone and it turns out my blood results came back good. He talked to me for a few minutes about my condition and the importance of bed rest and told me that I get to go home!! So instead of getting stuff for our stay, Clint got a blood pressure monitor for home so that I could be checking it regularly, as the doctor requested.
So yay!! We got everything together and loaded up, hit Sonic on the way out (probably not the healthiest choice...), then went to Robin's to get our Zoey who I hadn't seen for over 50 hours and I missed so much!! Then we came home. And I laid my ass on the couch cuz that's the rules.
Since then I've spent my time.. you guessed it! Laying on the couch, on my left side. I get up to eat, pee and shower. It's taken some getting used to, but I guess I'm kinda used to it. I started playing Farmville and Zoo World on Facebook so that really helps to pass the time. I watch a lot of TV and if this goes on much longer I'll add streaming to my netflix plan. For now I've got enough shows and random movies that I've recorded. Its weird to not be able to clean. The doctor specifically told me that bed rest doesn't mean getting up to pee and while I'm up, starting a load of laundry. It means getting up to pee and laying right back down. I'm so glad Clint heard him say that so he knows I'm not milking it! LOL So its definitely strange being taken care of. Clint was off till today so he was making my meals and all that. So strange!!! Yesterday he got groceries and did some laundry and stuff. He's handling it all well and I'm doing my best to not nag about anything. Like he may not do things exactly like I would but its good enough. Even if he doesn't put enough cream cheese on my breakfast bagel... lol. Today I was on my own, but it wasn't so bad. A little more activity obviously, having to prepare my own meals, but I still behaved as best I could, staying off my feet.
I've been checking my BP regularly and it fluctuates even when I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to. I don't get it! But I have done some testing, like taking it after my shower when I've been up for 15 minutes and its a lot higher at those times. So I do see that my activity level makes a difference.
They did say that I could switch sides, so at night I sleep on my right side, its more comfortable and when I tried sleeping on my left I woke up on my back and that's not good at all! So this is what works for me. Today I did some googling on foods that are good for blood pressure. I found a list that mentioned bananas, watermelon and dark chocolate. So I had Clint pick up those after work. Maybe it'll help.. couldn't hurt! And watermelon is totally hitting the spot right now!!
I've been meaning to blog for days but typing while side-lying is really awkward and makes for lots of typos. I can't belive I've typed this all in one sitting, actually! Its quite uncomfy!
Tomorrow we have to go back to the hospital for more bloodwork and monitoring. If there's been a bad change in my bloodwork, I imagine I'll be readmitted. We'll be there for 3 or 4 hours hooked up to the fetal monitors with regular blood pressure checks and I'm sure they'll be checking my urine. So we are going prepared for another night or ten in the hospital. Hopefully its all good news and we get to come right home though!! Assuming we don't get readmitted, we have an appt at my OB office on Thursday. Not sure what they'll do there, but they wanted to see me after everything that's gone on. It'll be really good to get their input on what they think will be happening in the next few weeks. I'm kinda hoping for a 37 week induction. That's in 2 weeks and he will be fully developed at that point, if I understand correctly. And a bright side to this is that if I have him early, he won't be so big! I've been preparing myself for a 9lb baby but this way he'll be a much better size! Better for me, I mean. Also he'll be able to fit into NB clothes for a while, which will be nice! Clint is wanting him to come now! He's crazy! He's just so anxious to meet the little guy. Awww!
I was starting to stress about what this is costing us, but then I looked into our insurance plan and our out of pocket max is 2500 so its nice to know we won't be stuck with a super huge hospital bill. I mean 2500 is plenty but I know it could be a lot worse! I figure its likely we'll reach that. Of course Clint has already missed 2 days of work (well 1 3/4) and will miss tomorrow. If I get readmitted I'll probably have him go back to work Tuesday. The nurses will take care of me and we can't have him missing too much unnecessary work! Starting Thursday he's on his 7 off so that'll be good.
Anyway I better end this now and get in bed since I've got to get up early tomorrow.
Goodnight world!
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