Monday, March 21, 2011

Admission to the hospital


So this morning I got a phone call from my OB office saying my lab work had come in from over the weekend and that I needed to come to the office today not tomorrow as scheduled. They wanted to check my blood pressure and urine especially. So I called Bob, who was at work, and told him we needed to go to the office and we did. When we got there we went through the usual routine. My weight had actually come down by 3lbs- wahoo some water has left my body. Then I provided a urine sample this came back 3+ protein, not good. Lastly they checked my blood pressure, it was horrible, 189/106- I was shocked. Honestly I was feeling relatively good, one of my better days. Even my constant headache was not that bad, so I was really surprised. So the nurse took me to the exam room and laid me on my left side so they could recheck my blood pressure. Dr. R came in and looked very somber. She rechecked my blood pressure 170/98- not a good improvement. She then checked my tummy and listened to the boys heart rates. After that she sat down with us and told us about our labs. The second urine test had come back 10x higher than the previous one not only was this concerning but more so that the change had happened in only one week. I was very surprised, she said the protein had gone from 297mg to over 3000mg. This put us in the delicate in between stage of  preeclampsia (PIH) stage and meant my kidneys were not functioning well. The danger is when you get to severe preeclampsia this can lead to seizures, stroke, maternal and/ or death of the babies. She said if it was up to her she would probable deliver me today but she said it was up to Dr. H who was on call at the hospital. So she sent us over for more blood work, tests, and to see Dr. H. We were shocked and feeling overwhelmed. Each of us called our parents to give them a heads up on what was going on and told them to wait by the phone. We got to the hospital they immediately took us back to a room started a NST and lab came to draw blood. We had the same sweet nurse from Friday- just a side note the nurses are wonderful at Rex! Dr. H came in very concerned and said she just was not sure what she wanted to do yet. We are in that delicate balance where we have to weigh the options of delivery vs waiting for the health of the babies. This is based on whether if I have not developed severe PIH- we would know more after the blood work- and if the babies are not in distress they would be better off holding off delivery. So she sent us down to the UNC specialists for a consult and detailed ultrasound to check the boys. We had the ultrasound done and the boys showed no signs of distress, in fact they are as content as can be to hang out in my tummy. The blood flow in the placenta- which can become compromised in PIH- looked great. The boys got a perfect score on their biophysical profile. It was a huge relief to see they are doing so well.  Their growth was even good-James weighs 4lbs 8ozs and Jackson weighs 4lbs 4ozs. We spoke with the specialist who recommended we just watch and wait until something changes to severe with me, the boys show signs of distress or we reach 36 weeks. By this time my blood work came back and nothing came back alarming so Dr. H decided no delivery today- we were again relieved. While they look wonderful in my tummy they could be very sick if we took them out now. Now we have a new set of plans and change of scenery. I was admitted to the hospital for bed rest and observation.
We are here for till the end.
 We will have twice daily NSTs, lab work, ultrasounds, and very frequent blood pressure checks. I was also changed over from my Lovenox to Heparin- which is a shorter acting blood thinner. Now we just wait, basically we can have a baby any day just depends on me and the boys- that is so mind boggling to me! Hopefully we can get to 36 weeks because every day they can stay in my tummy  and grow the better. 

2 comments:

  1. Praying for all four of you! Excited to see pictures of the boys but I can wait a couple weeks!!!

    ReplyDelete