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Oct. 7th, 2023 09:37 amWell, this weekend was not at all what I had planned for.
I left work early on Thursday to pick up M for my OB appointment. Everything seemed to be going normally, but the doc was concerned a bit about my blood pressure being slightly elevated, so they checked it again at the end of the appointment, and it was even higher. My urine sample also had elevated proteins in it, so she sent me over to the OB ER just in case we were looking at preeclampsia.
In the ER they tested me again, and it was still higher. I couldn't give them another urine sample just yet, so I stayed in the bed, where they gave me an IV for blood pressure meds and continued to check my pressure every 10 minutes. It...still...kept...going...up. -_- So, they pushed more meds, it continued to rise, I finally was able to pee, my blood pressure got up to 197/something, and after three increasingly higher doses of meds, they decided to admit me. They gave me a steroid shot just in case we needed to deliver early, so fetus's lungs would develop more.
That evening is a bit of a blur. They put me and fetus on some monitors for a 24 hour fetal stress test and installed a catheter so they could collect 24 hours' worth of pee, which was NOT FUN, and they strapped me to an automatic blood pressure cuff that took my pressure ever 15 minutes. They put me on a magnesium sulfate drip for 24 hours. I think I managed about 3 hours of sleep that night, the only chunk of the night where there wasn't a nurse coming in every hour to check stats or refill the IV or move the fetal monitor because the girl kept squirming away from it or just straight up punching the darned thing. Freaking break dancer in there.
I couldn't leave the bed at all yesterday, but M ran to the house and picked up my laptop so I'd at least be entertained. He also checked on the kitties and made sure they had everything they needed.
All the tests and monitoring came to an end in the late afternoon, and they said that they were discontinuing the magnesium and switching me to oral blood pressure meds for the rest of the pregnancy. The infernal catheter finally came out. They took me and fetus off all the monitors and said they would just do a fetal stress test once a shift now instead of continuously. They gave me a second steroid shot. The neonatologist came in to talk to us just in case we had to deliver her now - she's at 33 weeks, and they really wanted her to be at least 34, but if we did have to deliver now she had a 99% chance of being absolutely fine. She had squirmed her way back into breech position (stop it!) so it would definitely be a c-section at this point.
But, it looks like delivering her that early won't be a thing that happens. My blood pressure this morning still looks okay, and they seem optimistic that I can go home soon. I've had three different on-call docs talk to me, and all of them told me a different amount of weeks they want me at - 37, 35, 34 - so at this point it's really just "keep her in there as long as possible." I'll likely be on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy if I get to go home on Monday. Blarg. But hey, at least I didn't have to have a surprise delivery this weekend!
I left work early on Thursday to pick up M for my OB appointment. Everything seemed to be going normally, but the doc was concerned a bit about my blood pressure being slightly elevated, so they checked it again at the end of the appointment, and it was even higher. My urine sample also had elevated proteins in it, so she sent me over to the OB ER just in case we were looking at preeclampsia.
In the ER they tested me again, and it was still higher. I couldn't give them another urine sample just yet, so I stayed in the bed, where they gave me an IV for blood pressure meds and continued to check my pressure every 10 minutes. It...still...kept...going...up. -_- So, they pushed more meds, it continued to rise, I finally was able to pee, my blood pressure got up to 197/something, and after three increasingly higher doses of meds, they decided to admit me. They gave me a steroid shot just in case we needed to deliver early, so fetus's lungs would develop more.
That evening is a bit of a blur. They put me and fetus on some monitors for a 24 hour fetal stress test and installed a catheter so they could collect 24 hours' worth of pee, which was NOT FUN, and they strapped me to an automatic blood pressure cuff that took my pressure ever 15 minutes. They put me on a magnesium sulfate drip for 24 hours. I think I managed about 3 hours of sleep that night, the only chunk of the night where there wasn't a nurse coming in every hour to check stats or refill the IV or move the fetal monitor because the girl kept squirming away from it or just straight up punching the darned thing. Freaking break dancer in there.
I couldn't leave the bed at all yesterday, but M ran to the house and picked up my laptop so I'd at least be entertained. He also checked on the kitties and made sure they had everything they needed.
All the tests and monitoring came to an end in the late afternoon, and they said that they were discontinuing the magnesium and switching me to oral blood pressure meds for the rest of the pregnancy. The infernal catheter finally came out. They took me and fetus off all the monitors and said they would just do a fetal stress test once a shift now instead of continuously. They gave me a second steroid shot. The neonatologist came in to talk to us just in case we had to deliver her now - she's at 33 weeks, and they really wanted her to be at least 34, but if we did have to deliver now she had a 99% chance of being absolutely fine. She had squirmed her way back into breech position (stop it!) so it would definitely be a c-section at this point.
But, it looks like delivering her that early won't be a thing that happens. My blood pressure this morning still looks okay, and they seem optimistic that I can go home soon. I've had three different on-call docs talk to me, and all of them told me a different amount of weeks they want me at - 37, 35, 34 - so at this point it's really just "keep her in there as long as possible." I'll likely be on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy if I get to go home on Monday. Blarg. But hey, at least I didn't have to have a surprise delivery this weekend!