i apologize that it has been a couple of days. i have been
running on coffee and adrenaline. who knew that babies would keep you up
at night?!? since my last post, lydia became a month old. we had a huge
party! not really. you see, preemie babies are pretty much banned from
being around a lot of people at one time for a few weeks. this mom is
not one to stay indoors or at home for long periods of time. i am very
thankful that i am married to a man who knows that and encourages me to
have some time away. frozen yogurt with a good friend is always needed.
and daddy-daughter time is very important too. love that man!!!
onto part 3 of the delivery story.
Back
to the hospital stay, Tuesday and Wednesday's lab work just showed the
protein in my urine. Therefore, I was just monitored closely. Thursday
is when things began to change. My lab work resulted in my liver enzymes
doubling. With that showing up, the doctors put me on a medication
called magnesium sulfate. This was to slow down the progression of
symptoms and to keep me from seizing (which is another symptom).
Basically, it made me feel extremely heavy and hot. At this point, I was
only able to go from the bathroom to the bed. Complete bed rest.
The
crazy thing about all of this is that I, up to this point, had felt
like I was fine. All the things that were going on were happening inside
my body. Not on the outside for me to be able to tell that something was
wrong. Therefore, it was hard to lay there and feel "ok," besides the
magnesium.
On Friday, there wasn't much change,
so they continued to monitor me closely. Saturday is when things got
interesting. At that point my labs were showing high blood pressure,
protein in my urine, problems with liver, and new on the scene, extremely low platelet count. Your platelet count is supposed to be in the 130,000s. Mine had dropped to 80,000. I had begun
to have pain on my right side in the middle of my back, which I later
found out was due to my liver issue. Headaches and swelling had also begun. The docs didn't want to continue
waiting because they were nervous of the possibility of my platelet
count dropping further, and my liver to continue failing. Time to begin
induction of labor.
When the choice was made
to begin labor, the doctor on call explained the risks of a c-section
and a regular delivery. Her explanation was NOT awesome. Basically, the
risks of c-section were higher. Surgery equals more blood, and with a low platelet count, the risks go up. A regular delivery would probably have to be done
naturally, because the anesthesiologist wouldn't put in an epidural with my platelet count being below 100,000. After explaining, she said she would
leave the room so we could decide how to precede. We asked for her
advice as a doctor, but she did not give us a straight answer. Upon her
stepping out of our room, your dad hit his knees and prayed that the
Holy Spirit would guide us in making our decision. We had no clue what
to do. We were scared of the risks of the c-section, and we didn't know
if my body was strong enough to deliver naturally due to the magnesium
sulfate (which I had to remain on up to 24 hrs. after your delivery).
After our prayer, the doctor came back in and said she had gotten
anesthesia on the phone, and they were willing to put my epidural in
right then, because my most recent labs had just come back saying that my platelet count had risen back to 101,000. They didn't want to wait and take the chance of them dropping again. We agreed to the epidural, which made our decision to proceed with a regular delivery. Thank you, Lord, for answering our prayer!
I will leave out a lot of
the details here. Just know that for them to begin the process of labor
was not fun for me. There was checking things and placing things inside
that were quite painful. I pushed through because I knew I would meet
you soon enough! One thing that I can explain, was that my blood
pressure had begun to spike even higher. They pushed a blood pressure
medicine through my IV, and I immediately felt like my face was burning.
I called the nurse back in and told her what was happening. I was
having an allergic reaction. Your dad had stepped out to get himself
some dinner. When he came back, my face looked like a tomato, and Nonnie (my mom)
was wiping my face with a cold rag. Crazy, huh?!?
After
that, we had to wait 12 hours to see if what they used to begin labor
was working. It didn't work as well as they wanted, but i had progressed
a little. The next doctor on call was Dr. Madden. It was now Sunday
May 20th, 2012. When he saw that I had progressed enough for pitocin,
that is what was next. This is when the contractions were supposed to
begin. The epidural was working great. I felt the tightness of my belly
contracting, but not the pain. The mag was still making me feel heavy so
I slept a lot...
(to be continued...)
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