"There's nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever."
~ Gandhi
The next two weeks became routine. Over the weekend I was under quite a bit of observation, but by Monday I was off the IV completely and only on oral meds, I was being put on the fetal monitor twice a day, I was allowed to go on 30 minute wheelchair rides once a day, take a shower, and I had passed the 28 week mark...Mission #1 (make it to 28 weeks) COMPLETED! Next step...make it to 30.
Surprisingly enough, the time FLEW by and I had enough to entertain myself between occasional blogs (which is why I'm not yet at "real time"...sorry), Facebook, Pinterest, and playing games with friends online. I had one of the kids load up a case with movies, and Hubby brought another case of my favorite TV shows on DVD to watch. The time also gave me an opportunity to register online for my shower (we didn't know exactly when or where it was going to be held yet). When the two-week mark came and my 29 week date was only 2 days away, we got excited at the prospect of only having 1 week more to go in my stay.....well....we should have just kept being excited for one day at a time.
Thursday January 12th started like all of the others. I woke up, ordered my breakfast, received my morning meds, and was put on the monitor. On most days, Dr. Francois would stop by either right before I was put on the monitor, or shortly after I was taken off. Also, Hubby usually would visit me early in the morning before he went to work, so after work he could go home and take care of the kiddos. That day, he was there, and I had just been put on the monitor when Dr. Francois came in to check on me. I explained how things were "Status Quo"...not feeling anything strange...feeling plenty of movement...and not "leaking" anything. She told us that she would re-check my cervix the following week and our goal was to get me home at the start of week 30 (the following Saturday). She said, "I'll see you tomorrow, keep up the good work" and left the room. Hubby and I started joking about him having only a week left to get the house in order before I came home. We continued to joke around a bit for around 10-15 minutes, when Dr. Francois came quickly back into the room and asked us what was going on....I had had 2 contractions since she had left the room. She asked me if I had felt anything and I told her I hadn't. She informed me that according to the monitor I was having a third contraction!!! I got quiet....tried to focus....and still didn't notice anything different. Nothing. Not a flinch...cramp...contraction feeling at all!! This concerned her a bit and she jumped into action. We needed to get these contractions to stop!!
I was given an IM dose of Toradol and my meds were changed around a bit. I ended up being on the monitor for 2 1/2 hours, as opposed to the 20 minute normal scan. In the first 30 minutes, I had 6 contractions!!! I had 8 in an hour...6 the second hour...and only 1 in the last 30 minutes. I was going to start the second treatment of steroids the following day to reinforce the first treatment in case of premature delivery. There was no way I was going to NOT do that with the new developments. We were able to get the contractions under control, but not without increasing our concerns about my chances of going home the following week. We decided that rather than getting ahead of ourselves, we were going to just going to take one day at a time.
After that morning "scare" everything started to equalize again. My blood sugars went a little crazy because of the steroids, but they evened out again, Glyburide was added to my "cocktail", I got adjusted that evening...and contractions ceased. With the addition of Ibuprofen in my treatment for the reduction of contractions, my fluids needed to be monitored, too. I received an AFI study (Amniotic Fluid Index) to make sure everything was good. Results: AOK!!! Quick alert...but overall, back to Status Quo....ONE DAY AT A TIME.
Surprisingly enough, the time FLEW by and I had enough to entertain myself between occasional blogs (which is why I'm not yet at "real time"...sorry), Facebook, Pinterest, and playing games with friends online. I had one of the kids load up a case with movies, and Hubby brought another case of my favorite TV shows on DVD to watch. The time also gave me an opportunity to register online for my shower (we didn't know exactly when or where it was going to be held yet). When the two-week mark came and my 29 week date was only 2 days away, we got excited at the prospect of only having 1 week more to go in my stay.....well....we should have just kept being excited for one day at a time.
Thursday January 12th started like all of the others. I woke up, ordered my breakfast, received my morning meds, and was put on the monitor. On most days, Dr. Francois would stop by either right before I was put on the monitor, or shortly after I was taken off. Also, Hubby usually would visit me early in the morning before he went to work, so after work he could go home and take care of the kiddos. That day, he was there, and I had just been put on the monitor when Dr. Francois came in to check on me. I explained how things were "Status Quo"...not feeling anything strange...feeling plenty of movement...and not "leaking" anything. She told us that she would re-check my cervix the following week and our goal was to get me home at the start of week 30 (the following Saturday). She said, "I'll see you tomorrow, keep up the good work" and left the room. Hubby and I started joking about him having only a week left to get the house in order before I came home. We continued to joke around a bit for around 10-15 minutes, when Dr. Francois came quickly back into the room and asked us what was going on....I had had 2 contractions since she had left the room. She asked me if I had felt anything and I told her I hadn't. She informed me that according to the monitor I was having a third contraction!!! I got quiet....tried to focus....and still didn't notice anything different. Nothing. Not a flinch...cramp...contraction feeling at all!! This concerned her a bit and she jumped into action. We needed to get these contractions to stop!!
I was given an IM dose of Toradol and my meds were changed around a bit. I ended up being on the monitor for 2 1/2 hours, as opposed to the 20 minute normal scan. In the first 30 minutes, I had 6 contractions!!! I had 8 in an hour...6 the second hour...and only 1 in the last 30 minutes. I was going to start the second treatment of steroids the following day to reinforce the first treatment in case of premature delivery. There was no way I was going to NOT do that with the new developments. We were able to get the contractions under control, but not without increasing our concerns about my chances of going home the following week. We decided that rather than getting ahead of ourselves, we were going to just going to take one day at a time.
After that morning "scare" everything started to equalize again. My blood sugars went a little crazy because of the steroids, but they evened out again, Glyburide was added to my "cocktail", I got adjusted that evening...and contractions ceased. With the addition of Ibuprofen in my treatment for the reduction of contractions, my fluids needed to be monitored, too. I received an AFI study (Amniotic Fluid Index) to make sure everything was good. Results: AOK!!! Quick alert...but overall, back to Status Quo....ONE DAY AT A TIME.
AHHHHHHHHHHHH, prayiong that you can keep TAZ indoors as long as possible.
ReplyDelete"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
― Corrie ten Boom