February 18, 2014 – Smoke vs. Fire

    I know most of my friends and family have been keeping up with updates via Facebook, but I wanted to write a little about what happened this weekend.  It had been another busy week.  I know, I am supposed to be relaxing but we had some big events that all came at the same time and I couldn’t miss out on them.  I tried to take them all easy and bowed out earlier than I would have normally, but it doesn’t seem to have made a difference. 

    My sweet niece turned 1 last week!  If you look back in my blog you can see the story of her birth.  We celebrated with a low key party at her parents’ house where we attempted to get her interested in the smash cake I made her.  She was having none of it.  I think she was upset that we wanted to mess up something she thought was pretty and she probably didn’t want to get her cute outfit dirty.  She was very excited to wear her pink tutu with polka dots.  She showed it to all of us before we put it on her.  I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.  She showed off her new walking skills and was just the precious person I have gotten to watch grow this year. 

    We had a few other smaller celebrations and gatherings to attend this week and they were all fun.  I really tried to keep it low key.  Friday I saw my OB for the weekly check in.  I turned in my blood pressure measurements, which had been showing an increasing trend of higher pressures more regularly.  They are still within normal for other people, but high for me.  Of course at the appointment my pressure was so low it was normal for me pre-pregnancy.  The nurse took it twice just to make sure it was right.  For Valentine’s Day he ordered additional blood work and another 24 hour urine collection.  The joys of pregnancy!  Sometimes I think being an OB is all about seeing what horrible and gross things you can get other people to do. I did my collection and turned it in on Saturday. 

    Saturday was our baby shower.  It was amazing.  My girlfriends went all out and so many people braved a gross snow storm to come celebrate with us.  It was just so much fun.  Baby Boy got a ton of fantastic gifts.  If you are wondering what the best diaper rash cream must be I am going to say Boudreaux’s Butt Paste.  I think every pediatrician and pediatric nurse brought a tube.  We will win the battle of diaper rash in this house!  The party was a Dr. Seuss theme to match our nursery and the whole room was Seussical.  Afterwards we had church and dinner out with visitors and by the time we made it home I was exhausted.  Pregnancy insomnia had me up most of the night and I was so busy all day that I didn’t manage any nap time or down time.  I had to lay down immediately and just felt awful. 

    Sunday Doc and I tried to just take it easy and get back into a routine.  I still had pregnancy insomnia strike, but at least I was able to get a nap.  At around 5:30 my phone rang with a restricted number.  I sent the call to voicemail before I realized it was probably my doctor.  He left a voicemail with the news that my 24 hour urine showed an increase in protein in my urine.  This is called Proteinuria and is a symptom of preeclampsia.  It was a diagnosis we had all kind of been thinking would be coming considering my blood pressure seemed to be rising despite decreasing salt, increasing potassium, and getting more cardio.  The OB wanted me to head into the hospital for 24-48 hour observation and to get steroid injections so that our son’s lungs will be better developed in case we need to deliver in the next 2 weeks.  We are only 32 weeks along, full term is 37 weeks.  As I listened to the message I went on a crying search for Doc.  He swung into action like Superman.  We packed a bag, called all the people would could think of that would need to know, made sure the dogs were going to be cared for and headed off to the hospital.  At one point while we were getting ready I just froze in the middle of the living room and he had to get me jump started again.  I told him it is just too soon.  I love my husband.  He knows far more of the terrifying details of what this could mean for us, and yet he was the strong one and made sure everything got taken care of.  We got checked into Labor and Delivery (L&D) and Baby and I were hooked up to all kinds of monitors.  They were having a crazy night, so we were a little inconvenient for them to have to care for, and they didn’t really hide that fact.  Doc and I were not really impressed with the on call OB or the nurses we had, but we keep trying to remember they were having a really horrible night so we were not seeing them at their best.  After a while they said Baby and I were fine and gave me my first steroid shot.  Then we were left alone.  I don’t think they did what my OB wanted them to do as he was hoping to have a base line for my pressures and fetal activity for more than 10 minutes, but it is what they did.  The morning OB was much better, but we were kind of over sitting around at the hospital for no reason, so we checked out and came home.  We had to go back in for a second shot last night, and otherwise we are going to see our regular OB again this Friday. 

    I will say that I have noticed 2 kinds of physicians lately and I definitely have my preference.  The first kind looks for fire and rushes into action to put out fires, they seem to thrive on emergencies.  The second kind looks for smoke in an attempt to avoid the fire and head off the emergencies.  I tend to prefer my doctors, who I think look for smoke.  They learn their patients and what is normal for them, looking for trends in their labs and vitals, so that when something changes they can get to work fixing it before it becomes an emergency.  I am blessed to have found these doctors; because if I were at the hands of the OB we had Saturday I think Baby Boy would end up being delivered in an extreme emergency.  That may still happen even with my amazing doctors, but I know they aren’t going down without a fight, and neither are we.  J