I feel so presidential...
For the last week I have continued to have contractions despite being pretty much confined to the couch and consuming insane amounts of water. I made an appointment to see Dr. H this afternoon because all I could get out of the evil weevil nurse was that if I was having contractions I needed to go back to Labor and Delivery. My insurance would boot me (I'm guessing) if I showed up at the hospital every day so I decided that having a face to face with Doctor was my best bet. Turns out I was right... here's the scoop.
Cervix: Still closed up tight like it should be - thank God. I'm not a fan of cervical checks but it does give me a lot of relief to hear that there is NO progress down there.
Contractions: For the most part I'm having 2 or 3 an hour but every day there is a window (an hour, sometimes more) where they are a lot closer together and more painful. It kind of feels like getting a charlie horse in your gut - if you can imagine it that way.
Tests: Good news on both fronts here - I passed my glucose test for gestation diabetes and all of my mid-pregnancy lab work look great (Horray! No three hour test!).
At my visit today, Dr. H decided to do a swab test to look for a protein that shows up in the weeks before delivery. It was more like a pap smear that I would have liked but I survived. The protein test came back negative, which is good. If it had been positive I would have been in a very high risk category for delivering in the next few weeks. Our goal is to cook this kid until at least 35 week - she would live if she were born now but she'd be in the hospital for a while and that's something I really want to avoid. So, in a few weeks we will test for the protein again but at least we have that negative test working for us.
After my appointment, Doctor sent me over to the hospital for monitoring to see what my contractions were doing. I got there around 2:30pm and was hooked up to the monitor until about 5pm. I had several contractions and as the time wore on they got more painful. Doctor came to see me just before I left and said that there were enough contractions that he wanted to start me on some medication to help relax the uterus. They gave me one pill at 4pm and had me wait an hour to see what the effect was. I still had some contractions but they weren't as painful or as frequent, so that was good.
Verdict: I have a giant bottle of pills in front of me (Nifedipine) and I am to take one every 4 hours. They are supposed to relax my uterus and keep the contractions to a minimum. I just took my second one a few minutes ago but the first was was kind of unpleasant. I got really flushed and shaky and my head started hurting on my way home. I don't know if it's because I haven't slept well or because I went without lunch (didn't expect to spend 3 hours at the hospital) but I haven't felt great tonight. We'll see how tomorrow goes...
I'm also on "limited activity". We aren't calling it bedrest because I'm allowed to be up and about a bit - just no lifting, exertion, or being on my feet all day. Derek is giving me 15 minutes of active time a day to do whatever chore I can't live without. I think I *might* be able to clean one room (barely) a day to keep up on my housework. Other than that - I'm officially a couch potato.
I've been changed from appointments every three weeks to weekly appointments from here on out.
Baby's Position: She's transverse (laying sideways) and after my exam today doctor didn't sound too optimistic of her changing to a head down position for delivery. It sounds like I need to start preparing myself for the strong possibility that I'll be having that c-section that I've been dreading...
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