This roller-coaster ride keeps going... I'm sorry that this is a long e-mail but its therapeutic in ways and its also helps me get some of this stuff down so that when Taylor grows up and starts giving us problems, we can show her what her family went through for her.
On Friday we were discharged from Emanuel and drove up to Salmon Creek. There's some fun stories to tell about the crazy transfer but this note will get real long if I do. In short, we were technically not able to transfer and had to be discharged and get our selves re-submitted. Fibs were told and the master plan we developed with our doctor was, shall we say, poorly executed. Kind of an embarrassing day, but hey we are in the hospital we want to be in now. We want to be here for the NICU if Taylor comes early (which we are starting to accept as happening).
Backing up though just to show how even more crazy this all this... On Friday, we were actually given the choice to just go home. Its not clear that the membranes have broke and things did stabilize. Its funny how perspectives change and Thursday night Michelle and myself (I was home) talked a lot about her coming home. Look up basket case in the dictionary right now and you may just see a picture of me. The kids and myself are missing Michelle a lot when we are at home. Anyway, of course I really wanted her home and she wants out of the hospital. But we both did not feel comfortable about it because of the bleeding. If the plot to get ourselves to Salmon Creek weren't underway we wouldn't have felt right leaving Emanuel. Our doctor was not comfortable as well with the amount of time it would take us to get back to the hospital if things went downhill. But in the end, the doctor did offer and we turned it down.
Sometimes your gut instincts are right and that was the case here (reality slapped our senses silly again). Michelle's bleeding really picked up again over the weekend and all hell broke loose last night. It was a crazy afternoon already. (Here I go blabbering on for no reason) Michelle's bleeding had picked up, our kids were at the hospital with us and they were sick and we were bouncing off the walls. We had our tour of the NICU (my parents came by to watch the kids so both of us could go) and we another depressing conversation with the neonatalogist. By the time we came back from the tour my sister had shown with her kids. It was out of control. I could have swore I turned into some cartoon character with my eyes popping out of my head and I swore I heard Ah-ooga!!! once or twice.
Anyway, after all this and everyone left, I was still supposed to be heading home with the kids, and we went down to get some food so they could eat dinner with their mom. When we got back to the room, the monitors were running (which made my stomach hit my toes and bounce off the nearest wall). Michelle had some bad bleeding happening and they were hooking her back up to iv. I decided I wasn't going home but I did have to take the kids halfway home to meet up with their uncle and aunt who were going to watch them. As we were leaving (and I was rapidly trying to get the kids out) I looked at the monitor and saw contractions. Lots of contractions. A few speeding laws were broken but kids got transferred and I got back. This time my heart sank as soon as I was in the hallway as there were all sort of machines lined up outside our room. And there were a lot of people inside the room. Michelle was having the worst bleeding of the pregnancy by then (the only time its been worse is when we had that late miscarriage). Anyway, the contractions were regular, large and Michelle was starting to go into labor.
They threw the kitchen sink at her. More nefedepine (which is the only drug Michelle has been on continually), indocin (indomethacin) again (which was Michelle's friend the last time we had serious contraction problems) and the big boy Magnesium sulfate. They slowly spaced out the contractions and made them less regular. Unfortunately, the Magnesium sulfate is a bad ass drug. It slows everything down (everything from the uterus, to the legs, to the lungs). They take it very serious and we had a nurse devoted to us for the night (tonight as well). She should have just stayed in our room with us. She had to due vitals every hour on the hour, and take blood twice. She would come in every hour on the hour and things would get crazy and then we'd take a breath, and go ok time to get some sleep, but then look at the clock and realize the whole thing would start again in 15 minutes. Michelle was really sick from the Magnesium, had more bleeding, and her blood pressure was really low (nefedepine in combination with the mag). Taylor was also being negatively affected by the medicine but priority 1 was stopping the contractions. Michelle would get real hot and almost puke, and we'd uncover her and fan her, and then 5 minutes later she would be freezing and we'd cover her back up. Alarms would go off, batteries would die in machines, other machines would run out of paper, etc.. It was bad... and I just felt like shit for Michelle. She was real sick. She ended up throwing up. Her blood pressure got worse. They finally took her off the magnesium at 4am. She was supposed to be on it for 24 hours but her blood pressure had tanked (63 over 35). Her nurse literally took her blood pressure and ran out of the room to find the doctor and that was the end of that drug for a couple hours (eventually Michelle was taken off it for good). Scary stuff.
That was the low. Things have gotten better. She is still having some bleeding but it has backed way off. She is also still having contractions, but they are manageable right now. We got about 2 hours of sleep last night and about another 2 today, so we are really hoping for a very quiet night and so far it appears that we might get it but who knows. Our doctor is still committed to fighting off labor right now, but told us point blank that if this is still going on once we reach 28 weeks (1 week 2 days from now) that he's going to want to deliver. The biggest danger right now is the placenta abruption which we all "think" is happening. If the placenta quickly comes loose the chance of Taylor making it is essentially nil. They won't be able to move fast enough to get her out. Michelle wants to permanently move her bed to a surgery room but even that wouldn't get the doctors there in time (though I wouldn't be surprised to see her trying to convince her doctor tomorrow). Moving down the danger skill, if the placenta slowly tears they'll watch Taylor and if she starts responding badly they'll deliver. If the placenta slowly tears away and only Michelle that's bleeding (and its manageable) they'll just give Michelle blood and try to keep her from delivering. The opposite of the end of the scale is that everything just chills out and we make it to 34 weeks and they deliver. I haven't a clue how this is going to turn out. Neither does our doctor (and he's an excellent doctor).
What a ride... I just want us all home and healthy for Christmas and that's the only thing I continually try to think about. But we are back to hour by hour right now. Hopefully tomorrow it goes back to day by day.
I will hopefully be back on-line and working tomorrow. The internet connection at this hospital is bizarre. I have to go find a sweet spot to get connected and then I can come back to the room and it works okay for a couple hours. Today my sweet spot stopped working. I finally got a connection tonight 1 floor down outside the cafeteria. Quite frustrating, but it works. Gets tiring though when you have 2 computers to get working (one for more, the other for Michelle or the kids). I feel quite stupid walking around the hospital with my laptop trying to find a spot that works. I suspect security will be visiting me soon. ;-)
Anyway, thanks for your thoughts and I repeat WE WILL NEVER GET PREGNANT AGAIN!
On Friday we were discharged from Emanuel and drove up to Salmon Creek. There's some fun stories to tell about the crazy transfer but this note will get real long if I do. In short, we were technically not able to transfer and had to be discharged and get our selves re-submitted. Fibs were told and the master plan we developed with our doctor was, shall we say, poorly executed. Kind of an embarrassing day, but hey we are in the hospital we want to be in now. We want to be here for the NICU if Taylor comes early (which we are starting to accept as happening).
Backing up though just to show how even more crazy this all this... On Friday, we were actually given the choice to just go home. Its not clear that the membranes have broke and things did stabilize. Its funny how perspectives change and Thursday night Michelle and myself (I was home) talked a lot about her coming home. Look up basket case in the dictionary right now and you may just see a picture of me. The kids and myself are missing Michelle a lot when we are at home. Anyway, of course I really wanted her home and she wants out of the hospital. But we both did not feel comfortable about it because of the bleeding. If the plot to get ourselves to Salmon Creek weren't underway we wouldn't have felt right leaving Emanuel. Our doctor was not comfortable as well with the amount of time it would take us to get back to the hospital if things went downhill. But in the end, the doctor did offer and we turned it down.
Sometimes your gut instincts are right and that was the case here (reality slapped our senses silly again). Michelle's bleeding really picked up again over the weekend and all hell broke loose last night. It was a crazy afternoon already. (Here I go blabbering on for no reason) Michelle's bleeding had picked up, our kids were at the hospital with us and they were sick and we were bouncing off the walls. We had our tour of the NICU (my parents came by to watch the kids so both of us could go) and we another depressing conversation with the neonatalogist. By the time we came back from the tour my sister had shown with her kids. It was out of control. I could have swore I turned into some cartoon character with my eyes popping out of my head and I swore I heard Ah-ooga!!! once or twice.
Anyway, after all this and everyone left, I was still supposed to be heading home with the kids, and we went down to get some food so they could eat dinner with their mom. When we got back to the room, the monitors were running (which made my stomach hit my toes and bounce off the nearest wall). Michelle had some bad bleeding happening and they were hooking her back up to iv. I decided I wasn't going home but I did have to take the kids halfway home to meet up with their uncle and aunt who were going to watch them. As we were leaving (and I was rapidly trying to get the kids out) I looked at the monitor and saw contractions. Lots of contractions. A few speeding laws were broken but kids got transferred and I got back. This time my heart sank as soon as I was in the hallway as there were all sort of machines lined up outside our room. And there were a lot of people inside the room. Michelle was having the worst bleeding of the pregnancy by then (the only time its been worse is when we had that late miscarriage). Anyway, the contractions were regular, large and Michelle was starting to go into labor.
They threw the kitchen sink at her. More nefedepine (which is the only drug Michelle has been on continually), indocin (indomethacin) again (which was Michelle's friend the last time we had serious contraction problems) and the big boy Magnesium sulfate. They slowly spaced out the contractions and made them less regular. Unfortunately, the Magnesium sulfate is a bad ass drug. It slows everything down (everything from the uterus, to the legs, to the lungs). They take it very serious and we had a nurse devoted to us for the night (tonight as well). She should have just stayed in our room with us. She had to due vitals every hour on the hour, and take blood twice. She would come in every hour on the hour and things would get crazy and then we'd take a breath, and go ok time to get some sleep, but then look at the clock and realize the whole thing would start again in 15 minutes. Michelle was really sick from the Magnesium, had more bleeding, and her blood pressure was really low (nefedepine in combination with the mag). Taylor was also being negatively affected by the medicine but priority 1 was stopping the contractions. Michelle would get real hot and almost puke, and we'd uncover her and fan her, and then 5 minutes later she would be freezing and we'd cover her back up. Alarms would go off, batteries would die in machines, other machines would run out of paper, etc.. It was bad... and I just felt like shit for Michelle. She was real sick. She ended up throwing up. Her blood pressure got worse. They finally took her off the magnesium at 4am. She was supposed to be on it for 24 hours but her blood pressure had tanked (63 over 35). Her nurse literally took her blood pressure and ran out of the room to find the doctor and that was the end of that drug for a couple hours (eventually Michelle was taken off it for good). Scary stuff.
That was the low. Things have gotten better. She is still having some bleeding but it has backed way off. She is also still having contractions, but they are manageable right now. We got about 2 hours of sleep last night and about another 2 today, so we are really hoping for a very quiet night and so far it appears that we might get it but who knows. Our doctor is still committed to fighting off labor right now, but told us point blank that if this is still going on once we reach 28 weeks (1 week 2 days from now) that he's going to want to deliver. The biggest danger right now is the placenta abruption which we all "think" is happening. If the placenta quickly comes loose the chance of Taylor making it is essentially nil. They won't be able to move fast enough to get her out. Michelle wants to permanently move her bed to a surgery room but even that wouldn't get the doctors there in time (though I wouldn't be surprised to see her trying to convince her doctor tomorrow). Moving down the danger skill, if the placenta slowly tears they'll watch Taylor and if she starts responding badly they'll deliver. If the placenta slowly tears away and only Michelle that's bleeding (and its manageable) they'll just give Michelle blood and try to keep her from delivering. The opposite of the end of the scale is that everything just chills out and we make it to 34 weeks and they deliver. I haven't a clue how this is going to turn out. Neither does our doctor (and he's an excellent doctor).
What a ride... I just want us all home and healthy for Christmas and that's the only thing I continually try to think about. But we are back to hour by hour right now. Hopefully tomorrow it goes back to day by day.
I will hopefully be back on-line and working tomorrow. The internet connection at this hospital is bizarre. I have to go find a sweet spot to get connected and then I can come back to the room and it works okay for a couple hours. Today my sweet spot stopped working. I finally got a connection tonight 1 floor down outside the cafeteria. Quite frustrating, but it works. Gets tiring though when you have 2 computers to get working (one for more, the other for Michelle or the kids). I feel quite stupid walking around the hospital with my laptop trying to find a spot that works. I suspect security will be visiting me soon. ;-)
Anyway, thanks for your thoughts and I repeat WE WILL NEVER GET PREGNANT AGAIN!
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