the BIG appointment

Today's appointment felt like such a major appointment at the dr's office for multiple reasons. First of all, we knew that the pediatric cardiologist was going to be there to evaluate baby Catcher's heart arrhythmia's (irregular heartbeat) so we were looking forward to getting some answers about that. And after some tests last week, we knew that the dr was going to tell us that the preeclampsia is getting more severe and were interesed to hear what the new game plan would be for the coming weeks. Plus we're almost 27 weeks (will be tomorrow) and 28 weeks is a huge milestone, that we are so excited to only be a week away from that, every day and week beyond 28 weeks just gives the baby that much more good chances upon arrival.

So first of all we had a joy trying to find this office, the visit was in stockton because that's where both the perinatologist (high risk pregnancy dr) and the pediatric cardiologist (kids heart dr) were both located. Of course there are a million kaiser buildings all next to each other and we had to figure out which building to go to, finally, it was in the third building we tried :) Well they of course were all worried about my blood pressure again, but if i hadn't had to walk around so much just to get into my appointment it wouldn't be so dang high, it goes down when i lay down. Well then of course as usual there was protein in my urine, which we again knew, these are both indicators of the preeclampsia i have. if the protein gets to high, my kidneys could suffer permanent damage, and if the blood pressure stays high, i'm at risk for stroke, seizures, liver damage, and at worst...death of myself and/or the baby. This is why, preeclampsia is no laughing matter. Anyway, then they took me in for an ultrasound, they made adam wait in the waiting room for all of this because the ultrasound was a specialized kind and so it was going to be very long and not exactly fun to watch, it's a lot of measurements and exact pictures to be taken, it's not really a "for fun" ultrasound. so he waited out there for an hour...yes the ultrasound really took an hour! The specialist they had doing the ultrasound was really friendly though and she talked to me the whole time which made the time not seem as long. But i was hurting so bad by the end of it because dang those beds are hard!

When she finished the ultrasound, i thought i was done, but she told me "oh no..lots more" she brought in the Husband Man, and then two other dr's came in, the perinatologist, Dr. Graham, and the pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Woods. Then as i lay on the bed they looked over all the pictures already done on the previous ultrasound then asked for specific live images and numbers. The strange thing was, because the screen was pointed towards them so they could see, that meant i couldn't see, and i'm laying there and all i can do is watch their faces and wonder what is going through their minds. They're whispering a little bit and pointing, and saying "go back, i need to see that again" and scrutinizing the screen for at least 20 minutes. It was an agonizing 20 minutes, partially because this was when we were hoping to get some information on the baby's heart, and partially because my hips were hurting so bad from laying on my back for so freakin long! ouch!

But at the end of it, Dr. Woods said she didn't think the arrhythmia was anything to worry about, it doesn't happen ALL the time, it's now on the fourth beat, but not EVERY fourth beat (last week it was on the third beat) so, there's some promise that it is spreading out more and will eventually dissipate, and even if it doesn't, she was impressed to see that it doesn't impeded his growth or movement, which a serious heart defect would. There were no abnormalities noticeable in the heart, but he will be reevaluated after birth. So that was a sigh of relief, not looking at any heart surgeries anytime soon....phew! Then dr. graham asked if i was doing the kick count at home (counting how many kicks i feel from the baby within one hour) i laughed and told him that normally i feel 70-80 kicks in an hour, but that last night i did the count after eating a bowl of ice cream, and i felt 111 in one hour! no joke, one hundred and eleven kicks in one hour! He had to nearly pick his jaw up off the floor, he had NEVER heard of a baby moving that much, not even after ice cream :)

After the ultrasound they took me back to have the baby monitored for about another 20-30 minutes and then sent me to talk to the dr. We talked with the dr about our current options, you see last week a test showed that my urine protein levels are rising significantly and that is a great cause for concern, they jumped from around 300, to 977! that is a very large jump, if it continues at this rate, we could have a problem. At this point our option is....hospital bed rest until the it becomes necessary to deliver the baby, or continue the home bed (couch) bed rest with 3 dr's appointments a week until it becomes necessary to deliver. He said normally he wouldn't let me continue home bed rest, except that i am keeping such good track of everything at home, it's like being my own nurse. He knows i am very aware of everything with my body and that i would tell him if i felt something was wrong, he appreciates my obsession with all things medical (he calls it being detail oriented and well informed :) and thinks that's just as good as having a nurse keep track of it at the hospital. So for the time being we opted for home bed rest, although i think Adam is trying to talk me into hospital bed rest, knowing i would be taken care of, i know he worries all day while he's at work, and that would put his mind somewhat at ease i think. But we're still weighing the plus's and minus's of both options. 3 appointments a week is a lot of up time, and in the hospital the dr's would come to me instead. But in the hospital i would NOT get to see my kids at all because with the whole H1N1 flu thing, no visitors under 16 are allowed AT ALL, not even to visit new family members or anything....it would be so hard to not see my kids at all for however long this would end up being. Now there may come a time when the dr doesn't give us a choice of hospital or home, but for now, we are on home bed rest, again, only allowed up to potty, NOTHING else. I'm pretty good about it, i'm getting used to it i guess.

Oh on a funny note :
The dr ordered some labs to be drawn and wanted the results STAT, which means in a super big hurry. So when he input them in the computer he put that the return date for the results should be December 31, 1842...yes i wrote that right, 1842....haha, the lab was a little confused by that, but it was just to say he wanted them back like years ago, so get it done quick! haha, medical humor i suppose :)

All in all, long tiring day, glad to be back to my wonderful couch, and on a positive note, baby catcher's estimated weight (from the measurements they did on the ultrasound) is already 2pounds 13 ounces, that's almost 3 pounds already!!! we're only just 27 weeks and most baby's don't weigh even 2 pounds until after 28 weeks, so we're so excited that he is growing so big because when it comes to an early baby, the bigger the better for his life outside mommy's belly. Keep growing baby Catcher...we love you :)