Most people adopt a routine. You get up at a certain time of day, you turn on the radio to a certain station, you shower, get dressed, drive, work, come home, visit, eat, watch tv, feed the dogs, go to bed.
Repeat.
Of course I have left out a million other things that happen during a normal day, but that is pretty much my routine. I live a routine life. You look at it as I've described it and you could call it boring.
But boring it is not. Not with baby on the way, which is the point when most of you start rolling your eyes because good lord, how many more times can this man talk about how his life got flipturned upside down and live with his Auntie and Uncle in Bel-Air? Well, yesterday is a #1 example of how this baby thing is the craziest thing ever.
Yesterday morning, our routine proceeded as it normally did. Amanda had an appointment with Dr. Greene, one of the many routine appointments that she has to have until blast off come November. We even took 2 cars since we were both planning on going to work. Plans. Hah. Very funny.
The first thing they do when you check in at the OBGYN desk is weigh you and then take your blood pressure. Amanda's BP was running high. High enough that when Dr. Greene arrived in the exam room that she didn't exactly have her poker face on. We knew this wasn't going to end like we thought it was going to. They took her BP 3 more times and each time they deemed it "high." Pam(Dr. Greene) then told us how this was going to work. Pregnant women have to worry about something called pre-eclampsia which causes severe damage to your liver and kidneys and can be fatal to mothers and their babies. The cure for pre-eclampsia is to deliver your baby. Amanda was 29 weeks yesterday. Dr. Greene is telling us that if this is in fact pre-eclampsia that Nathan is showing up not in 11 more weeks, but in a few days. The boy measured 2.5 lbs on Wednesday at the last ultra sound and now we are being told that our son might be delivered a little more than half the size I was when I was born and I was 2 months early. Holy balls. This was supposed to be just a normal appointment. Pam then told us that there is also the possibility that this is not pre-eclampsia but chronic hypertension. The only way to find out for sure if its chronic hypertension is that they send us down to labor and delivery and run a series of blood and urine tests. She then tells us "you could be here for 4 hrs or you could be here for a few days, but you are going to be here a while until we can figure this out. This is what we we do. We are going to take really good care of you and your baby."
5 minutes later we are in labor and delivery in a triage room. Amanda is now plugged up to a machine that is checking her heart rate, the baby's heart rate and her BP. If her BP is above a certain level then they have to give her a shot to lower it and if they administer the shot then we are spending then night. The results are above the level so we are having a sleepover at Scott and White until further notice. They also give her a steroid so that in the event they have to deliver the baby the steroid will help the baby's lungs develop so that when he comes out he can breathe. This is all happening 20 minutes from the time we parked our car and checked in for our routine appointment. This is insane.
We get moved into a room and they get us settled in and explain that Amanda gets to have a 24 urinalysis test. She gets to collect her urine for 24 hrs and it will then be tested to see if there are any proteins present in her urine, surefire indicator of pre-eclampsia. If that turns out negative then its just chronic hypertension, but we've got to wait 24 hrs. Amanda is also having her blood pressure taken and nurses have to come in every hour to check her vitals and her reflexes. So that means for 24 hrs she gets to be poked and prodded on the hour, even if she's asleep. Oh, and she gets no solid foods and only clear liquids. After a little while in the room Amanda's mom drove in from work and her dad came in after he got off from his job towards the end of the day. Kenny and I then drove Amanda's car back to our house so that we didn't have 2 cars at the hospital and I grabbed a bunch of stuff to prepare for the night. The Bownds were super nice enough to bring us dinner. Then night came upon us.....
Here is the part of the blog that I want to make perfectly clear: the staff at Scott and White was absolutely fantastic. We probably saw every OBGYN on staff, every nurse, we even saw two burly guys from Maintenance-more on that later. Dr. Greene (Pam) came in twice and checked on us and each and every person took great care of Amanda and Nathan.
With that disclaimer out of the way I want to talk about what the experience was like. I would also like to get out of the way that hospitals are not luxury hotels. This wasn't supposed to feel like vacation. This was an overnight stay in a hospital room. They are doing the best they can.
Neither of us got much sleep. Amanda didn't get any sleep because she was wired up to IV's and monitors and blood pressure cuffs and other loveliness's and then they come in and check on her and do some reflex tests and all that. I didn't get much sleep because I had the option to sleep in a recliner that didn't recline or a fold out couch that doesn't fold out so much as it extends.
Repeat.
Of course I have left out a million other things that happen during a normal day, but that is pretty much my routine. I live a routine life. You look at it as I've described it and you could call it boring.
But boring it is not. Not with baby on the way, which is the point when most of you start rolling your eyes because good lord, how many more times can this man talk about how his life got flipturned upside down and live with his Auntie and Uncle in Bel-Air? Well, yesterday is a #1 example of how this baby thing is the craziest thing ever.
The first thing they do when you check in at the OBGYN desk is weigh you and then take your blood pressure. Amanda's BP was running high. High enough that when Dr. Greene arrived in the exam room that she didn't exactly have her poker face on. We knew this wasn't going to end like we thought it was going to. They took her BP 3 more times and each time they deemed it "high." Pam(Dr. Greene) then told us how this was going to work. Pregnant women have to worry about something called pre-eclampsia which causes severe damage to your liver and kidneys and can be fatal to mothers and their babies. The cure for pre-eclampsia is to deliver your baby. Amanda was 29 weeks yesterday. Dr. Greene is telling us that if this is in fact pre-eclampsia that Nathan is showing up not in 11 more weeks, but in a few days. The boy measured 2.5 lbs on Wednesday at the last ultra sound and now we are being told that our son might be delivered a little more than half the size I was when I was born and I was 2 months early. Holy balls. This was supposed to be just a normal appointment. Pam then told us that there is also the possibility that this is not pre-eclampsia but chronic hypertension. The only way to find out for sure if its chronic hypertension is that they send us down to labor and delivery and run a series of blood and urine tests. She then tells us "you could be here for 4 hrs or you could be here for a few days, but you are going to be here a while until we can figure this out. This is what we we do. We are going to take really good care of you and your baby."
5 minutes later we are in labor and delivery in a triage room. Amanda is now plugged up to a machine that is checking her heart rate, the baby's heart rate and her BP. If her BP is above a certain level then they have to give her a shot to lower it and if they administer the shot then we are spending then night. The results are above the level so we are having a sleepover at Scott and White until further notice. They also give her a steroid so that in the event they have to deliver the baby the steroid will help the baby's lungs develop so that when he comes out he can breathe. This is all happening 20 minutes from the time we parked our car and checked in for our routine appointment. This is insane.
We get moved into a room and they get us settled in and explain that Amanda gets to have a 24 urinalysis test. She gets to collect her urine for 24 hrs and it will then be tested to see if there are any proteins present in her urine, surefire indicator of pre-eclampsia. If that turns out negative then its just chronic hypertension, but we've got to wait 24 hrs. Amanda is also having her blood pressure taken and nurses have to come in every hour to check her vitals and her reflexes. So that means for 24 hrs she gets to be poked and prodded on the hour, even if she's asleep. Oh, and she gets no solid foods and only clear liquids. After a little while in the room Amanda's mom drove in from work and her dad came in after he got off from his job towards the end of the day. Kenny and I then drove Amanda's car back to our house so that we didn't have 2 cars at the hospital and I grabbed a bunch of stuff to prepare for the night. The Bownds were super nice enough to bring us dinner. Then night came upon us.....
Here is the part of the blog that I want to make perfectly clear: the staff at Scott and White was absolutely fantastic. We probably saw every OBGYN on staff, every nurse, we even saw two burly guys from Maintenance-more on that later. Dr. Greene (Pam) came in twice and checked on us and each and every person took great care of Amanda and Nathan.
With that disclaimer out of the way I want to talk about what the experience was like. I would also like to get out of the way that hospitals are not luxury hotels. This wasn't supposed to feel like vacation. This was an overnight stay in a hospital room. They are doing the best they can.
Neither of us got much sleep. Amanda didn't get any sleep because she was wired up to IV's and monitors and blood pressure cuffs and other loveliness's and then they come in and check on her and do some reflex tests and all that. I didn't get much sleep because I had the option to sleep in a recliner that didn't recline or a fold out couch that doesn't fold out so much as it extends.
This scene from the Princess Bride was pretty much what it felt like. That couch was meant to be slept on about as much as screen doors were meant to be used on submarines. Comfortable it was not. Then we got to deal with Amanda's IV machine that would randomly go off and make noises that I'm pretty sure were used to torture prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. We probably called the nurse's desk about a dozen times to come and turn the noises off. Then we come to the part with Maintenance. At about 3 in the morning Amanda was woken up for a nurse check in and I was woken by that check in as well. I decided I should use this opportunity to use the bathroom. I did my business and flushed the toilet and it flushed...for 45 minutes. The toilet flushed for 3/4 of an hour. It sounded like Hurricane Hugo in a toilet bowl. The poor nurse came in and informed us that the water in the hospital had been turned off and that none of the toilets in the hospital were flushing. I guess ours just made up for the rest of them. Eventually maintenance showed up and got the water to shut off. Now we just had to try and sleep. We tried, it didn't happen. Amanda simply could not get comfortable and I don't know why. Its not like she's pregnant and wired up and Nathan was doing somersaults in her belly while he was mic'ed up and in full surround sound. I mean this is supposed to be total comfort, like going to a spa.
Kenny and Vickie came back around 10ish and we just sat around and watched episodes of The Office. I also would like to point out that my family was out of town and that's why they are not mentioned in this narrative. Anyways, We were all on pins and needles waiting for 12:10 to roll around since that's when the 24hrs was up and they could test her urine. We didn't get the results back for another few hours and the doctors were going to let us know the results and that that meant for the future.
I have glaringly failed to mention what the doctors told us our possible scenarios were.
Scenario 1: The urine shows high levels of protein and therefore she has severe pre-eclampsia. Nathan will be delivered in a matter of days and will have an extended stay in the NICU
Scenario 2: The urine shows some levels of protein and therefore she has mild pre-eclampsia. Amanda will have to stay in the hospital while she is medicated and monitored and Nathan will be delivered around 34 weeks.
Scenario 3: Amanda has low levels of protein in her urine but they are afraid it could turn into full blown pre-eclampsia. Amanda is discharged and put on bed rest and medicated with a blood pressure pill. Nathan is delivered around 34 weeks.
Scenario 4: The urine is negative for proteins and therefore it is chronic hypertension and Amanda is discharged, put on medication, allowed to go back to work and Nathan is monitored twice a week at doctors appointments and a decision is made whether he is delivered around 34 weeks for later depending on Amanda's health and vital signs.
I'm out of Shawshank. I'm free.
We got #4. Amanda was SO happy to be out of the bed and to know that she could actually be there to teach on Monday. Amanda did amazing. It was a ridiculously emotional 24 hrs. Just imagine thinking that your baby is going to show up WAY before he's supposed to and he's going to be TINY and he'll need lots of care. He was supposed to listen but oh no, he just wants to show up now. How are we going to handle all this? All those thoughts spend the day running through your brain and it is terrifying, but we knew it was going to be ok, no matter the outcome. And it will.
My job now is to take even better care of Amanda and Nathan and to ensure that this pregnancy lasts as long as possible. That will be my new routine.
I mean, that's my plan but we all know how plans and routines go.
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