Monday, July 25, 2011

Pre-eclampsia and the night before (we think)

It's 9pm Monday July 25th and Katie is hooked up to four monitors at the moment. Three are measuring the babies heart rates and one is measuring her contractions. She has been here for almost an hour and just told me baby A kicked her bladder and almost made her pee on herself :)it is not very comfortable because she has to lay on her back during the entire hour. (imagine if you had to lay flat on ur back with a 50 lb dumbbell inserted in ur abdomen for an hour and u might get an idea of what it feels like) this has Been a regular ocurence for the past 4 plus days b/c she was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia last Friday. While it is not entirely understood what causes this condition, it is clear that is very dangerous for her and the babies. Side effects include seizures, high blood pressure, low platelet count (which can lead to hemoraging) nausia and fatigue. Since the diagnosis Katie has been under constant supervision. Blood work every 12 hrs (yes, a new needle stick 2 times a day. Everyday) baby monitoring (which we just completed) three times a day. IV drip is a constant. Meds every night. She is getting great care from the doctors and nursing staff for sure. It's just hard to see her so uncomfortable all the time. I mean, this time last year she was on a 2 day run from Chatt to Nashville and now the poor girl is having trouble breathing because Baby B just drop kicked her Diaphram.


The one constant throughout this journey has been Katie's toughness. She has not complained
one time. Her pain threshhold is off the charts. It truly is inspiring to watch her and be
apart of this incredible journey.

So, here we are now waiting on tomorrow morning and possibly our big day. Her morning lab results showed elevated liver enzyme and ldh levels. Her platelet count dropped as well. Her afternoon labs came out the same. This pattern indicated that the condition is worsening. I was told to bring an overnight bag and be ready to deliver possibly as early as tomorrow
morning. Needless to say, the yoyo of being told that we are going to deliver within the next 24 hours a couple times is draining. Tonight it feels kind of dull. It's like the little boy who cried wolf. After the third time you really just tune his little butt out. Don't get me wrong, we are ready to go if the coach tells us to get in the game we just aren't sure he will.

So, now comes the names. We finally settled on them. Literally, just 1 min ago. I won't tell u what they are but I will give you the initials:

A. CLF
B. BKF
C. MLF

Check back later to find out what they stand for :)

Rhett

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