Tonight I will be packing a hospital bag. Because, you know, it seems like there’s a possibility that I might need it at some point. I probably wasn’t clear enough in my last post. In fact, I was downright misleading when I said, “So I’m just going to sit around waiting to see if it’s a trend.” What I’d been told yesterday by my Matria nurse was that one day of high blood pressure wasn’t really a good data point and that if I had two days, then they’d decide what to do. So at the time I wrote my post this morning, I was waiting for my Matria nurse to call (since I’m not doing contraction monitoring anymore, she calls me in the afternoon, rather than in the morning after morning monitoring).
Anywhozit, my nurse called me around 12:30 and told me to take my BP again around 1:30 and see if it was still high. It was (125/94), so she called my doctor’s office. They promptly had me come into the office to be seen and the nurse at my doctor’s office suggested that IF I already have a bag together I might want to bring it with me, but if I didn’t already have it together, not to worry about it. Well, phooey. That wasn’t entirely what I wanted to hear. Suffice it to say, I didn’t have a bag packed anyway, so it was a moot point. And so… off to the doctor’s office. Dr. P. was in the office I went to, which made me happy (he’s a very calming influence). My BP was, annoyingly, elevated but not high while I was there (130/84). High for me, but not high enough to be problematic. My cervix has shortened by about half a centimeter. That’s not fabulous, but Dr. P. pointed out that at this point we want to get these babies another three weeks, not another three months, so it’s manageable (at its shortest, it was 1cm, it’s longest was 1.6 which used to be about as short as it would get).
Anyway, Dr. P. ordered some labs and a 24-hour urine collection. He said that obviously they’ve been doing their best to manage me as an outpatient for as long as possible, and that now they’ve kind of got a choice, which he left with me. Did I feel more comfortable being admitted now so I can be monitored 24/7 or would I be more comfortable and less stressed at home? I told him that honestly if he’d asked me last week I would have told him to admit me, but I really, really wanted to go home today. Next week, I said, I’m all yours. You can take me. In fact, I said, it’s probably best to admit me next week, so that I’m not trying to navigate the issues of dealing with getting to the hospital or doctor’s office if I need to in the midst of the Jewish holidays. He said that was a good point, and we’ll talk about it again before we get there. He wanted me to still come in for my already-scheduled appointment on Friday and we’ll see how it goes. At this point we’re just taking things one day at a time, and that’s okay.
Right now I’m really uncomfortable. The contractions are really getting intense. I gave myself an extra dose of terbutaline, which I normally try to avoid, particularly at night, but that’s the way it goes. But it’s okay. Not far now, right?
ChezPerky 