ChezPerky

Jessica here…still…
How was my weekend you ask? It was fine. Full of romping, running, and enjoying the brisk early autumn weather… How was Karen's weekend? It was fine… Full of contractions, kicks to her bladder, and most recently enjoying her newly itchy hands and feet! Ahh… The joys of pregnancy.

I have a SERIOUS case of writers block tonight, but need to get the info out to Karen's pep squad! 🙂 So let me give it to you in bulleted form… OK?

• Karen is still Pregnant.
• The babies are all still doing well!
• No we still don't know what she's having (but I have some SERIOUS hunches)
• Her Doctor from this weekend scheduled her for a C-Section on Friday the 21st.
• Karen didn't agree with this idea and now we're back to having no scheduled date.
• Yom Kippur begins Friday at dusk.
• On Saturday evening Karen developed intense itching in her hands and feet.
• Her Doctor from this morning thinks the itching may be a pregnancy condition called Cholestasis.
• They also think this may be what is causing the slightly elevated liver panels from last week.
• This is not to say that the pre-eclampsia is still not an option.
• Karen's Blood Pressures have been good, but still elevated.
• When I talked to her on Saturday she had a terrible headache…
• On Sunday she felt and sounded much better…

That's all I've got folks… I hope you're all doing well and that you all enjoyed this awesome weather we had this weekend!! I'm absolutely worn out from running after the kids outside all weekend! Feel free to post in the comments if there's something I missed, or if there's questions you have, I've been keeping up with the comments… So I'll see any questions ya'll throw out there!

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Jessica Again…
After talking with Karen a bit ago, I am convinced… Nothing phases her. Well nothing much at least. I’m pretty sure boredom might drive her batty before the contractions do… Crazy Karen 🙂

All is well in Karen’s gestating world. She’s still pregnant, and the trio is still doing well. Nothing too interesting to report, but I felt it necessary to update since I had in fact spoken to the Momma herself. As of about noonish today, things were on the up and up… The pre-eclampsia that we were so fearful of, it seems may be nothing more than a touch of high blood pressure and possibly just some ill related elevated bloodwork. It’s funny how that works… You get very pregnant and your body gets all crazy. So for right now, that diagnosis is on the back burner, hopefully not to be brought to the front burner anytime soon. If it IS brought to the front burner, the decision is that the babies will be delivered ASAP. ugh. As for the contractions, the Doctors have also decided that if there is still no sign of toxemia, then the Terbutaline can be started again. This is a wonderful decision, not only for the babes, but for Karen. It sounds as though last night was incredibly difficult… The contractions were laughing at the mere mention of the RN’s offers of percocet. In wonderful news however, today is a miraculous milestone of 32 weeks, woo hoo!! Let’s all do a little happy dance for this mile marker…

So the plan (as of noon) is this, the Doctor’s will sit on Karen, and not send her home. So many factors are (in my mind) weighing in on why they’re keeping her… The holidays, J being 4 years old and being home full time for the next few days, being 32 weeks pregnant with triplets, having a cervix less than 2cm, frequent contractions… Do I honestly need to continue this list? Honestly? I thought not…

Regardless, keep everyone in your thoughts… Obviously all the powerful thoughts are working! I also let her know about all of the AWESOME comments you’ve been leaving for her! Seth will share all the words of kindness when he gets to visit this afternoon… Keep it up fellow bloggers!!

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Jessica Again…
After talking with Karen a bit ago, I am convinced… Nothing phases her. Well nothing much at least. I'm pretty sure boredom might drive her batty before the contractions do… Crazy Karen 🙂

All is well in Karen's gestating world. She's still pregnant, and the trio is still doing well. Nothing too interesting to report, but I felt it necessary to update since I had in fact spoken to the Momma herself. As of about noonish today, things were on the up and up… The pre-eclampsia that we were so fearful of, it seems may be nothing more than a touch of high blood pressure and possibly just some ill related elevated bloodwork. It's funny how that works… You get very pregnant and your body gets all crazy. So for right now, that diagnosis is on the back burner, hopefully not to be brought to the front burner anytime soon. If it IS brought to the front burner, the decision is that the babies will be delivered ASAP. ugh. As for the contractions, the Doctors have also decided that if there is still no sign of toxemia, then the Terbutaline can be started again. This is a wonderful decision, not only for the babes, but for Karen. It sounds as though last night was incredibly difficult… The contractions were laughing at the mere mention of the RN's offers of percocet. In wonderful news however, today is a miraculous milestone of 32 weeks, woo hoo!! Let's all do a little happy dance for this mile marker…

So the plan (as of noon) is this, the Doctor's will sit on Karen, and not send her home. So many factors are (in my mind) weighing in on why they're keeping her… The holidays, J being 4 years old and being home full time for the next few days, being 32 weeks pregnant with triplets, having a cervix less than 2cm, frequent contractions… Do I honestly need to continue this list? Honestly? I thought not…

Regardless, keep everyone in your thoughts… Obviously all the powerful thoughts are working! I also let her know about all of the AWESOME comments you've been leaving for her! Seth will share all the words of kindness when he gets to visit this afternoon… Keep it up fellow bloggers!!

Read Full Post »

An anonymous poster (it’s odd that I can actually tell the difference between several distinct anonymous posters… I wish I had something else to call you… I’ll call you A1, for Anonymous the First)… ANYWAY… A1 asked a couple good questions:

1. Why wouldn’t the labs from Wed. be back? That’s again my failure to explain properly. I’m so tired I can’t speak (write) English anymore. Since Dr. P. ordered a 24-hour urine (standard with suspected pre-eclampsia), all the labs were put on one order, including the 24-hour collection. I couldn’t start that until Thursday morning, so it was taken to the lab this morning and the rest of the blood labs were drawn while I was there. The rest of the labs he ordered were urine-based labs which will be run from the 24-hour collection. Had my BP been a lot higher on Wed, he probably would have put them on two orders so that the rest could be run immediately. However, he didn’t think I was pre-eclamptic YET. He just thought I was creeping that direction, so I don’t imagine there was any serious urgency in any of the labs. The important thing was that everything looked okay, my cervix was stable, and that things were put in place to get more answers about the labs.

UPDATE: A1 was surprised they didn’t do at least a urine strip test to test for protein in my urine on Wednesday. They did. They do every week (or more often if I’m there more often). Honestly, I have no idea what the result of that was. I never thought to ask, because they did it at the end of my visit on Wednesday, not the beginning, which isn’t the order they usually do it, so I wasn’t around when they looked at it, and by Friday it didn’t occur to me to ask. END OF UPDATE

2. Did I have an ultrasound Wed or Today? Yep. I forget to mention such things because I have them at EVERY appointment. Every appointment has a transvaginal ultrasound to check cervical length (and I thought I was done with the cooter cam after the fertility clinic… drat!) and an abdominal ultrasound to at least check the heart rates and amniotic fluid levels. Every 3 weeks they do a “growth” ultrasound with more specific fetal measurements. On Wednesday and today they did a BioPhysical Profile (BPP), which all three babies passed, though two of them were uncooperative at first today (they were sleeping, the little rats). They are doing fine as far as I know, though the real question is what’s going on with the baby whose growth curve slowed down, but they won’t know that until the next growth ultrasound. I don’t remember if that’s next week or the week after. I think it’s the 19th.

For the moment, Dr. P. is pretty pleased with how I’m doing, so I’m happy. He’s pretty conservative, so I know if he were really worried right now, he’d be telling me. So far, so good. All I can do is keep waking up each morning, grateful for another day.

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An anonymous poster (it's odd that I can actually tell the difference between several distinct anonymous posters… I wish I had something else to call you… I'll call you A1, for Anonymous the First)… ANYWAY… A1 asked a couple good questions:

1. Why wouldn't the labs from Wed. be back? That's again my failure to explain properly. I'm so tired I can't speak (write) English anymore. Since Dr. P. ordered a 24-hour urine (standard with suspected pre-eclampsia), all the labs were put on one order, including the 24-hour collection. I couldn't start that until Thursday morning, so it was taken to the lab this morning and the rest of the blood labs were drawn while I was there. The rest of the labs he ordered were urine-based labs which will be run from the 24-hour collection. Had my BP been a lot higher on Wed, he probably would have put them on two orders so that the rest could be run immediately. However, he didn't think I was pre-eclamptic YET. He just thought I was creeping that direction, so I don't imagine there was any serious urgency in any of the labs. The important thing was that everything looked okay, my cervix was stable, and that things were put in place to get more answers about the labs.

UPDATE: A1 was surprised they didn't do at least a urine strip test to test for protein in my urine on Wednesday. They did. They do every week (or more often if I'm there more often). Honestly, I have no idea what the result of that was. I never thought to ask, because they did it at the end of my visit on Wednesday, not the beginning, which isn't the order they usually do it, so I wasn't around when they looked at it, and by Friday it didn't occur to me to ask. END OF UPDATE

2. Did I have an ultrasound Wed or Today? Yep. I forget to mention such things because I have them at EVERY appointment. Every appointment has a transvaginal ultrasound to check cervical length (and I thought I was done with the cooter cam after the fertility clinic… drat!) and an abdominal ultrasound to at least check the heart rates and amniotic fluid levels. Every 3 weeks they do a "growth" ultrasound with more specific fetal measurements. On Wednesday and today they did a BioPhysical Profile (BPP), which all three babies passed, though two of them were uncooperative at first today (they were sleeping, the little rats). They are doing fine as far as I know, though the real question is what's going on with the baby whose growth curve slowed down, but they won't know that until the next growth ultrasound. I don't remember if that's next week or the week after. I think it's the 19th.

For the moment, Dr. P. is pretty pleased with how I'm doing, so I'm happy. He's pretty conservative, so I know if he were really worried right now, he'd be telling me. So far, so good. All I can do is keep waking up each morning, grateful for another day.

Read Full Post »

An anonymous poster (it's odd that I can actually tell the difference between several distinct anonymous posters… I wish I had something else to call you… I'll call you A1, for Anonymous the First)… ANYWAY… A1 asked a couple good questions:

1. Why wouldn't the labs from Wed. be back? That's again my failure to explain properly. I'm so tired I can't speak (write) English anymore. Since Dr. P. ordered a 24-hour urine (standard with suspected pre-eclampsia), all the labs were put on one order, including the 24-hour collection. I couldn't start that until Thursday morning, so it was taken to the lab this morning and the rest of the blood labs were drawn while I was there. The rest of the labs he ordered were urine-based labs which will be run from the 24-hour collection. Had my BP been a lot higher on Wed, he probably would have put them on two orders so that the rest could be run immediately. However, he didn't think I was pre-eclamptic YET. He just thought I was creeping that direction, so I don't imagine there was any serious urgency in any of the labs. The important thing was that everything looked okay, my cervix was stable, and that things were put in place to get more answers about the labs.

UPDATE: A1 was surprised they didn't do at least a urine strip test to test for protein in my urine on Wednesday. They did. They do every week (or more often if I'm there more often). Honestly, I have no idea what the result of that was. I never thought to ask, because they did it at the end of my visit on Wednesday, not the beginning, which isn't the order they usually do it, so I wasn't around when they looked at it, and by Friday it didn't occur to me to ask. END OF UPDATE

2. Did I have an ultrasound Wed or Today? Yep. I forget to mention such things because I have them at EVERY appointment. Every appointment has a transvaginal ultrasound to check cervical length (and I thought I was done with the cooter cam after the fertility clinic… drat!) and an abdominal ultrasound to at least check the heart rates and amniotic fluid levels. Every 3 weeks they do a "growth" ultrasound with more specific fetal measurements. On Wednesday and today they did a BioPhysical Profile (BPP), which all three babies passed, though two of them were uncooperative at first today (they were sleeping, the little rats). They are doing fine as far as I know, though the real question is what's going on with the baby whose growth curve slowed down, but they won't know that until the next growth ultrasound. I don't remember if that's next week or the week after. I think it's the 19th.

For the moment, Dr. P. is pretty pleased with how I'm doing, so I'm happy. He's pretty conservative, so I know if he were really worried right now, he'd be telling me. So far, so good. All I can do is keep waking up each morning, grateful for another day.

Read Full Post »

Today was an okay day. Pregnancy-wise, I can’t complain. I kept food down almost all day until dinner time, and that’s quite the achievement. I’m exhausted, but that’s so all-pervasive I almost don’t notice anymore. And I didn’t spend all day angst-ridden over the whole reduction thing. Because really, unless the second opinion doctor says to me on Thursday, “Oh my god! If you carry triplets, you’ve got a 95% chance of dying!” I’m not inclined to consider reduction at this point. It feels wrong. I’ve weighed all the relevant studies I can find. I’ve considered the percentages. I’ve considered the objective evidence I’ve got and the medical opinions I’ve received. Things come out fairly balanced. There are good reasons to reduce. There are good reasons not to. But that leaves me with my intuition. And something doesn’t FEEL right about reduction. Mind you, I don’t think it’s the wrong answer for everyone, but I just don’t feel like it’s the right answer for me.

My day would have been better, except the last several days have been full of depressing, horrifying bits of news. I’m sure most of you heard about the shooting at VA Tech today. The weather has been wonky and we’ve got a big branch down in our yard. On Friday a close friend lost his brother in a tragic suicide. A member of my synagogue who is in her forties with two children collapsed yesterday with a brain aneurysm and has been in surgery for the better part of 24 hours. There’s so much loss surrounding me and although I’m not generally a weepy person, I just about broke down in tears today over nothing more than the fact that I am overwhelmed by all the sadness around me.

I had a kind of funny post about the triplet thing, but it just doesn’t seem right just now. I feel lost and sad and being funny doesn’t seem appropriate right now. Maybe tomorrow. For now, I’m going to take a Zofran/Codeine cocktail (I have had a migraine for hours, but I didn’t keep down my last dose of codeine so it hasn’t abated at all). Then I’m going to bed. I hope you all have had better days than me.

Update:
I really am feeling better. A decent night’s sleep did a lot of good. I’m still a bit overwhelmed by all the tragedy that seems to be swimming around, but I’m not taking it out on the world anymore. Why, I’m so incredibly optimistic this morning that I might even risk trying to eat a bagel before I leave for work (which I’m already late for)!

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Today was an okay day. Pregnancy-wise, I can't complain. I kept food down almost all day until dinner time, and that's quite the achievement. I'm exhausted, but that's so all-pervasive I almost don't notice anymore. And I didn't spend all day angst-ridden over the whole reduction thing. Because really, unless the second opinion doctor says to me on Thursday, "Oh my god! If you carry triplets, you've got a 95% chance of dying!" I'm not inclined to consider reduction at this point. It feels wrong. I've weighed all the relevant studies I can find. I've considered the percentages. I've considered the objective evidence I've got and the medical opinions I've received. Things come out fairly balanced. There are good reasons to reduce. There are good reasons not to. But that leaves me with my intuition. And something doesn't FEEL right about reduction. Mind you, I don't think it's the wrong answer for everyone, but I just don't feel like it's the right answer for me.

My day would have been better, except the last several days have been full of depressing, horrifying bits of news. I'm sure most of you heard about the shooting at VA Tech today. The weather has been wonky and we've got a big branch down in our yard. On Friday a close friend lost his brother in a tragic suicide. A member of my synagogue who is in her forties with two children collapsed yesterday with a brain aneurysm and has been in surgery for the better part of 24 hours. There's so much loss surrounding me and although I'm not generally a weepy person, I just about broke down in tears today over nothing more than the fact that I am overwhelmed by all the sadness around me.

I had a kind of funny post about the triplet thing, but it just doesn't seem right just now. I feel lost and sad and being funny doesn't seem appropriate right now. Maybe tomorrow. For now, I'm going to take a Zofran/Codeine cocktail (I have had a migraine for hours, but I didn't keep down my last dose of codeine so it hasn't abated at all). Then I'm going to bed. I hope you all have had better days than me.

Update:
I really am feeling better. A decent night's sleep did a lot of good. I'm still a bit overwhelmed by all the tragedy that seems to be swimming around, but I'm not taking it out on the world anymore. Why, I'm so incredibly optimistic this morning that I might even risk trying to eat a bagel before I leave for work (which I'm already late for)!

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My nurse hasn’t called yet. And it’s ridiculous that I am anxious about it. Theoretically, calls are made between 12 and 4pm. But Wednesday she called me around 10am, which means nothing about today’s call, since she could have a different schedule today.

And let’s not forget that the time of her call isn’t going to change the results. But here I sit. I refuse to even go to the ladies’ room for fear of missing her call, which is stupid, but that’s the way it is. I cannot believe what a freak I am being. This is so stupid.

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I hold out little faith that tomorrow’s beta will yield any good news.

Oh, did I mention that we’re hosting 14 adults (and a bunch of kids) for dinner tomorrow night? Yeah, I’m crazy. Bleh.

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