Some time around the 24th week, I took my 1 hour glucose test. I had taken a 3 hour glucose test before I started my fertility treatments and passed with flying colors so I assumed that this would be the same. I really didn't think about it at all until they called and said that I'd failed and that they wanted me to take the 3 hour test. So, lucky me, I headed off to MCR on a lovely morning in February to sit in a waiting room all morning... this time around, the 3 hour test SUCKED! The glucose drink made my empty stomach churn and my head ache. Besides that, when I arrived-bright and early- there was no one else in the waiting room so I turned on HGTV. Of course, throughout the morning a few other patients came and went while I was sitting there for what felt like forever.
About half way through this redneck couple showed up. I was called back for my 2nd hour blood draw and came back and they had changed the channel on the TV to a hunting and fishing channel. I thought, "well, no biggie, I'm sure they'll only be here for a short time." I was wrong. The nurses came out three or four times asking if he was ready to come back. He continued to tell them he didn't need to "go" yet. I watched him drink 5 or 6 glasses of water and thought, "geez.... he's got a bladder of steel if he still doesn't have to go by now..." The only thing I could figure was that he was there for a mandatory drug test of his urine and he was doing his best to dilute whatever was in his system. Maybe I was a little judgmental and irritable but come on, I was there 1st! I'd been there all morning! I felt like crap! All I wanted was to watch a little HGTV while I sat there pouting about having to be there in the first place!! Finally, he went and did his test and left. I promptly changed the channel back to HGTV and laughed about it with the front desk gal.
When Donna called to give me the results of the test I was shocked (again) to hear her say that I had failed that one too! So now I officially had gestational diabetes. Greeeaaaat. Just what I wanted to hear. So it was off to the nutritionist to get my blood sugar checker and instructions on how to keep my blood sugars low. Basically just don't eat any carbs. That should do it. I asked Dr. Tool what the effects of gestational diabetes were on babies and he talked about insulin problems, increased birth weight, blah, blah, blah, and increased head and chest size. Wait, what? He caught my attention there! In case you don't know Greg- he has a big head. An orange on a toothpick kind of head. There was a good chance my babies were already going to have big heads, I didn't need to help them increase that size! So I begrudgingly started watching my blood sugar levels and eating better..... whining all the while. :)
 |
| 27.5 weeks preggo |
Stranger (S) - "Oh, you're pregnant!"
Me- "Yep." (duh genius...)
S- "When are you due?"
Me- "Not until May"
S- looking twice at the size of my belly and appearing confused...
Me- "I'm having twins."
S- "TWINS?!? Oh wow! Do twins run in your family?"
 |
| Hannah |
Me- "Nope, we were on fertility treatments."
S- "Do you know the sexes?"
Me- "Two girls."
S- "Are they identical?
Me- "Nope."
*This is where the conversation varies....*
Some people say, "How awesome!"
Others say, "Well you're going to have your hands full."
Still others (rude others) say, "I would never want to have twins but good for you."
 |
| Emersyn |
Me- "Yep." (can this conversation be over now?)
I even had a mildly drunk guy at a restaurant say he wouldn't wish twins on his worst enemy... I thought, "do you really want this hugely pregnant mama to stand up and kick your a** because I will! Keep walking. Jerk." Some people....We made it through February with only the gestational diabetes to deal with. In March, Greg had to go to a conference for a week and was too afraid to leave me home alone so he asked his mom to come spend the week with me. I was glad for the company and I asked her to help me decorate my nursery. I had already made the curtains with my best friend Leslie and painted the wall to match. Greg and I bought the crib from Craigslist and he changed the buffet we had used in our old house into a changing table by refinishing it and adding the knobs. Deb (Greg's mom) painted all the frames and lined them with pretty paper from Hobby Lobby. The nursery turned out better than I could have imagined. I love it!
During this whole time I had been continuing to work. I'd done quite a bit of research and found that most women who were pregnant with twins were able to work until about week 32 +/- a week or 2 so I made it my goal to get to week 32 while continuing working. We reached week 32 and everything seemed to be going well aside from some swelling in my feet and ankles by the end of the day but it wasn't too bothersome so I continued to work.
It was around the end of week 32 that things started going a little crazy. As I mentioned before, I was dealing with a little bit of swelling when I got home from work at nights but all of the sudden my right leg was beginning to get hugely swollen just above my knee. It was painful to the touch and it didn't seem to matter whether I was on my feet or not. I saw Dr. Tool and he recommended that I get an ultrasound of the leg to be sure that there was no DVT (deep vein thrombosis-a blood clot). They carted me through the hospital in a wheelchair (you would think that in a hospital it wouldn't be embarrassing to be wheeled around- but it is), did the ultrasound and sent me home. Donna called and said the scan looked good but that I should try compression hose, lots of water and elevating the leg as much as possible.
I was bound and determined to continue working as long as possible (to avoid the boredom of bedrest) so I continued working in spite of the discomfort. My leg was continuing to swell and became more and more painful and even had a pretty good size lump on it. Greg was pretty paranoid that they hadn't done the ultrasound properly and that I was going to throw a clot and die so I called Donna again and she told me to come in. Unfortunately, that day the snow was so bad that they were closing the clinic so they sent me strait to the labor and delivery floor at the hospital.
Apparently the L&D nurses didn't get the memo that I was coming because they looked at me with confusion and sent me to the ER who looked at me with confusion and finally called Dr. Tool. He asked me to be admitted to the L&D and the doc on call would take care of it. I was kinda cranky by this point. Swollen, uncomfortable, shuffled from place to place.... grrr. So finally they admitted me, stuck me in a terribly uncomfortable L&D bed and sent up the ultrasound lady to do another ultrasound. The results were not definitive. Now they wanted a CT. Results were fine. We waited for-ev-er for the ultrasound, we waited for-ev-er for the CT, we waited for-ev-er for the results, we waited for-ev-er to be discharged. All said and done, we spent an entire day in the hospital for nothing. The only good thing about the day was that we found out that both girls were head down, weighed around 5lbs and I was having regular contractions!
I continued to work until I decided that the discomfort was becoming pretty unbearable. (Not to mention my pants were so tight around the swollen leg that I was constantly scared I was going to tear my pants! ha!) I was so annoyed that it was leg swelling that was going to cause me to quit working... you'd think with a twin pregnancy it would be something better, like back pain or fatigue or something else but no, it was my stupid leg. So at 34 weeks I called it quits. Which absolutely broke my heart. I knew that I likely wasn't going to be returning to my job at the Eye Center of Northern Colorado which completely killed me! I loved my job and didn't really want to leave but I figured that once the girls were here I wouldn't be able to part with them. :)
At my 35 week appointment I expressed my continued discomfort and won myself another trip to the L&D floor because of my heart rate. It was somewhere around 140/90. I didn't know much about what it was supposed to be but apparently this was too high. Dr. Tool joked with me about how I was ruining my "star patient" status. :) So we were admitted again, this time for 24 hour observation. My blood pressure remained high for a few hours but seemed to level off a bit throughout the day so I was discharged the next day with instructions to return in 4 days for follow up.
At my follow up visit it was decided that my blood pressure was not at an acceptable point and there was a small amount of protein in my urine so it was time to consider induction. We wanted to wait until the girls were 37 weeks in order to avoid the "preemie" label but Dr. Tool was going to be out of town on Saturday (the 37 week mark) but was available and on call on Thursday (36w5d). We decided that I'd come in for a check up on that day at 7am and if anything had changed he would induce.
On Thursday, May 2 we went in at 7am and met with Dr. Tool. Because my heart rate was still elevated and the swelling worse we decided to go ahead with the induction!!
No comments:
Post a Comment