A Room with a View

They moved me to a different room today - a room with a view. My last room, which is just across the hall, looked out over the building's pipes. If the photo on Ray's phone turns out, I'll post the view.

Today was a quiet day. Ray was able to spend the entire day here at the hospital and is sleeping on a cot in my room right now. I woke up bright and early to take the three-hour glucose but was unable to keep the drink down. Tomorrow we are trying another type of test that involves mixing a powder with diet ginger ale. My night nurse tells me that it should go better than this morning. Plus, she is going to give me some zofran via my IV beforehand, which will hopefully help. I appreciate that my doctors are willing to listen to my concerns about doing the same test I did today and that they are offering an alternative.

My nurse did a french braid in my hair after I took a shower this morning - how nice is that?!? I had another BPP and doppler study done today. Apparently (and unbeknownst to me), at a low blood pressure, my doppler didn't look good at all yesterday. Today, at a higher blood pressure, my doppler was much improved and provided relief to my doctors. Baby M did great on the BPP and the ultrasound tech saw her breathing right away. Since she is so little, it is critical that her lungs continue to develop as much as possible. She is still just moving away inside; kicking and punching and turning since she has quite some room to work with.

Ray and I looked over different options of colors for painting the rest of our house. Most of you know that we recently bought a home. It was built in 1978 and we've been putting some work into it. The bedrooms were painted the week that I was admitted to the hospital, and when my mom was here, she put all the rooms back together (that's a major understatement of all that she did). Thanks Mom! Now we just have the living room/family room, kitchen, hallway, and bathrooms to paint. It was fun to look over the colors together and decide what colors we want in the rest of the house. It felt like something normal I could do here.

The food here leaves much to be desired and makes it hard for me to eat what I should be eating, so we are working on figuring out what foods from the outside can be brought in and stored here. My aunt and uncle picked up fresh veggies to keep in the nurses fridge and some healthy snacks for my room. They also have been bringing me meals when they stop by. Thanks Laura and Ed! Two other friends stopped by with some delicous low sodium meals this afternoon, which was so thoughtful. It was also nice to catch up with them for a bit after they had Ray over for dinner last night. Thanks Diane and Maia! If anyone local wants to bring meals to Ray, I'm sure he'd appreciate it. I'm worried that he's been surviving on fast food when he doesn't have leftovers in the fridge. He's doing such a good job of holding down the fort at home while taking care of me and everything else he has on his plate. It can't be easy.

One Day at a Time

One day at a time - that's our mantra these days. Ray filled everyone in on the blood pressure issue from yesterday. The doctors are still titrating my medications and trying to find a good combination of meds that won't cause my blood pressure to go too low or too high. Today, it's been running too low for the majority of the day. The nephrologist analyzed my medications and let the maternal fetal doctors and the nurses know that there are certain medications that cannot be skipped or they will cause a drastic rise in blood pressure, just like we saw yesterday.


We are thankful that it has been two weeks since I was admitted, and we look at it as if we were able to buy two more weeks for baby M to stay inside and keep cooking. Every extra day is a blessing. They did another growth ultrasound today and she now weighs 732 grams, which is basically 1.6 pounds. She is still pretty little and we will talk with the doctors tomorrow to see if she is still on the same growth trajectory that she's been on.


The only other little blip is that I failed the one hour glucose test this morning and will be doing the fasting three-hour test tomorrow morning, starting at 5:00 am. This was a surprise to me and my nurse, so I tried to eat only proteins and veggies this afternoon and evening and pray that I will pass this test. If I don't pass, I will be diagnosed with gestational diabetes on top of everything else.


Ray reminds me that we'll get through this and that we just need to trust God and keep on keeping on.

Update from Ray

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for supporting us through your prayers and positive thoughts.  We just want to let you know that we really appreciate that everyone is reading our blog and commenting and sending emails.  As Meghan has informed you in her recent post, the doctors have reduced her medications over the past few days because her blood pressure measurements were running too low with systolic ranges between 106 to 116 and diastolic ranges of 60 to 80.  

Unfortunately, this evening was not uneventful, we had a medical scare. I drove to the hospital right after work to spend some time with Meghan tonight and took a short lunch because I was excited to come see her.  I went down to the cafeteria to pick up dinner for both of us and brought it back to her room. The nurse came in to give Meghan her meds and took her blood pressure. We were all surprised to see that her blood pressure reached levels above 200/115. Even with this blood pressure reading, Meghan was not experiencing any symptoms. Earlier in the day, the nurse took out Meghan’s IV and her doctor said that she did not need it anymore for IV meds. When the nurse saw how high her blood pressure was tonight, she called the chief resident and was told to put in a new IV and give Meghan IV blood pressure meds. The nurse lowered Meghan’s bed and had her lay on her side and then gave her the IV meds.  Meghan laid there and took deep breaths trying to calm down.

Meghan asked me to update tonight because she is feeling discouraged and scared. She had a good cry after the IV meds got her blood pressure back down to a good number. We’ve been told about all the bad things that can happen when the blood pressure goes too high like seizures and strokes so it doesn’t make sense to us why they need to lower her meds to the point where it can still get that high. We know the doctors are watching her and the baby carefully, but it would be nice to see things stabilize more. We've been told that the doctors will continue to adjust her meds so her blood pressure hopefully won't go too high or too low.

Tomorrow will mark two weeks since Meghan was hospitalized and the beginning of week 27.  I may spend the night in the hospital since she is still feeling anxious. Right now, she is relaxing and eating frozen yogurt.

With Gratitude for my Nurses

Anyone who has been in a hospital for more than a few days will probably agree that your nurses can make such a difference when you are dealing with hospitalization. The nurses here are incredible! From the minute I was admitted, I've found that every nurse I've encountered goes above and beyond to provide the best care possible. I've listed some of our recent experiences with nurses below.

• The very first nurse I had recommended that Ray and I look at my time here as a "staycation" complete with room service and complimentary housekeeping and she added a much-needed dose of humor to a very scary night.
• Three of my nurses have shared their own stories of being in the hospital or on bedrest for pregnancy complications.
• One of the first nurse's I had realized that we live close to the woman who provides in-home childcare for her son, and she made sure to pass along the woman's contact information as well as the pediatric group that she takes her son to.
• The nurses not only provide drinks and snacks to me at any hour of the day but also offer the same to my family members who spend hours each week in my hospital room. When my aunt brings in homemade meals, the nurses are always willing to store the extra food in their fridge and heat it up in their microwave for me. The other night, Ray came over after work without eating dinner and my night nurse brought him a boxed meal complete with a sandwich, drink, apple, bag of pretzels, and cookie.
• We already started receiving bills from our insurance company, and the nurses are always willing to make photo copies for us. They've put us in touch with the social worker here who has been handling all the insurance issues that were starting to worry us.
• Patients here are provided with hospital grade, Joint Commission-approved travel sized shampoo and body wash. The nurses on this unit keep extra large bottles of brand name shampoo and conditioner in their lockers that they provide to patients.

Quick update - The doctors think that my blood pressure has been too low, so they are changing up my meds again to keep me in a safe range that provides the best blood flow to Baby M. She looked great during her ultrasound today and the tech commented that she can tell that she's been growing since she first did an ultrasound on her on June 17. We should have the bi-weekly lab results back tomorrow and I'm sure the doctors will let us know if any results were remarkable.

Day 12

There isn't much to report today. All of my doctors seem very happy with how things are going and my blood pressure was well controlled today. In fact, they held my meds for a few hours because it was in the normal range and they do not want it to go too low.

An OB Anesthesia physician came by to look at my IV, and he made the executive decision to keep the current IV in as long as it keeps flushing and doesn't appear problematic. He was concerned that they may run out of veins by the time of delivery especially if I'll still be here for a while.

We believe that prayers are being answered every day. Thank you, thank you, thank you for lifting us up in prayer and for all the good thoughts!

After today's BPP (biophysical profile), the ultrasound tech gave us a profile shot of Miss Baby M. Consider it a sneak preview.    :)

The Results Are In

Ok, so the 24 hour test results are back and there is more protein than the last time, which was expected. The doctors have told me that this test is not indicative of when they would deliver and the nephrologist told me that it still isn't in the danger zone. Due to my history, they cannot say with certainty that the increased protein is due to preeclampsia itself or kidney disease with pregnancy. Either way, they will continue to monitor me the same way.

The great news is that my blood pressure was much better controlled today. It has been down in normal levels for almost the entire day. What an answer to prayer! I walked down the hall to the ultrasound room for the first time this morning; usually they would bring the machine to me or take me down to them in a wheel chair. After walking, my blood pressure didn't go much higher, which was encouraging.

The Director of Maternal Fetal Medicine came in today and said that delivery could still be any day. She wants us to be prepared mentally and reminded us that every extra day that Miss Baby M stays in makes a difference. They will continue to delay delivery as long as the baby is doing well and I am doing well. We are both monitored practically 24/7 and they are looking at everything to assess any type of decline in either of us. What they want to see baby girl M doing: breathing, moving, having a heart rate pattern with accelerations and very little decelerations, strong blood flow in the placenta, umbilical cord, and cerebral artery. They are not seeing many accelerations in her heart rate, and it would be a reassurance to everyone if they started seeing that soon. What they want to see in me: controlled blood pressure, continued kidney function, good liver function, and no new signs of preeclampsia.

To help everyone understand what all this means might be best explained by what one of the resident's told me today. She said "Right now things look ok, and in today's ultrasound the baby looked great. What we are predicting is that the delivery date will be based on changes in you, which can occur quickly. We are hoping for a gradual path of change in you before we make the call on delivery, but we are walking a fine line with you."

This new information is a bit scary. All of this is scary. We know that I am in good hands here, and we pray for protection and peace. Also, I am a little anxious about having a new IV put in tomorrow since they always have trouble finding my veins.


I'll close tonight with a photo of me and my mom. We are so thankful that she is able to be here this week.

A quiet day

Today was a quiet, uneventful day with no blood pressure spikes. I got approval to walk in the hallway for 15 minutes and it was nice to be up and moving around a bit. I have only been able to walk one other day out of the 9 days that I've now been here. Hopefully I can starting walking at least once a day.

I am carrying differently these days because of the bed rest but I thought you would want to see a belly shot that my nurse took today.

Tomorrow we should hear about the 24 hour test results. Ray and I feel so blessed to have such supportive and loving family and friends. Thank you all for everything!

What is it?

Thank you so much for all of your emails in response to this blog. It is so nice to know how many people are out there rooting for us while we remain here.
Some people have asked if we are dealing with preeclampsia. They are calling it superimposed mild preeclampsia at this point. Fortunately, I have not shown some of classic signs of early preeclampsia (i.e. headaches, seeing spots, decreased urine output/swelling, decreased kidney function). However, I do have rising/hard to control blood pressure and protein in my urine that was confirmed after a 24 hour urine test. With my pre-existing kidney issues, I already had protein in my urine and I have for over ten years. One of the first things they needed to do was establish my baseline for this measurement. My perionatologist had already had me to two of the 24 hour tests earlier in the pregnancy, so my doctors here had something to compare my current protein output to. They said that the number had doubled from my previous pregnancy tests until now, but that can happen in pregnancy to women with previous kidney issues. The numbers from last week's 24 hour test were not alarming to them, and they will be doing another 24 hour test tomorrow. Thankfully, I'm also happy to report that my kidneys are holding strong.

These days, we like to say that an uneventful day is a good day. Well, last night was an eventful night. Typically my blood pressures go down as I sleep, but last night, they kept rising. At this point we've confirmed that the increases are physiological (not psychological) and are evidence that the pregnancy is directly impacting my blood pressure. Thankfully, my nurse was keeping a watchful eye on me through everything they are monitoring. She noticed the increase and called the chief resident. They decided to give me some IV medication to help the blood pressure go down. I haven't mentioned yet just how many meds I am on right now. At my hospital admission, I was taking the same four blood pressure meds that I've been taking for years. They started off trying to control my BP by increasing those meds since my body was used to them. When it seemed that something stronger was neeeded, they added and took away meds to come up with a new combination. They also staggered my medication. I used to take my morning meds and my night meds. Now I am practically taking a different dose of medication every two or three hours up until midnight. When need be, they will do an IV push of one of those meds. I have been told that they have lots more meds at their disposals, including the "big guns." Once my blood pressure seemed to calm down early this morning, my nurse told me that my case has her a bit stumped. She is used to seeing high blood pressures in pregnant women in the hospital, but it usually is accompanied by the symptoms that I listed above. Thankfully, I do not show those symptoms at this time.

Since Ray wasn't working today, he spent the day at the hospital with me and will be here tomorrow too. We watched a movie on our dvd player and he came with lunch from my favorite sandwich place Jimmy John's. My Aunt Laura sent over some delicious turkey chili for dinner, and both meals were a welcome change from the hospital food. This afternoon was quiet. The nephrologist (kidney doctor) stopped by and said that they were going to alter my meds slightly. Then my perionatologist who admitted me stopped in for a while to chat with us. He said that he was pleased that I didn't deliver last weekend and just reminded us that things can change quickly and that the day will come (hopefully later than sooner) when they decide it is time to deliver. They cannot predict what day that will be and we are thankful for every day we get. We are now at 26 weeks and 2 days.

Ray took the photo below today. That bed is where I spend my days growing baby girl. We will post more photos as time goes on. I was in a particularly good mood because of the sprinkled cupcake on my tummy.

Where we are

Friday afternoon (6/15) - I decided to check my blood pressure because I had a slight headache and realized it had been a few days since I last checked it. It was 160/104, which was higher than it had been running, so I called my perionatalogist. He recommended that I check into OB Triage at the closest hospital (Chandler Regional) to be safe. I called Ray and asked if he could come home 30 minutes early to drive me there. We decided that I should pack an overnight bag and bring my meds and blood pressure monitor so we would be covered. My perinatologist had always told us that my blood pressure may go up as the pregnancy continues due to my pre-existing hypertension, so we were not worked up about it and figured that they would probably need to adjust my medications. At OB triage, we waited for 15-20 minutes for the nurse to see other patients. I felt fine and Ray went to the cafeteria to get us food. Once the nurse saw me, she confirmed that my BP was high (170/112)and said that I would be checked into OB triage for observation. Once there, my BP kept climbing and my perionatalogist was called in. They had trouble finding a good vein for my i.v., so they made three painful attempts before getting the i.v. in. My perionatalogist told us that he wanted to have me transported to another hospital (St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center) that could care for a 25 weeker if it was necessary for  me to deliver. Ray could not drive me to the other hospital; the only transportation that they would allow was helicopter or ambulance. Dollar signs flashed in Ray and my minds when we heard about our only two options. I am sure thinking about it did not help my rising blood pressure. Next thing we knew the flight team was introducing themselves to us and hooking up my IV to their IV pole. The flight nurse kept trying to reassure me by saying it was a wonderful time of day for a flight. All I kept thinking was that things must be critical if a flight team was here to transport ME. I always thought that helicopter flights were only for trauma patients and other life and death situations. They started infusing magnesium sulfate while wheeling me down the hospital halls and towards the helipad. I was hot and flushed from the magnesium and it was HOT out. I couldn't wait until the a/c would be turned on. I had spent my whole life flying in airplanes but didn't know what to think about being in a helicopter. When we took off, I told myself breathe in and breath out and try to stay calm. I can honestly say that, despite the circumstances, that ride was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. The helicopter flew low so I could follow our route as we traveled over one freeway or another. I was still feeling flushed from the magnesium but the fear I initially had was gone. We landed at the hospital with 15 minutes and I was wheeled into room number 8 in the perinatal high risk unit. They started monitoring me and baby girl and my nurse commented on how active she was (always a good sign). My blood pressure started to look a little better and baby girl's activity looked good, so I was moved to another unit on Sunday (6/17) where less monitoring was necessary. Once in the unit, my blood pressure started going up again. They wheeled me down for an ultrasound of baby girl to see how the blood flow in the umbilical cord and placenta looked. They said that they needed to move me to another room on Monday afternoon where I could be better monitored.

On Monday night (6/18), I was prepped for delivery because my blood pressure was still not under control. The Director of Maternal Fetal Medicine told me that they were going to see if my body responded to more IV meds and if it didn't, it was very likely that I would deliver within the next 24 hours. She told me that they never make a decision like that lightly. It was scary to think that we might meet our daughter at only 25 weeks gestation - a time when the odds of surival are not that high. Ray and I cried and prayed together and then I was moved to another room and paired up with a nurse who would be providing one on one care to me. My nurse was so thoughtful as I waited to see what would happen and tried my best to relax and think about what may be.

On Tuesday morning, my blood pressure was way down and we were told that I would not be delivering after all. Prayers are being answered every day. It looks like I will probably remain on hospital bedrest until delivery and our goal (mine, Ray's, and the doctors) is to delay delivery as long as safely possible.


Baby girl is doing great; she is very active and hard to track on the fetal heart rate monitor due to all her twists, turns, kicks, punches, and flips. They have been doing a biophysical profile (BPP) on her daily, and all the doctors have commented on her active she is. One resident commented that she is the most active 25-weeker she had ever seen. That's our girl!

We decided to start this blog so our family and friends can follow our journey. We may not be able to return phone calls and emails, but hopefully this will provide updates of how things are going.

Your prayers, positive thoughts, and comments are greatly appreciated.

Love,
Meghan, Ray, and Baby M