I normally have both my weekly biophysical ultrasound and doctor visit on Tuesdays. At my last doctor visit she decided to break up the next two so I would be seen more than once during the week. On Tuesday 12/21 I had my doctor visit. My blood pressure was elevated a bit at around 140s/80s. She decided to put me on the monitors to check on the baby. He did great. She sent me down to the lab for some more bloodwork to make sure the raised BP was not affecting my kidneys or liver.
I had not planned on being there so long and planned to grab lunch after my appointment. Right as my visit with the doc was ending I could feel my blood sugar had dropped. I do not have blood sugar issues but I am one of those people who need to eat on a regular basis or I get shaky and, well,... bitchy too :) This increases in intensity while pregnant. As I walked down the hallway I began to sweat & feel shaky. I knew I could not have my blood drawn then as I already felt like I was about to pass out. I grabbed some snacks & sat in the lobby for about 30 minutes until I felt better and then headed to the lab.
The doc did not call me on Wednesday so I was relieved my lab results had come back normal.
On Thursday at 11:30 am I had the rescheduled biophysical. All went great. He would not allow us to get a shot of his face but she was able to get a pic of his nose and lips.
I headed home. A couple hours later around 2:20 pm I received a call from a nurse I have never spoken with asking me if I knew the nurse practitioner. I told her "yes..I met her twice". She said the NP would like me to come in for a blood pressure check. I told her I had just left there after having a biophysical done. I knew there had to be a reason for this random request so I asked if they received my lab results from Tuesday. She said "I believe that is why she would like you to come in". I told her I would head right in. I had not checked my BP all day. I really do not obsess over it as so many people seem to think I do. The reading I got was not good. I was reading 154/97. I picked up my son and my husband headed home to take me in.
When I got there I was taken in by an unfamiliar nurse to a different section from my doc's office. She did a protein and BP check. Protein was trace & BP had dropped a little to 140s/80s. She asked about the baby's movements that day. I explained that he did great on his biophysical a couple hours earlier but he was having a very slow day & his movements were not as frequent. My regular nurse stopped in. She explained that they may be sending me up to labor and delivery triage. We were extremely confused. My husband asked why I was called in. She said that I was apparently suppose to stop in the office after the bio for a BP check. I was not made aware of that so I had went home. She said they had instructions to send me up to triage for monitoring if I showed elevated BP. I asked about my labs & when she checked the results they were all normal. We were still slightly confused about the whole situation but were not about to complain or be reluctant to precautionary monitoring. They even made me use wheelchair transport to L&D triage.
Once there they hooked me up to the monitors & we began a 24 hour urine check. She waited about an hour to take my first BP reading which was great at 117/70. I was in triage for about 3 1/2 hours before they discharged me. Baby looked great on the monitors and my BP were all very good. My doc stopped in for a couple minutes and jokingly asked if I missed her. My husband joked back that the nurses had called us in this time and that it wasn't us! I explained that I was unaware about the BP visit that was scheduled after the Bio. She said she was too and was not sure why I had been called. She said she had left instructions for another patient. I guess there was some miscommunication somewhere. I definitely did not mind the extra reassurance from the monitoring but as a patient you do not like to see any mix ups. Once we knew I would definitely be discharged my husband headed out to coach his HS Girls Varsity Bball team. I hated to have him miss the game when we knew for sure I would be heading home soon. My mother came and picked up me and my son & we went and had some dinner since they had failed to feed me!
While we were still there our son said "We should have the baby today!". When we explained that would mean we would still be in the hospital for Christmas morning he quickly stated "ok let's scratch that idea!". He has been counting down to Christmas & the induction date for about a month now. He is so very excited.
Before leaving on Thursday I was instructed to bring back the 24 hour urine catch after 6:00 pm the following day to L&D triage. That would be Christmas Eve. They also wanted to do a BP check while I was there with possible monitoring. I host Christmas Eve each year so we had to change up our plans but it all worked out. We headed to the hospital around 8:30 pm. They did monitor me but we were back home around 11:30 pm. It wasn't looking so promising at first though. Baby boy who usually does so well on all his tests was not as reactive as usual. They gave me some orange juice and the nurse stayed in the room holding the monitor to my stomach for almost 45 minutes making sure she could catch his accelerations. At one point I shifted to my left side which helped alot and he eventually satisfied the doctor. If not they would have brought out the ultrasound machine and those results would have determined if we would be leaving. We waited until the 24 hour results came back and they were also good. Normal reading of protein is under 300 and my result was 234. The last BP she took after she woke me up was 96/66! We were so relieved to be able to go home so we could spend Christmas day with our son!
Who would want to miss waking up to this?
Amnio and induction is scheduled for Monday the 27th. As my Australia blogger ladies would say...only two more sleeps until we meet this new little boy!
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