Tuesday, August 9, 2005

August 9, 2005 part two

August 9, 2005

  • Monday, (yesterday) was my first Perinatologist appointment,
    and his diagnosis was not what I expected.  
    Jamie is not only small, he’s abnormally small, and they can’t figure
    out why.   Take that back, they know
    it’s caused from a placental failure, but they can’t figure out why his
    placenta failed or when exactly it started shutting down.   Whatever the case, they certainly had my
    full attention when they started talking about “lack of oxygen” and
    “stillborn”.  The specialist gave us two
    options, come in for monitoring three times a week, or have a c-section and
    deliver him now.   Obviously, the longer
    he can stay in me the better, (considering he wasn’t supposed to make his debut
    till September) however since his placenta seems to be deteriorating so rapidly
    they can’t monitor him often enough to make sure he’s actually getting oxygen
    (apparently even fetus’s need oxygen to survive).   Bottom line:  Jim and I
    decided to go with the c-section.  
    First stop: Amniocentesis to determine whether or not his
    lungs were mature.   After everybody
    thoroughly freaked me out with horror stories of how awful and painful it is to
    have an eight-inch needle stuck in your belly,
    I didn’t think it was bad at all.
    It hurt less than an I.V. and took about 15 seconds.  It felt exactly like swallowing a long
    spaghetti noodle and then pulling it out (or was I the only one who did that as
    a kid?)
    After that I was admitted into labor and delivery where my
    “no-pain” trend was broken by two blown veins and a myriad of holes in my arms
    (the result of unsuccessful I.V. attempts). 
    All pain however was quickly outranked by my impatience.   The results of the Amnio were supposed to
    take an hour or two, which slowly turned into three to four hours, which
    painfully turned into five almost six hours. 
    I was convinced the lab building had burned down, or some geeky lab tech
    had spilled his Dr. Pepper on my results… The wait was driving me insane.  I would have paced the floor or climbed
    walls, but I was chained to my bed via fetal monitors and I.V’s…bleh.   The results finally came back at nine p.m.
    last night.   I should have been proud
    of my non-comformist son, but instead I was excessively annoyed.    The results were supposed to be “yes” or
    “no” but we got “transition” instead.
    Jamie’s lungs are operating somewhere in no-mans-land; not immature enough
    to give him steroids, and not mature enough to be considered full-term.  The perinatologist had to be consulted
    again.  However he was celebrating his
    daughter’s birthday and didn’t have his pager on. (stupid doctors, don’t they
    know they’re not allowed to have a life?) .  
     So here I am at Grossmont Hospital Labor and Deliver, it’s eight a.m. and nobody will give me
    breakfast.   I’m supposed to have a
    c-section sometime today, unless Dr Schrimmer (the perinatologist) decides to
    wait for another day.  Whatever the
    case, I’m stuck here for the duration.
    They’re not letting me go home until I have a baby.

0 comments: