34 Weeks

Merry (almost!) Christmas everyone! I can't believe the holidays are already here! The past few weeks have been a little rough in the Grinstead household healthwise. I got a call from our sitter last week on Wednesday that Ella had thrown up. I scrambled around to get coverage at work and my Dad picked her up at the sitter's in the meantime and I met him at home. Poor Ella ended up throwing up twelve times in four hours. It was awful. Thankfully, the virus was short lived and she was much better the next day and back to her normal self within 48 hours. Well wouldn't you know, then I came down with the flu on Friday. I felt like I had been hit by a truck. Luckily, just like Ella, I vomited a lot but only for a few hours and after a good night's rest I started to feel better. Unfortunately now Jeff isn't feeling well so E and I sent him to bed early in the hopes he can sleep it off. Ugh the flu is NO fun!

Today I had my 34 week OB appointment. It was a pretty standard appointment- weight, urine, blood pressure check and finger stick for hemoglobin. (Funny side note- the doctor was telling me that another patient had the finger stick this morning and was screaming and crying and had to lay on the table with a cold towel on her face afterwards. Imagine what she would have done had she had to get a PICC line inserted- yikes!) Anyway, everything checked out well and the heartbeat sounded sweet and strong in the 150s. The doctor measured me and noticed that I am measuring further behind now than I was before. In itself, that wouldn't necessarily be much to worry about, however, with my history it is more concerning.

We talked about my experience with Ella and I told him about her numbers from growth ultrasounds I had at 34 and 36 weeks (thank goodness I had it all written down from when I was pregnant the first time!). I have had a nagging worry in my head the past few weeks that I am going down the same path with Baby 2.0 as I did with Ella. He agreed that the situations are seeming a bit similar and suggested another growth ultrasound at 36 weeks- two weeks from now.

Basically the OB was very honest and straightforward with me. IUGR is a leading cause of fetal death in the womb and is something to be very careful with. He reminded me several times of the importance of kick counts and how essential it is that I do them frequently and regularly. Because I am steadily measuring further behind and because of my history, there is a concern that the baby is not getting adequate nutrients from the placenta which we need to keep a close eye on. At the 36 week growth ultrasound, the important thing they will look at is the measurement of the abdomen. It will be compared to the head and femur measurements and also to its measurement at my last growth scan and will be a good indicator as to how the baby is growing and thriving. Ella's abdomen dropped from the 17th to the 6th percentile between weeks 34-36.

The doctor reminded me that often people will wonder why having a small baby is a concern, and that many people would assume that it is best to keep the baby inside even longer to keep it growing. While this sounds good in theory, the reason for the concern is that the small abdomen is an indicator of poor growth and failure to thrive in the womb and it is often better to deliver the baby early because they often do better outside and it is of course easier to observe and deal with problems that arise in a baby that has been born as opposed to one still in utero.

The plan is that we will do the ultrasound and then make a decision. If baby's growth is steady and abdomen is not lagging far behind, I will progress as normal. However, if the growth is decreasing or showing a bigger discrepancy in the measurements, my OB said he will deliver at 37 weeks. Yikes! It is scary to think about being delivered early but at the same time it would be a relief to know that baby is safe and here.

Today was my last day of work before a much anticipated Winter Break so I am looking forward to a week and a half off! This weekend will be busy with family and Christmas which will be great. Next week I plan on relaxing, cleaning and getting last minute things ready for baby! My next OB appt will be in two weeks on January 5th and that's when we should know more so I will definitely update then! :)

32 Weeks

I am a bit late on my 32 week update- our internet was down earlier this week and things have just been busy! I had my 32 week appointment on Thursday which included another growth ultrasound. The best news of the appointment was that baby has flipped to head down and will hopefully stay that way now! I definitely could feel when the flipping happened and it looked like an alien was invading my stomach! I'm glad Baby 2.0 figured out where the exit is and made his/her way down!

The ultrasound went well and baby had a strong heartbeat of 151. They did a study of the cord flow and it looked good as well. Baby's total estimated weight is 3 lbs 12 oz which puts it at the 35th percentile. This is down from the 47th percentile 4 weeks ago. The head is measuring about a week ahead and the abdomen about 2 weeks behind putting it at the 18th percentile.

My OB said the numbers indicate that the baby will probably be small but he isn't worried. I came home and took a look at the numbers from when I was pregnant with Ella and it looks like she started slipping between 34-36 weeks. I plan to ask my doctor about this at my next appointment and see if he thinks it could possibly be something that is happening with this baby as well.

As you know I love to set mini goals for myself as the pregnancy progresses. I have 1 and a half weeks of school left before Winter Break and at that point I will be 34 weeks so that is my next goal. I am really looking forward to having a good week and a half break from work over Christmas. My next appointment will be the last day of work before break and it will just be a quick appointment to check blood pressure, weight and urine. After that, I will go again at 36 weeks and then weekly from then on! I will update after my next appointment.

Here are comparison pictures from this pregnancy and my pregnancy with Ella at 32 weeks!

32 weeks with Baby 2.0

32 weeks with Ella

30 Weeks

I'm 30 weeks pregnant today- 10 weeks to go! I am trying to decide if that sounds like a lot of time left or hardly anytime! It sort of depends on the day. :) I know things will start going really fast though now that the holiday season is here. Today I am off work on Thanksgiving break which is a great feeling. Five whole days off- yay! Then we head back to work for 3 and a half weeks and then Christmas break will be here!

This morning I had my 30 week appointment with the OB. My regular doctor is out of town this week so I saw a different doctor. It was sort of a frustrating appointment because I had some concerns and questions but he was on call and kept having to leave the room to answer phone calls. He felt really bad and kept apologizing but it was still frustrating because everything felt so scattered!

Anyway, for the past several days I have been having a lot of cramping and lower back pain. I had debated calling in about it earlier this week but decided to stick it out until my scheduled appointment today. I mentioned it to th doctor and he said he needed to check to see if any changes were happening to my cervix. He checked and I am not dilated at all which is of course great news! He said that the cramping is mild contractions which is okay unless it starts causing me to dilate. My cervix is shortening a little but nothing major as of now. He basically described my uterus as "irritable" and just said to watch it and to call if things get worse or of course if I start having timeable contractions. He also did a test to see if I have good odds of going into labor in the next few weeks and I am sure it will be negative since I am not dilated.

Baby's heartbeat was good in the 140s and from what the doctor could feel he/she is still breech. Darn. :( Hoping baby will slip and settle in head down soon! I am now measuring two weeks behind in fundal height. Last appointment two weeks ago I was only a week behind. So its something to watch and he was going to order an ultrasound until I told him I already have one scheduled in two weeks. This was the point in time with Ella that the doctor's noticed I was measuring behind and ordered an ultrasound so I am interested to see how things progress.

Here are the comparison belly pictures for this week. Its hard for me to tell but I still think I was bigger at this point with Ella. Thoughts?

Me with Ella at 30 weeks

And 30 weeks with Baby 2.0

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and safe travels! We are finally feeling like most of the projects around the house are finished and are ready to snuggle in and wait for Baby 2.0 to arrive! I plan to get the tree and Christmas decorations up this week and get ready for the holiday season! I will update again after my next appointment in two weeks! I'll leave you with a funny picture of Franklin- he must really be sensing that I am pregnant because in the past week this has been his constant position! He paws at me until I move whatever is on my lap so he can rest his head on my belly. :)

28 Weeks!

I have officially entered the third trimester and gosh does that feel good to say! Over 2/3 of the way done! I am still feeling that darn ever present nausea but the vomiting is staying under control and is only once or twice a week. I'm definitely starting to feel the aches and pains of the final months of pregnancy as the little one gets bigger and those kicks and punches get stronger!


Today I had my 28 week appointment and another growth ultrasound. Overall it was a great appointment! The ultrasound went well although Baby Grinstead 2.0 was practicing some yoga moves and had his/her feet in front of the face and head the whole time making it difficult to get pictures. Baby weighed in at 2 lbs 9 oz today which is great and all measurements looked good. The abdomen is still a bit behind the head measurement by about a little over a week but seems to be making good growth. I am only measuring 1 cm behind on my fundal height so these are all good signs. My OB was very optimistic that this could be our "normal" sized baby which would be awesome! Abdominal circumference and growth is the biggest indicator of IUGR so that is what we will watch most closely. He said I am not out of the woods yet since Ella wasn't diagnosed until 30ish weeks so I will have another growth ultrasound at 32 weeks. If that one looks good and shows good growth then I will probably be cleared to proceed as a normal pregnancy and maybe even get to go into labor on my own! Finally, baby was head up (breech) today which is a change from ultrasounds past. I wasn't surprised since I have been feeling all movement way down low and lots of pressure. The doctor said there is still plenty of time to flip and he's not concerned yet. We will check that out at the next ultrasound as well.

Here are a couple of pictures from today- like I said, they aren't great because Baby was doing gymnastics in there!

Profile picture- head is on the left and you can see the little nose and mouth. Notice the leg/foot up touching the face! :)

3D pic of the facial features- look at that cute nose and lips! (The weird bumps all around are the hands and feet!)

Other than that, not much else to report. I will now start seeing the doctor every two weeks. Things are really starting to seem real! Jeff and I have been hard at work doing some last minute projects at home to get the house ready for baby and are close to being done with both of them. Miss Ella had a rough few days with croup this week but is on the mend now thank goodness! Everyone around here needs some sleep after some long nights! I will update after my next appointment which is the day before Thanksgiving!

28 Week Belly Pic- Getting big!

26 weeks!

Another week down :) I am 26 weeks pregnant today. Not a whole lot to report. It has been two weeks since my last doctor's appointment and the longest I have gone this pregnancy without seeing a doctor or a nurse! Pretty crazy. I am feeling okay. The nausea has gotten a bit worse and is definitely wearing on me since it has been 6 months of nonstop feeling icky. But the vomiting is so much better with it only happening a few times a week.

This week is crazy for me with parent/teacher conferences which means a couple thirteen hour days which is quite a bit for this mama! But after this week I won't have any conferences until next year since I will miss the ones in February. Next week will also be a busy week for me as I will be in Iowa City for a few days for a conference for work. I will be breathing a sigh of relief when these next few weeks come to an end.

Other than that, I have just been busy hanging out with Jeff, Ella and Franklin. Ella has gotten some use of out of her ladybug Halloween costume. We took her to Night Eyes which is trick or treating at the zoo and she had a great time. Then she had a Halloween party at daycare and the next day Jeff and my mom took her trick or treating at the mall. Tomorrow Jeff's work has a trick or treating night that he will take her to and then Saturday is the real deal. What a lucky girl getting all that candy! :)

Next appointment for me is at 28 weeks on November 11th. We will have an ultrasound to see how baby's growth is progressing so I am anxious to see and praying that baby is fattening up in there! I will update more after that appointment.

Glucose Test...

I passed! Yay! One less thing to worry about :)

24 weeks

So I made it to my next milestone of 24 weeks- yay! The past week and a half off the PICC have been so refreshing. It has been great to shower whenever I want and not have to schedule evenings around IV infusions! I will admit that my nausea has taken a turn for the worst off the fluids but I am still not vomiting much- maybe twice in the last week so I will take that! My arm is healing up pretty well. There is still a scar/scab at the site and the skin around is scaly like a snake as the rash heals.

This past week was Jeff's birthday and my birthday so it was a fun few days of celebrating. I got spoiled with some gift cards for massages and a pedicure so baby and I are going to be pampered in the coming months!

Here are the latest belly pics from 24 weeks:

And comparing this pregnancy at 24 weeks to my pregnancy with Ella at 24 weeks in the same clothes!

24 week Baby #2

24 weeks with Ella

I had my 24 week appointment today along with the one hour glucose test. For those that aren't familiar, the glucose test is done between 24-28 weeks to test for possible gestational diabetes. You drink a super sweet drink and then have your blood drawn an hour later to see blood sugar results. I failed the one hour test with Ella and then had to go in and take the 3 hour test so am really hoping I don't have to do that again! I will find out results later this afternoon and do a quick update.

After the glucose test was my appointment with the OB. I am now officially +1 pound from pre pregnancy weight which is good and funny at the same time. The doctor listened to the heartbeat which was in the 160s and sounded great. Then he measured my fundal height (uterus) and it was measuring a bit small. Previously he had suggested that I do a growth ultrasound at 28 weeks since I have previous history of having growth restriction with Ella. After measuring small today he said he didn't feel comfortable waiting 4 weeks and wanted me to get in for an ultrasound today. Yikes! So I came back a few hours later and had a growth ultrasound. During these they listen to the heartbeat, check amniotic fluid levels and measure three things: head, femur and abdomen. Combined, these measurements indicate an overall percentile that the baby's weight falls into and then each component is looked at separately as well. There are two types of growth restricted babies or babies with IUGR. The first is symmetrial growth restriction and this is usually not cause for concern because it indicates that the baby is small, but proportionately small so it is likely just in the genetics. An assymmetrically small baby is more cause for concern because generally the abdomen lags behind the head and femur. (This is what Ella had.). The OB explained that the reason this is a concern is that it indicates that the baby is not getting enough nutrients so is rationing what it is getting and sending most to the vital organs and head, leaving the abdomen to suffer.

Looking at baby on today's ultrasound, heartbeat looked great at 148 and baby was moving around ALL over. Amniotic fluid looked great! Baby is till head down but flailing about from side to side and constantly sucking its thumb and putting its fingers in its mouth. (See picture below)

After the ultrasound I met with the OB again and he told me that baby is weighing in at 1 lb 6 oz putting its total body weight at the 37th percentile. So right now the total weight is on the small side but not alarmingly so. The more important measurements to look at were the individual head, femur and abdomen numbers. In looking at this, my OB pointed out that right now the abdomen is lacking about two weeks behind the other measurements. Right now the head is measuring at 25 weeks 4 days (58th percentile) and the abdomen is measuring at 23 weeks 2 days (24th percentile). As of now these numbers on their own look okay and do not mean that I need immediate treatment or anything- however they are indicative of possible IUGR down the road. Ella was not diagnosed until 30 weeks and her numbers at first were around what this baby's are and each week the percentiles continued to drop until it was decided that she should be delivered. So at this time we will watch and wait. The doctor reminded me that growth restriction is nothing to mess around with so I will be closely monitored. They take into account mom's weight gain and fundal height measurements also and both of mine are on the small side. So my next appointment will be in 4 weeks at 28 weeks and I will have another growth ultrasound. After that I will start going every two weeks and will have an additional growth ultrasound at 32 weeks. If at that time, the discrepancy has narrowed, then all is good and baby can come when it likes. If however, like in Ella's case, the perecentiles continue to fall and the gap between abdomen and head/femur increases, I will start non stress tests and they will determine an appropriate date to deliver. SO as usual, it was a lot to take in at the appointment but I feel a lot more educated about what is going on after having been through this once with Ella. We will keep on plugging along and hope that baby starts packing on the pounds! I will leave you with a final picture of Baby Grinstead 2.0. I may be biased but he/she is a real cutie! :)

An Unexpected Surprise!

I am 23 weeks pregnant today! Still feeling about the same- nausea has increased a bit after being of of fluids and nausea medication but I am doing really well with not vomiting. In the past five days I have only gotten sick twice and both were on Saturday. I sure can't wait until I can have some days with no nausea but am thrilled to not be vomiting! My nurse came to change the dressing on my PICC and do bloodwork yesterday. She called this morning to tell me that my labs came back pretty good- same as last week. Sodium is still a bit low at 134 and potassium is normal at 3.9. I thought that was good news considering I am off the fluids completely and have been for the past four days. So the plan was to continue flushing the line with Heparin this week and get my PICC pulled next Monday.

WELL, this morning, I woke up and my arm was really sore and was getting red around the insertion site. When my nurse called about my labs I mentioned it to her and she said she would need to stop by after school to take a look at it because it could be infected. So she came over and I showed her and asked her what she thought and she smiled and said "Let's pull it." I think I did a double take and my jaw dropped to the floor. She had called the doctor and let him know my symptoms and he gave the okay to go ahead and pull it. Infections are nothing to mess around with and since I am already off fluids and doing okay he said it was no big deal to take it out a few days early. So once again we sat at my kitchen table and she pulled out the line! This time I wasn't as nervous- I really didn't have a chance to be since it was so unexpected. Here is a picture of the line after it was removed- it was about 15 inches long!

The nurse put betadine on my arm and covered it with a bandage for a few hours and now it is off. There is a small hole where the catheter went in and it is a bit swollen but looks pretty good! So after more than THREE MONTHS of home health care, iv fluids, iv meds, showers with wrapped arms, weekly nurse visits, etc. I am FREE of the PICC! This has been a day that I have been looking forward to for a LONG time. Jeff and I were talking and since I was six weeks pregnant I have had an appointment or seen some type of medical professional at least once a week if not more. From early spotting, to hospital visits for dehydration, two PICC insertions at the hospital, weekly nurse's visits and OB appointments it seems like it is always something! I will get a little reprieve now. I do have a scheduled OB appointment next week along with my glucose test so am really hoping that all goes well. I failed my one hour glucose test with Ella and had to take the three hour and am really hoping to avoid that this time around. After that appointment at 24 weeks, I will not be scheduled to see the doctor again until 28 weeks and then start every two weeks after that. So it is possible that I may get to go four whole weeks with no doctor's appointments- how crazy would that be! Thanks to all for your suppot and encouragement during the past few months- it has been a rough road but of course all worth it in the end! I will update next week :)

LAST IV!

As we speak I am running my LAST bag of fluids! I am so excited to be done. We are having people over tonight to watch the Iowa football game so needed to get the IV in this morning. It will be SO nice to not have to schedule our evenings around when we can do the IVs anymore.

Here I am getting my last bag of fluids:

I can't wait to have that pump out of my house along with all the other equipment! Starting tomorrow I will inject Heparin daily to prevent blood clots. I will update after my nurse's appointment Tuesday where I will hopefully be getting my last blood draw and have good results!

Here is Miss Ella helping give me my last medicine!

Good News!

Today I got good news from the doctor. He gave me the okay to stop fluids soon! I had good labs this week and have been doing well on one bag a day for the past two weeks with limited vomiting so he thinks I will be okay without fluids. I have three bags left so will run them tonight, tomorrow and Saturday and then be done! I can't wait. I have to go all next week without fluids but still flushing the line with Heparin and the doctor would like me to have a week with pretty much no vomiting and good labs. If that is the case, then he will give the okay to get my PICC pulled the following week!

So I'll get through these next three nights of running fluids and see how next week goes. My nurse will come on Tuesday so I will find out labs on Wednesday and hopefully know middle of next week when/if I will be rid of the PICC! I will update then. :)

Oh and apparently I have "popped." Today four people stopped me at work and asked if I was expecting! Yikes! I am apparently looking large and in charge :)

22 Weeks

Another week has come and gone and I have lived to tell the tale. :) I am continuing to slowly feel better besides the ever present nausea which I have learned to coexist with. My appetite continues to be enormous so all I can guess is that baby is doing some major growing in there! I had my weekly nurse visit yesterday and got my lab results back today. Sodium stayed the same at 134 so still low but it was nice that it didn't dip back down. My potassium went UP from 3.8 last week to 3.9 this week which is great news since I haven't even been getting potassium in my IV bags for the past week. I was thrilled to see that! Glucose was good at 76 and my calcium was the only thing that was significantly low. So all in all pretty good lab results! The plan is for me to call my OB at the end of this week to check in with him and if all goes as planned hopefully he will okay for me to stop fluids. I have enough bags to go through Saturday so we will see. I am anxious to talk to him!

Not much else to report- I am just going to keep on keeping on and get through these next few weeks. I am trying hard not to get my hopes up about getting my PICC out because I was devastated when that didn't work out at 20 weeks so for now I will just make it a goal to get through the next two weeks when I have my next doctor's appointment. Until then, baby is keeping me good company and likes to play a lot at night! It is so funny to see my belly moving around with the little punches and kicks. I love it!

My nurse is unable to come see me next Monday so we have moved my appointment to Tuesday of next week. Hope to see good lab results again!

Since so many people have asked me about hyperemesis and what it is all about, I thought I would share this link to a website that has a lot of great information and has been really helpful for me.

www.helpher.org

There is a message board forum on the website that has been a huge support system to me- especially this summer when I was at my worst. It was helpful to read the stories of others and know that I was not alone in feeling so miserable! If you have time to check it out, you will learn a lot!

21 Weeks!

Tomorrow marks 21 weeks pregnant for me! I had my weekly nurse visit yesterday and got my lab results back today. My labs were exactly the same as last week. Sodium at 134 (still low) and potassium at 3.8 (low end of normal). I was really pleased to see that my levels didn't go down at all since I have been on one bag a day since Friday. Tonight I am running my last potassium bag so it will be interesting to see what my labs look like next week with me not getting potassium intraveneously anymore. My OB said he will take a look at my labs next week and if my potassium dips, he will let me try taking an oral potassium pill which will hopefully be better than having to run a long bag and have it burn in my veins! So after tonight- no more burning! :) Starting tomorrow I will run just one bag of sodium chloride or lactated ringers over an hour. It is silly but now that I know the end is near, I feel like time is ticking by more slowly. I should be thankful that I am down to one bag and that I am not hooked up for multiple hours each night but I am just SO ready to be done with the fluids and get this darn PICC out. Just another lesson in patience :)
Baby Grinstead 2.0 is a mover in there! He/she is kicking and punching all the time and we can even see my belly moving now with the kicks! Jeff got to feel movement from the outside for the first time last week which made him really excited! I found out that I have an anterior placenta which makes it a bit harder to feel kicks from the outside but our little one must be strong haha.
Throughout the pregnancy I have set mini goals for myself or milestones to look forward to which helps me have something to focus on and look toward. My next big goal is 24 weeks for a couple reasons. The first is that it is considered the first week of viability- meaning the first week that baby could be born with positive odds for survival. Now of course by no means would I EVER want baby born that early but it is just an important milestone to reach. Also at 24 weeks I will have my next OB appointment and glucose test which I am nervous for! So until then I will keep trucking along! Will update after my nurse's appointment next Monday!

20 Week Appointment

Today I had my 20 week appointment and anatomy scan. It was a great appointment- first time I can say that! We started with the ultrasound and gosh that just never gets old to me. Seeing that little one on the screen moving around just gets me every time. Baby looked healthy and was very active! He/she was waving and bouncing around through the whole thing. The tech took lots of measurements of the brain, spine, kidneys, heart, stomach, and much more. It is so neat to me that they have the technology to see all those things and look for abnormalities. All organs looked great! The things I was most concerned with hearing about were the length of my cervix and the amount of amniotic fluid and of course baby's size. Since I have been having contractions for weeks now, one of the doctor's concerns was whether my cervix is shortening at all which would be a major concern. Good news- cervix is nice and long! He also said that I have a great amount of amniotic fluid so all these months of IV fluids are paying off! Such a relief! We did NOT find out what we are having and she had us turn away when she measured the femur bones in case there was something to see. :)

Baby Grinstead 2.o's cute little profile

The little foot! I love foot ultrasound pictures :)

After the ultrasound I met with the doctor and we went over all the results of the ultrasound. He said everything was looking great and baby is healthy. He asked about how I have been feeling lately and about how much I am vomiting and how much I am able to drink. I told him that my vomiting is really slowing down and I am drinking so much more now. Dr. decided that I am ready to go down to one bag a day again and see how that goes since I am doing so well with my drinking! He even said that I can stop my potassium since that is what makes me have to run the bags longer. YAY! You have no idea how happy this news made me after two months of all these IVs. I have 5 bags of potassium left in the fridge so we are going to finish those out which will run longer, but after that I will run just one bag of sodium chloride or lactated ringers a night which will only take an hour!!! Yay! Gosh it will be such a relief- an hour is NOTHING compared to what I have been doing and on the weekends I can even do that real quick in the morning and not have to worry about it at night!

The plan is for me to try one bag for about two weeks and I need to drink even more on my own and then if I am still feeling well and my labs are okay I get to try a week of no fluids and just continue flushing my PICC and getting Heparin to avoid blood clots. THEN if all is well I may just get to have my PICC PULLED in about a month!!! Now this is all best case scenario and I need to get through these next few weeks and have everything be okay but it is really looking good for me to get it out! A month from now would be right around my birthday- what a great birthday present that would be! That would put me at having the PICC in for a total time of a little over three months- plenty in my opinion! :) So I am going to take it one day at a time and try my hardest to up my oral water intake and go from there.

It was so nice to talk to my doctor today and hear from him that he is proud of all I have gotten through and to hear him say that I am being strong. He reminded me that I have been sick for almost five months- an unrelenting sickness that he said can just wear anyone down. He said he understands what a sacrifice the last two + months have been as far as all the IV fluids and things have gone and just wants me to know that it has all been so worth it and that I am doing a great job. It is just nice to hear that after such a rough few months. :)

At my weigh in today I was 3 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight so I am gaining lots and getting there slowly but surely! Looks like I will be at or past my original weight by my next appointment so that is good news. We did talk a lot about IUGR (growth restriction) that I had with Ella and he said that is a good possibility that we will be facing that again. There are significant risks that come with IUGR so he said it is very important that we stay on top of things. My next OB appointment is in four weeks and he will measure my fundal height and determine when my next growth ultrasound will be- either at 28 or 30 weeks. My fundal height became discrepant at 30 weeks with Ella and that's when her problems were first found so chances are things will still look okay by next appointment but it will be nice to have another look at an ultrasound to see how baby is growing.

Lastly, little one's heart rate was 132 today- down from the 150s at my last appointment. Seems so low compared to Ella's whose was always in the 160-170 range! I know not to believe in those old wive's tales but it is still fun to guess!

I have a nurse appointment on Monday and will update with lab results after that. Praying that this may be my last month of weekly nurse appointments!

Half Baked!

As of tomorrow, I will be 20 weeks pregnant and officially HALFWAY DONE! I am so excited- this is a milestone that I have been waiting for for a long time and I remember so many times this summer thinking I would never get there. I had high hopes of having my PICC out by this time but have come to terms with the fact that it will need to stay in a little longer. It is just a good feeling to know that after tomorrow, I will have less time to conquer than I already have which is huge after all that I have been through the past few months. I like to tell myself that I am 5 months pregnant now (even though I know its really more like 4.5 months). Here is a belly pic from today at the halfway mark:





And I thought it would be fun to compare what I look like now compared to when I was pregnant with Ella. Here is a picture of me in the same shirt at 20 weeks in both pregnancies. I feel like I look completely different this time around- I look like I am carrying higher and less "out." This is funny to me because the baby is actually really low so its weird that I look like I am carrying high. I am still in regular clothes but am guessing in the next month or so it will be time to break out those maternity clothes!

20 weeks with this baby

20 weeks with Ella

This week has been pretty good as far as my health goes. The vomiting is slowly easing up and I am down to about once a day on average. I think I had two days this week where I got sick more than that and one day where I didn't vomit at all! That hasn't happened since I found out I was pregnant! I really hope that I am turning a corner in all of this and starting to get better. I am still nauseous all the time but I will take that as long as I'm not vomiting! I have been weaning off my oral Zofran and have had several days without taking it at all and a few days where I have just needed one dose in the afternoon. I am still getting the dose that is infused in my IV bag. I have also been eating well and drinking a ton of water. I am up to about 50 oz a day now! I drink 32 oz at school and another 2 or so glasses at home. I am trying so hard and my motivation is to get that PICC out!

I had my weekly nurse visit yesterday and all was pretty routine. My blood pressure was good at 96/65 and the rash under my bandage didn't look too bad which surprised me since it has been itching like crazy! I got my lab results back today and they are getting better! Still not normal but at least improving. My sodium increased to 134 from 132 last week (136-145 is normal). Potassium also increased to 3.8 from 3.5 last week (3.7-4.5 is normal). My glucose was also good at 75. I am so glad that my levels improved from last week and that they are creeping towards the normal range. I am so hopeful that this continues!

I have my 20 week OB appointment and ultrasound for the anatomy scan on Friday morning. I am really anxious to see the baby again since we haven't seen him/her for a few months! Praying that baby looks good and all is healthy! I am anxious to see how my amniotic fluid levels are and how baby is measuring. Ella measured average to high average at the 20 week ultrasound and didn't slow in growth until about 30 weeks so even if size is okay now we aren't out of the clear for IUGR but we will cross that bridge when we come to it! This is the ultrasound where most people find out the sex of the baby but we are once again opting to not find out. We both LOVED finding out that Ella was a girl in the delivery room and Jeff says one of his favorite moments was going to the waiting room and telling our families "Its a GIRL!" So those of you that were hoping for a gender update later this week will have to keep waiting a little longer. :)

In a sidenote, we got a rather large bill from Iowa Home Health Care this weekend. It was six pages long! This particular bill was for $4000 bringing our running total to a little over $15,000! We only have bills through the end of August so more will be trickling in. All I can say is thank goodness for insurance! We may rack up more in bills before baby comes than we do during labor and delivery!

I will update after the appointment on Friday. Hoping for lots of good news! :)

Go Hawks!

What a great victory for the Hawkeyes this weekend against their rival Iowa State! I actually felt bad for Iowa State because it was such a lopsided game but it was fun to watch. Jeff rigged up a projector in our garage and it turned out really nice and was fun to watch the game out there with some neighbors.

I can't believe it is already Sunday though- the weekends just fly by! I had a pretty good week overall last week with several days of only vomiting once! I am starting to wean off my oral Zofran and so far its working pretty well. Friday was a not so great day where I had a little relapse but I am feeling better now. It is funny that to me feeling "better" is probably how most women feel at their sickest during the first trimester. I still feel nauseous almost all the time but I consider it better if I am not actually throwing up. The Zofran doesn't help with nausea anyway so I figure if I am not throwing up as much I don't really need it.

Tomorrow I have a nurse appointment after school to change the bandage and draw my blood for lab work. Here is a picture of my PICC from this morning- you can see the bruising peeking out the edges:

It will feel good to get the bandage changed. I am crossing my fingers that my labs look better this week. Hopefully my sodium and potassium will both creep up a little. I will update when I get my results on Tuesday.

19 weeks

Today I am 19 weeks pregnant! Slowly but surely I am crossing off the weeks and getting closer to meeting the little one! I had a nurse visit yesterday and thank GOODNESS got my bandage changed. I only had it on an extra day because of the holiday but it was hanging by a thread! The skin is just so darn irritated now that cleaning and bandage changes are extremely painful and my arm itches and burns so intensely for hours afterwards. Yesterday I literally had to sit on my other hand and bite my lip to keep from clawing off the bandage it was so itchy. She ran my labs and called me back with the results today. Would you believe that my levels were the worst they have been this whole time?!? I just don't get it. My sodium dropped to 132 which is a new low for me and I remember my doctor saying that 130 is when they get VERY concerned. I haven't had normal sodium levels in months but I just can't believe it dropped when I am getting sodium for four hours a day in my IV! My potassium also dropped out of normal range to 3.5 (it was 3.7 last week). Doctor's orders were to continue with the two bags and retest on Monday. I got to thinking about it and am wondering whether the fact that I have been drinking more water on my own the past week is part of the problem. I think that maybe I am getting TOO much fluids and this is diluting my blood too much. I will talk to my doctor when I see him again next week and maybe go down to one bag a day.

I am very excited that I have been able to drink more water lately. It feels so good to be drinking semi normally and I am getting anywhere from 32-40 oz myself in a day. That is HUGE! This summer I couldn't even take 8 oz orally! I also am having a huge appetite lately and can definitely tell I am gaining a lot of weight. I know it is all good and for the baby but I feel like I am gaining a lot all at once! I guess I have some catching up to do. I don't want to jinx myself especially since I had an awful day on Sunday but yesterday I only threw up ONCE! Once. I haven't only thrown up once since the day I found out I was pregnant. So far today I have only gotten sick once also so we will see. Could the vomiting possibly be slowing down or even ending soon!?

Besides this marking my 19th week of pregnancy, the other big milestone is that tomorrow marks two months that I have had the PICC in. TWO MONTHS. I really can't believe it. I never thought I would ever have it in this long and yet here I am. I am proud to think that I have survived the awfulness that has accompanied having the PICC for this long and I guess looking back that I am maybe stronger than I realized. Here's to hoping that I will get it out before the three month mark!

Labor Day

Ah... a three day weekend! I really needed one of these! It is so nice to know that it is Sunday night and I don't have to go to work tomorrow. We have had a good weekend so far. Watched the Hawks in their opening game on Saturday and got some errands run. Today we went down to see Jeff's parents at their lake house in Sun Valley. Ella had a blast and would have stayed in the lake all day I think if we let her. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling the greatest and ended up having to go in the basement to rest for awhile. It is frustratign when I get really sick out of the blue, especially after having a good few days. The good news is that I have been really thirsty and drinking a lot more the past few days! Thursday and Friday I drank 32 oz both days! I think drinking the water helps me feel better than even getting it in the IVs. I'm not sure why but I felt better those two days than I had in a long time. I am hoping if I can keep up the increased fluid intake, my doctor will give me the all clear in two weeks to go back down to one bag a day. I would LOVE that. The two bags a day are just really starting to wear on me. A couple of days this past week, we had some malfunctions with my pump and ended up wasting 45 minutes each time which really frustrated me since I'm already hooked up enough as it is! So for now, I am going to tell myself that I need to get through this week and next with two bags and then hopefully I will be down to one! My nurse will be here Tuesday so I will update when I hear back about levels...

18 weeks

Tomorrow marks the day that I am 18 weeks pregnant. That means two more weeks and I am at the halfway point! Yay! Some days I feel like I still have SO much longer to go but getting to the halfway point has been a huge goal of mine for months so it feels good to have it actually near. Yesterday my nurse came for a weekly visit and changed the bandage and took vitals. Each week my skin is more irritated and raw under the bandage. It itches quite a bit most days now but I try my best not to scratch it because then the bandage comes loose. When my bandage was removed yesterday there was a rash everywhere underneath and a few places that were bleeding along with lots of bruising. The nurse said that unfortunately irritation like that is normal and that sometimes women get it so bad that their skin looks like raw hamburger. YIKES! After hearing that I counted my blessings and realized my rash isn''t so bad. It doesn't spread outside of the bandage at all so all is well.

She called back with my levels today and it is much of the same. My potassium stayed the same at 3.7 so low but barely. My sodium dropped again so is down to 133 which is the lowest point it has been at. Frustrating since last week it went up a few points but I have come to terms with the fact that I haven't had normal labs in months and this is just how things are going to be for awhile. We are going to stick with the same regimen as I have been doing the last several days- two bags of fluid (2000 ml) a day which I run both at night. Both bags are sodium chloride to help boost my sodium and one is infused with potassium as well. Nurse will come back again next Tuesday to do labs.

My cramping/contractions have settled down the past few days. I mostly only feel them towards the end of the evening when it is getting close to IV time. This past Sunday we were out shopping and I started getting contractions that were painful 20 minutes apart so we came home and once I got some water and rested they settled down. I just need to take it easy. I go back to the doctor in 2 weeks for my 20 week checkup and the anatomy ultrasound so looking forward to that.

Baby is moving more and more every day. I love feeling the little kicks and taps. This is the fun part before the movements get too painful! :) My belly continues to grow- here is a picture from today:





I feel like my belly has grown a lot in the last few weeks! Oh and the random thing on my arm would be the shower bandage that Jeff creates for me each time I want to shower! At first somehow the PICC would always get wet but he is a pro now and my arm stays nice and dry! Here's a close up:

I am so thankful to have Jeff. He helps me so much. He gets my IVs ready every night and injects all my meds and just pretty much keeps everything under control. I don't know what I would do without him!

A setback...

I had a surprise visit to my OB today. Since last week I have been having some cramping mostly at the end of the day and in the evenings. It is not incredibly painful but I would describe it as uncomfortable. I assumed it was from returning to work and being more active during the day at school. Well last night the cramping got worse but I had Open House after school so it was a very long day and I attributed it to that. Usually when I get home and put my feet up, the cramping goes away but last night it went on through the night and continued throughout the day today. I decided to give my OB a call around noon just to see what he said. He wanted me to come in right away after school and even though he didn't have any appointments squeezed me in.

First he listened for the baby's heartbeat and it took quite awhile to find which of course made me nervous. He finally found it VERY low in my pelvis and said that's why it was tricky to find. Apparently baby is snuggled in way down low! Anyway, heartbeat was in the 150s and nice and strong. Then he checked my cervix and thank goodness it was still long and closed. He made sure that I was well aware that if my cervix was shortening I would be DONE with work and on bedrest. Ummm...that isn't really a good thing for me to have happen right now so praying that doesn't become a reality for me!

Basically the doctor said that the cramping could be one of two things: preterm labor (which at this point he does not think based on my cervix) or the result of my kidneys being stressed and releasing a hormone that is causing me to contract. He is fairly confident it is the latter which makes sense because of all my dehydration issues. His best guess is that the reason the cramping is getting worse is because I went from two bags of fluids a day to one a week ago and that is stressing my kidneys. SO, I am back to two bags a day. This presents a little problem now that I am back at work. In order to run a bag before work, I will have to get up at 4 AM! So he is letting me try running two bags back to back at night for the next two nights. It isn't ideal because it is best to spread the bags out so you don't lose as much fluid so quickly after the bags are done but it is worth a try. If my cramping gets worse at all, I am to come in again tomorrow to have cervix rechecked and we will go to a morning bag and a night bag and I will just have to suck it up and get up early. As it is, even the two night bags is going to be tough. That is about 3 and a half hours on the IV each night starting at 8 when Ella goes to bed! It is definitely not ideal but I know it needs to be done for my health and that of the baby.

I guess I am just feeling really down tonight because I feel like this is such a step backward. I am 17 weeks today and naively thought that I might have a chance to get my PICC pulled by 20 weeks. Now I feel like I am further from that goal than ever. I will have to get this situation under control which will take a few weeks I am sure, then wean to one bag a day again for several weeks and THEN possibly entertain the idea of trying without fluids. I am not sure that will ever happen at this point. :( Since I am feeling down I decided to make a list of all the things I miss and am looking forward to when baby is here and this pregnancy is over! :)

I miss...
*being able to shower on my own whenever I want without having to have Jeff wrap my arm from elbow to shoulder in plastic
*being able to go to bed whenever I want to- not when the IV finishes
* having both arms PICC free and free from itching
*eating delicious meals and having them always stay down
*being oblivious to electrolytes and not having a clue what sodium and potassium levels are!
*enjoying a glass of wine at the end of a long day :)

Exhausted!

Today was the first day of school for students. My day went really well but I am SO tired now. It was a lot of running around helping students get settled this first day, getting them supplies, helping with schedules, etc. I was really nervous for today- especially to meet my 8th and 9th graders but it went well and I think I will feel even better after I get this first week under my belt. I just need to get used to being back at work and how tired it is making me.

I had a nurse visit today directly after school and my nurse couldn't come so I met with a different one. It always feels so good to get the dressing changed on my PICC although today after it was cleaned with alcohol it burned so bad for about an hour that I could have sworn my skin was being eaten by the chemicals! Yowch! Blood pressure was good at 110/65 and still a bit fast resting heart rate. I assumed since my appointment was so late that I would hear back tomorrow about my bloodwork but they called me back about thirty minutes later with the results. Good news- my labs are improving! My sodium increased to 135 so it is just shy of normal (136-145) and my potassium decreased just a touch to 3.7 from 3.9 last week which is in the normal range. My glucose was also normal at 74. I was so happy to hear that my bloodwork was good! My OB said that getting less fluids would probably help my levels improve and he was right! I hope to continue to keep them in the normal range. I will continue to recieve potassium and sodium intraveneously since my body can't maintain on its own right now. I will see my nurse again next Monday to check levels again and hope I can keep on a positive track! I am still feeling dehydrated by the end of the day and still nauseous most all of the time but am hopeful that 20 weeks will be the magic mark and I will feel better!

Weekends go too fast!

Gosh I had forgotten how fast the weekends go by when I am working! I enjoy the time at home with my family so much and combining that with getting lots of cleaning, grocery shopping, etc. it just flies by! I have been feeling about the same but every day am able to eat more and definitely have more of an appetite. It is so hit or miss what will cause vomiting- today it happened to be brushing my teeth of all things! Yesterday I was able to keep pizza down at dinner but got sick after rice at lunch. Ugh. Oh well at least I am able to start eating foods with taste from time to time. I have noticed now that if my stomach gets too empty I also start getting nauseous and that is when the dry heaving is usually the worst so I will need to stay on top of that. Last week I did pretty well at work although it really wore me out. I did get sick at school twice- once right before open house night but that's not bad. Tomorrow is my first day with students so I am nervous and anxious to see what this new position brings. Hopefully I can keep my sickness in check. Tomorrow after school my nurse will be coming to do my weekly blood draw and dressing change. I will be interested to see how my levels are after changing to one bag a day this week. I am not sure if they will be affected or not. I will update Tuesday when I hear more.

Finally, I had the second part of my screening this week for chromosomal disorders such as Downs Syndrome and Trisnomy. I got a call on Friday that my results for both parts of the test came back normal. What a relief and it was a good way to end the week with some good news!

16 Weeks!

Well as of yesterday I am 16 weeks pregnant. I like to think of it as four months pregnant because for some reason that sounds farther along. :) I remember back a month or so ago setting a goal for myself just to make it to 16 weeks and here I am! I have started to get a baby belly and am feeling baby quite a bit. I love the little kicks and flutters going on in there reminding me what all this is for! :) I have been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions already and did mention this to my doctor and he said it is due to dehydration and my kidneys working harder than normal but nothing to worry about. I had an appointment Wednesday for bloodwork and will see my nurse Monday after work to check levels again.

I started back to work on Tuesday and things are going pretty well. Of course being in a new position I have a lot to learn and it is an adjustment but I think I'm really going to like it. I have of course been extra tired in the evenings and start feeling pretty sick and have headaches which tells me it is time for my IV. I am doing okay so far with one IV but am not feeling quite as hydrated as I did when I was on two. We will see how things go. Tonight I had open house from 5:30-7:30 so am exhausted and just got started with my IV. I have started having much more of an appetite although what I can eat is still tricky. Often old favorites will sound really good but then will make me sick when I eat them. Today I had several hours in the day when I didn't feel nauseous and that was great! I was even able to meet my mom and take her out for lunch for her birthday at Culvers. I had a grilled chicken sandwich and it stayed down. :) However tonight at open house I started feeling pretty sick and did end up throwing up in the staff bathroom. :( A few steps forward a few steps back I guess. Next milestone I am looking forward to is 20 weeks- that is my next official doctors appointment and we will also have an ultrasound and it is also the HALFWAY mark. I think I can, I think I can...

End of Summer

Well today was my last official day of summer. Tomorrow I head back to work only this time I will have a new position and will be teaching ESL to middle school students. I am all over the map on how I am feeling- nervous about my new job, sad to end the summer and knowing I will miss playing with Miss Ella everyday, but at the same time I am relieved that this just means I am one step closer to hopefully feeling better or at least one step closer to delivery. :) It is funny how this time last year I was a nervous wreck thinking of sending Ella to a new daycare for the first time and this year I feel so calm and ready for her to go back and see her old friends and her beloved Granny Pat. I know she has been bored with me at home so this will be good for her. :)

I had a nurse appointment today. It was so good to have my bandage changed- this heat does a number on it and it was coming loose at the edges and just getting dirty and gross. I love having a clean bandage and hope it stays that way for at least a few days. My arm under the bandage has been itchy this week and has developed a heat rash but nothing like the rash I had before so that is good. My arm has been a little sore right where the line goes in and when she moved the bandage we found a scab that had been caused from some drainage I think (gross I know). Vitals were good today- my blood pressure was down in normal range at 96/64 but my resting heart rate is still high which I guess is pretty common for my condition.

They called me late this afternoon with the results of my bloodwork today. Good news- my potassium is back in normal range at 3.9! Yay! I was hopeful that I would get to stop the potassium IVs but my OB says I need to stay on potassium since my body can't regulate the level on its own so now it looks like we have the correct dosage. I will stay on 15 mil equivalents indefinitely. Unfortunately my sodium is still low at 133. It did not change at all even though I have been getting sodium chloride IVs twice daily now for a week. As I am getting the IVs not only does the potassium burn but I can taste salt the whole time but apparently all that tasting isn't transferring to bump my levels up! As of now we are just going to keep doing the sodium chloride bags but the pharmacist said that if my level drops more we may have to do something else also. Ugh. Finally my glucose has gone back into normal range now that I am off the prednisone. It was 71 today and on the prednisone had been in the high 90s and low 100s. So we will keep on keeping on. Tonight was my last twice daily IV and tomorrow since I am back to work I am going to see how one bag a day goes. We will monitor my levels and hydration and adjust as needed. Lets hope it goes well!

PICC Anniversary

Today it has been one month since I got my PICC line in. I never would have thought I would be getting IVs twice daily for a month and thought for sure when I got it in that it would be a few weeks or a month at max but here we are. Hopefully I won't see too many more of these "anniversaries."

The past two days have been rough. I have been having bad headaches and increased nausea along with what I think might be some low blood sugar spells. I get shaky and weak and sweaty sometimes. I think maybe my blood pressure has come back down after getting off the prednisone and maybe I am just adjusting. I'm hoping that this is just a bad few days but if things don't improve over the weekend I may call my OB just to be safe or maybe just wait to see how my levels are doing when the nurse comes Monday.

Only a few more days until I start trying just one IV a day. I can't wait! I hate the morning IV because it means I have to get up earlly and time everything just right so we get it done before Jeff leaves for work and I also have to figure out how to squeeze in a shower and watch Ella in there so it just starts the day off on a not so good foot. I can't wait to just do them in the evenings for awhile and see how that goes!

OB Visit Update

Today I had my regularly scheduled OB visit. I was anxious to go and talk to my doctor about all that has gone on the past few weeks. He is so great and sat with me for over 45 minutes talking about everything. He explained to me about what it means when my sodium and potassium levels are low and how it is nothing to mess around with. He said he isn't worried right now that they are a little off but just wants to keep a close tab on things and make sure we are constantly monitoring and adjusting what goes in my bags as needed. Low potassium and sodium can lead to some major problems with heart function and other things so it is important to watch. He said that when my level dropped to 3.1 that was concerning and he doesn't want that to happen again. I asked why things aren't getting better as far as the levels are concerned and he explained that it is kind of a double edged sword- my sodium and potassium are off due to the fact that I am getting intraveneous fluids. Since this is not a natural way for the body to get fluids it can sometimes throw electrolytes off. But of course NOT getting fluids isn't an option right now so we just have to adjust accordingly. He said that normally, people getting fluids don't have this problem with electrolytes especially if they are able to eat some like I am but he said I am just one of the unlucky ones.

I talked to him also about the fact that I am going back to work next week and am wondering how the heck I am going to run two bags a day. He agreed that having to get up so early every day to run a bag may run me down more which would defeat the purpose. He was fine with me trying one bag just at night starting next week when I go back to work. We will see how it goes and adjust with needed. There are some possibilities if I am still dehydrated- I could run two bags at night which would just take a long time or he even mentioned the possibility of running a quick saline bag straight into my PICC instead of using a pump over my lunch hour. Obviously its not ideal but those are possibilities we will explore if need be. My hope is that one bag will be okay and that I can continue to increase my fluid intake on my own.

I got to hear the baby's heartbeat today for the first time on my belly and it of course was great to hear. It was in the 150s and he found it way over on the right side of my belly so baby must be snuggled up in there right now. :) My OB actually does not need to see me again until my 20 week ultrasound appointment which isn't for five weeks. It seems like a long time not to go to the doctor but I will be seeing a nurse weekly and having bloodwork done and will be in contact with my doctor each week adjusting my fluids and what goes in my bag.

Finally, I asked him when he thought I might hope to get the PICC line out. Naively, going into the experience, my goal was to have it out within a month but that is obviously not happening. He was honest with me and said that if I were going to get it out soon, it would have already been taken out. He said he was hopeful that I would get better by 14 weeks but since I didn't it is really anyone's guess as to when I may be better and ready to be rid of the PICC. He did ask me to be prepared to keep it in until DELIVERY if necessary. He said that is not out of the realm of possibilities. That was hard to hear. I am glad that he was honest with me and that I am prepared for the worst but certainly hope my fate is different. He said he has had some patients get better around 25-30 weeks and others at various points before that. So basically I could wake up tomorrow and feel better or this could be the way things are until little one decides to make an appearance. Regardless, when and if I do start feeling a big improvement including keeping down a large amount of fluids on my own and no vomiting, I will call him and at that point he will take me off the fluids for the week and I will just flush my line daily to keep it from clotting. If I am able to make it a week, then we would pull the PICC. Right now I have set a goal for myself of 20 weeks. It is something to look forward to and hope for and if at that point, I am not feeling better, I will set a new goal. We will see and time will tell...

Feeling frustrated

My nurse came for a scheduled visit today to change the dressing on my PICC and do my vitals in addition to drawing blood for lab work. My PICC site looks great with no sign of a rash or infection as of now which is great! I talked to the nurse about how I am so ready to be done with the potassium IVs and she was pretty confident that if my levels came back normal today that I would be back to just fluid IVs.

Well, then later in the day I got a phone call from my OB's nurse letting me know that my bloodwork came back abnormal again. My potassium level dropped from 3.7 to 3.5. I guess normal is considered 3.6 so obviously I am very close but it isn't good that level is dropping again. It isn't alarming and actually makes sense since my potassium levels in the IV were dropped but it is disappointing that my body isn't able to maintain the level on its own. My sodium also dropped and is at its lowest point that it has been this entire time at 133. 136-145 is considered normal.

Home health care came out this afternoon with new supplies and they have changed my fluid bags to saline instead of lactated ringers which should help with my sodium levels. They have increased my dosage of potassium to 15 mil equivalents and I will do this for the next week. More bloodwork next Monday and then we will go from there. I am disappointed and frustrated because this was not the news I was expecting or hoping for but it is what it is I guess. It goes to show how much my body has been through in the past few months and I guess it will just take time for things to regulate themselves. I am anxious since next Tuesday I return to work and I was really hoping to be taking a turn for the better by that point. My hope was that by next week I would be down to only one evening IV a day but I am not sure if that is a possibility yet or not. I see my OB tomorrow and hope to talk to him more about what my levels mean and what the plan for the upcoming weeks and months entails.

On a final good note, after I finish the IV I am currently getting, I will be taking my LAST antibiotic dose tonight! 12-15 pills a day for the last two weeks has been crazy so I am SO glad to be done after tonight! Yay! I will just be on my oral and injectable Zofran now plus the twice daily IVs. I will update tomorrow after my OB appointment.

Making progress...slow and steady

Today I had a follow up visit with the dermatologist and another nurse visit. The dermatologist appointment went great! He was so pleased to see how well my rashes look and said to continue the meds through next Tuesday and then I should be good to go! My arm looks awesome and my neck still is a bit pink but not nearly as noticable. Yay!

My nurse visit was a quick one today as it was just a blood draw to check my levels again. My OB wanted to see how my levels are doing now that I have been on the potassium for three days. The good news is that my potassium is up from 3.1 to 3.7 (has to be 3.5 or higher to be normal) which is great. I was really hoping that she would say I would be done with the potassium but the OB wants me to stay on it a bit longer. She said it is great that my levels are back up in normal range but I need to remember that I am getting potassium intraveneously twice a day so we need to see if my body can maintain the level without the extra help. I was getting 20 mil equivalents in each iv bag and now they have cut the dosage to 10 mil equivalents. I will do that through the weekend and will have more blood work on Monday to see how the levels are then. I was really hopeful that I wouldn't have to continue running the bags for four hours but it looks like I will need to for a few days longer at least. I'm crossing my fingers that my potassium stays up and on Monday I will get the all clear to just got back to my regular fluids which I can run faster.

In other level updates, my sodium stayed the same which is still low at 134. We will keep watching that. My glucose (blood sugar) is also all messed up but the doctor warned me this could happen. Apparently the prednisone that I am on causes glucose intolerance which leads to high blood sugar. I have actually been having the opposite problem and my glucose has been on the low side always in the 60s but today it was 108! Yikes! Normal is 70-100 but nothing to worry about since we know it is med induced. Its no wonder I don't feel great though- gosh my body just is going through a lot I think! My last day of the prednisone is Monday so then hopefully things should go back to normal.

I mentioned to my nurse that the potassium IVs burn when going in and she said that was normal and why we have to run the bags so slow. Apparently when given in a regular IV they often have to add a numbing medicine because it can get so painful but then you have to be on a cardiac monitor. I can deal with the burning but it is just a bit uncomfortable. SO I just need to get through this weekend and finish up my meds early next week and hopefully I will get to start weaning off fluids. I will see the nurse again Monday and the OB Tuesday. Updates then. :)

Nurse Visit

Yesterday was my regularly scheduled nurse visit. My nurse Traci came to change the dressing on my PICC, do vitals and draw blood for labs. The good news is, she was very happy to see how well my rashes are healing. My left arm looks great with just a little redness where the site went in and two little white scars from where I was poked. My neck is even starting to look good and I can actually wear my hair up without feeling like an alien. :) Traci changed the dressing on my new PICC and it looks great too! No rash so far or anything out of the ordinary! Yay! She found out that there is latex in the netting that I was using to hold my line on the first PICC and we are wondering if I am allergic to latex which caused the rashes. Who knows?!

On to the not so great news. Oh yes there is always some of those it seems huh? Traci called me back yesterday afternoon with my lab results and they weren't great. My sodium went back down which is disappointing because last week it finally went back up into normal range. It is at 134 and needs to be 135 to be considered normal so it is just slightly off but I wish it were moving in the other direction. Previously, my doctor told me he doesn't get really concerned until the number drops to 130 so just something to watch. However, my potassium dropped really low which is really unusual for me since potassium is the one thing that my levels have always showed completely normal! Normal levels are 3.5-5.0 and yesterday mine was 3.1. Apparently sodium and potassium work hand in hand so to see both levels dropped below normal is concerning and frustrating.

Traci said she needed to get a hold of my doctor right away but he is actually on vacation this week. So she ended up talking to the on call doctor (who happens to be the OB who delivered Ella!) and he said that I need to get more potassium ASAP and ordered it to be put into my IV bags and delivered to my house last night. Apparently low potassium can have symptoms like heart palpitations and weakness so Traci asked about those. Well I am always feeling weak these days but I have been having palpitations when laying on my left side. I assumed it was due to the new PICC that I have on that side. Traci said that my PICC was probably overshot and too close to my heart, so another nurse came later yesterday and pulled my line out a few centimeters to see if that would help.

Because potassium straight in the bag is a bit much for the body to take on, I will now be on the IV machine for FOUR hours a day. :( Two hours in the morning and two at night. I am pretty bummed about this just because its a lot of time to be immobile and its hard to do with Ella around and Jeff working. So far the plan is for us to get up at 6 to run the first IV so hopefully Ella will still be sleeping during most of it and that way Jeff still has time to get ready for work after. The night IV we will start when Ella goes to bed at 8 PM and run until 10. Its depressing and not the news I was hoping for but what do you do? Traci will be back on Thursday to draw more blood to see how this potassium is helping and I also have a recheck at the dermatologist Thursday so he can take a final look at the rashes. I will update more then if anything has changed...

Healing

Good news to report- my rashes are getting better! I still have a long way to go and to the average person my neck still probably looks terrible but I can tell it is getting better! The meds I am on are powerful and sure do work fast so I am thankful for that! My arm is about 80% better with just a bit of a rash left and a big red mark about the size of a quarter near where the line went in. I am still not sure what is going on with that area- it doesnt really seem to be part of the rash so I am going to check with my doctor the next time I see him if it doesn't improve. My neck is MUCH less red and not painful anymore! It is drying out a lot and of course peeling which is lovely but I know thats part of the road to getting better! Here is what it looks like today:

On Monday my home nurse is coming to change the dressings on my new PICC for the first time and to do my vitals and bloodwork. I am hoping that we can keep this PICC rash free so it can do its job without complications! So far, only the first day did we have a scare in which there was blood backed up in the line but it has been smooth sailing since. It is getting tiring to have to be hooked up to the machine twice a day but I am hopeful that maybe I only have to do it for another two weeks until I go back to work and then maybe I will wean down to once a day. I will update after my appointment with her tomorrow.

I am anxiously waiting for Jeff to get home with my little monkey Miss Ella who spent the night at Grandma's. They went to Indianola to watch the hot air balloons and it sounds like she had a blast! Hopefully next year we can all go and will have a new little one with us as well. To end the post, here is a sweet picture that my friend Cristi took of Ella that makes me smile :)

Update

I was scheduled to see my OB tomorrow to have him look at my rashes and see if they are getting better. He called this morning to see how I was doing with my new PICC and to check on the rashes. I told him they were both not looking great and painful. He ended up getting me an appointment with a dermatologist within the hour- he is great! So I went to the dermatologist and he is 99% certain it is not shingles but wants me to keep taking the medicine anyway just in case. He was pretty sure the rashes are contact related- in other words an allergic reaction to something I have been in contact with. He was pretty confident it is all PICC related. He gave me a prescription for oral steroids (prednisone- after okaying with my OB) and topical steroids, as well as a soak that I can use on my neck twice a day. He was pretty shocked by how bad the rashes had gotten and said he knew I had to be in a lot of pain. He was hopeful that I will be seeing improvement in 2-3 days with the rash completely clearing up in a week or so! Yay! Great news. Right now I dont feel like I can even go in public because it honestly looks so awful. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing OB that goes the extra mile to make sure I am doing okay. When he called me this morning he said he researched for several hours last night to try to figure out what was happening with my rashes and just didn't feel confident and was worried so he wanted someone else to see me. I joke that we have each other on speed dial since we have talked more in 13 weeks than I am guessing most patients talk to their doctors the whole pregnancy!

I must say, I kind of feel like I am a walking pharmacy right now! I am on 4 prescription meds daily ranging from 1-4 pills a day, a neck soak, a prescription cream, twice daily ivs and injectable meds! Yikes! It should all calm down in two weeks when I will be off all but the ivs and nausea meds.

Here are some new pics for today. First is my right arm that had the PICC removed. I got to take off the bandage today and it is looking pretty gross. Besides the rash you can see the red raised area where the line went in. I am guessing that is infection.

And then there is my neck. This is what it looks like today. I warn you- it is gross :(

Here's to hoping that things are turning a corner! In a few weeks I should be a new girl! :) My mom took me to get a pedicure today which was just the right medicine. It felt SO good to be out of the house and doing something besides a doctor's appointment and my feet look great.: )

And it continues...

Sigh. One of these days I will have a happy post to share. Yesterday amidst all of the rash craziness, I also noticed that the bandage over my PICC was damp after getting an IV. I mentioned it to my doctor but he said it was probably just sweat and not to worry about it. I didn't really think that was what it was but to be honest I have been so overwhelmed with everything and this rash is just so bad that I just focused on that. Well this morning, I was getting my IV and I get 1000 ml at a time. At about 600, I noticed that my bandage felt wet again. I had Jeff come feel and he agreed that it was definitely wet and cold- not sweat for sure! A few minutes later, drops of water started dripping off the bandage onto the couch so I knew for sure I wasn't making it up. I pulled my bandage back to look and there was water coming out of the hole in my arm where the line goes in! Gross I know. So I stopped the IV and thankfully, my home nurse was already scheduled to come in a few minutes to change my bandage due to the arm irritation I have. Well she came and I showed her the wet bandage and she was like "Oh that isn't good." She checked the line but everything seemed well connected and there were no signs that anything was wrong. So she flushed the line with saline and it didnt seem to leak. Hmm. Well a second later, some reddish water came out of my arm- fluid mixed with blood. NOT good.

So she immediately called my doctor who was in surgery. They had a nurse go in and talk to him while he was in surgery and she relayed information. He said to pull the PICC immediately because obviously fluid leaking into my tissue is not good. I about panicked when the nurse said she was going to pull the line out right then and there at my kitchen table. She promised it would not hurt but I have bad anxiety every since the awful experience of getting my PICC in. She had me take a deep breath and pulled and out came the 20 inches of catheter. EW! Such a strange feeling. She checked it over and found a tiny hole about two inches up the line that was up in my arm. That was the culprit. So she bandaged the arm and put some betadine on to help my arm seal up. It now looks like this until tomorrow:

You can also see what the rash looks like on my arm. I think it is slowly getting better so it must have had something to do with the netting that was on my arm. It is hard to see in the picture but you can get the idea- lots of red, itchy bumps.

So now my right arm is PICC free but bandaged and recovering from a rash. On to the left arm. I was sent to the hospital this afternoon to get a second PICC put into my other arm. I had a lot of anxiety about it just because the first time was SO painful and took several tries. My nurse described the procedure as basically trying to shove something the size of a ballpoint pen up your arm so you can imagine the pain. The first time around I did not recieve any numbing medication. This time I was sent to radiology at Methodist and they used an ultrasound machine to find a vein. The nurse warned me that my vein and artery are very close together and that it was likely that she would hit a nerve during the procedure which would be very painful. Yikes. She did give me Lidocane (sp?) to numb the area and that did help for the inital poke. I could still feel it but not near like last time. The rest of the procedure was pretty painful though. She had to push REALLY hard to get the line in and the left side is a bit more complicated because you have to kind of bend the line around the heart. After the procedure was done, I was sent to have another chest xray and it showed that it was placed correctly. Then I could go home. :) I am home and resting now while getting IV fluids. My arm is very sore right now but that should go away in 48 hours or so. This PICC is placed up higher on my arm so hoping that will help not to have it right where my arm bends. That is the side I hold Ella on though so I have to get used to holding her on the right now. :) If you get a minute and would like to say a prayer that this PICC is a keeper and that my horrible rash heals soon, I could certainly use it. I will update more after my appointment on Friday and this time I hope it is with GOOD news!

Problems and More Problems

Well it has been a rough few days. I went to my doctor yesterday to have him look at the rash on my arm and the rash on my neck. The good news is that it didn't seem to be infected. The rash on my arm seems to be a skin irritation of some sort. What it is caused by we can't be sure- could be the bandage, could be the alcohol it is cleaned with, could be the netting used to hold my line. The area around the site where the line goes into my arm was still pretty red and swollen though so the doctor said he wanted to watch it.

On to my neck. Here is what my rash looked like Monday:

And here is what it looks like now- it started really itchy and red and then became painful blisters. Now it is crusting over (ick)

Anyway, the doctor took a look at it and had no idea what to think. He had another doctor come in to look and basically they think it is either shingles or a staph infection. Shingles apparently can be stress related and the staph infection could be from my PICC. So for now I am being treated for both. So in addition to the Zofran I take 4 times daily for nausea, I am taking another antibiotic 4 times a day and another once a day. Plus the two ivs daily. :) I have a doctor's appointment Friday morning for him to look at the rash again and see if it is healing at all. If not, not sure what the next course of action is. I am praying that the grossness of the crustiness/blisters draining is a sign of getting better but it certainly still looks awful!

PICC rash

Well today my nurse came for her weekly visit to change the PICC dressing. I mentioned to her that my arm has been crazy itchy and showed her the rash around the edge of the bandage. She took a look and said that it wasn't normal and then took off the bandage. Yikes. There was quite the rash under the dressing with the worst right where the line enters my arm. So she said that I may be allergic to the adhesive and put a different type of dressing on me after cleaning the rash with alcohol- OUCH! Unfortunately since this type of dressing isn't see-through my nurse will need to come twice a week to change the dressing since I am unable to see the site and watch for signs of infection. To make matters more interesting I have also developed an awful rash on my neck on the same side as my PICC. I showed my nurse and she wasnt sure to make of it and told me to call my doctor. So I went ahead and called and the doctor was a bit concerned since my rash starts right above the collar bone which is where the catheter runs through the vein. He is optimistic that it is just a coincidence that I have the rash since it is spreading up my neck and not down my chest but is slightly worried that it is a sign of infection. He wants to see me tomorrow and check it out. I pray that it is not an infection because if it is, the line needs to come out immediately and can be pretty serious. That would mean getting a PICC in the other arm which makes me want to cry. I am thinking since it is more itchy than painful and spreading the other direction, it is just an allergic reaction but I hope we can get this figured out soon!