A Slew of Stumped Specialists

I didn't make a Birth Plan.

Any Labor and Delivery Nurse will tell you they go flying out of the window the second you make one. They silently say "bless her heart" when pregnant women waddle up to L&D with birthing balls and a 'no drugs!' approach. 

So I didn't make one.

However, had I made one - it would not have involved a Neurologist, a Cardiologist, a Rheumatologist, a Hematologist, Yom Kippor, PRES or delivering at 29 weeks and 4 days. 

So I guess it's a good thing I didn't make one. 

I mentioned my hand pain in my last post. That's what brought me to the hospital on Sunday, September 16th and I'm pretty sure that's what saved my life. The pain had become so unbearable I wasn't sleeping or eating so to the ER we went. I've never had high blood pressure at all; however, when they checked it - it was extremely high which meant I got to move up to L&D. 

By Monday I'd seen every specialist the hospital had and each of them said "this doesn't make sense". Yeah, I get that a lot. The Rheumatologist couldn't explain why it was only my hands that were red and splotchy. The Hematologist couldn't explain why my platelets were going down and down. The Cardiologist couldn't explain my all of a sudden dangerously high blood pressure issues. 

According to the OB filling in for my OB - I'm a variant. :) I like that. It sounds much better than mutant. 

We spoke with the NICU doctors in preparation for if we had to deliver and Baby Girl was given some Steroids to help speed up her lung development. Things improved on Tuesday.

But Thursday I apparently had a seizure and an emergency C-section. 

It's a good thing I didn't make a birth plan.

Baby girl came out screaming, which is encouraging, and has been on room air since birth which is pretty impressive for a baby born at 29 weeks and 4 days at 2 lbs and 6oz. She's a little fighter and for that I'm thankful. 

I spent a week in ICU recovering and came home yesterday with a slew of meds. My slew of specialists think the hands (which eventually moved to my feet which made more sense to the doctors) is something auto immune which is apparently tricksy to diagnose. They don't know if it was pregnancy induced - only time will tell. I seem to be responding well to the steroids and my hands are no longer burning with pain so that's lovely! The blood pressure issues seem to be pregnancy induced and will eventually level out with monitoring and drugs. And my PRES (which is a more rare form of preeclampsia - rare, yep - that's me) should correct itself now that I'm no longer pregnant. 

No longer pregnant. Yeah, I'm dealing with that. I had to call to cancel our childbirth class, I'm pretty sure we don't need it anymore unless they want an example of what not to do. ;)

Our girl is making lots of great progress and is already spoiled and super loved. 

And we are SO thankful to the nurses, doctors and staff at The Woman's Hospital of Texas for taking such good care of us. 

And while we didn't plan for her to come so early - we're awfully excited she's here. She is after all the cutest, smartest baby in NICU 3 - of this we're sure. ;)

And I'm thankful God's birth plan always seems to work out. 

We're thankful for the prayers and the checking ins and now that I'm home, I'll post lots of updates. 

Until next time.......