Unexpected Hospital Visit

Well, we certainly weren't expecting our afternoon to be as eventful as it ended up. Michael & I had gone to Spartanburg last night (Monday) so we could spend some time with my mom's massage therapist, Sandra. We found out at last week's OB appointment that I may not be able to have an epidural due to possible complications with POTS. (Epidurals can lower your blood pressure, and if this happens the only way to bring it back up so the baby gets enough blood is to give the mom epinephrine. This increases the heart rate. Both of these, lower bp and increased hr, are basically what POTS is all about...) The long and short of it is that I won't know about having an epidural until I get to the hospital and talk with the anesthesiologist on call. So, we want to be prepared for a delivery without an epidural. We spent an hour with Sandra this morning, and she showed Mom and Michael several ways that they'll be able to help me through massage during labor.

After the massage appointment, we headed to meet Dad and Nana for lunch. As we were getting ready to order, I heard my cell phone ringing - but just missed the call. It was my OB, who left a voice mail asking me to call him as soon as possible to discuss last week's lab results. Before I could dial the phone number, he was on the phone with Michael. To make a long story short, he told me that my platelet count had dropped again. A little background... I've had my platelets checked 4 times now. "Normal" is anywhere between 150-400 (thousand). My readings were 129, then 102, and then back up to 150. The 150 reading was 2 weeks ago, so Dr. Goldman decided to repeat the labs last Thursday just as a precaution (though he was pleased with the level being 150). This last reading was not as good as any of the previous ones... I was landing at 67. He said that he wanted to do more lab work to try to determine what is going on, specifically looking to be sure it wasn't pre-eclampsia. Since it would take a couple of days for him to get results from any labs drawn in the office, he sent me directly to the hospital.

Keep in mind, now, that we were still in Spartanburg when we received this call. Luckily, we had planned on heading back this afternoon anyway, so everything was packed up. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and hit the road. After 3+ hours in the hospital, we learned that my platelets had gone up to "over 100" (though we don't know the exact reading). I was discharged with a large bucket to collect "samples" for 24 hours. Knowing how often I go to the bathroom these days, I'm not sure the bucket will be large enough! :) That's my "homework" for tomorrow - and then we'll bring it with us to Thursday's appointment. The doctor from my OB Practice on call at the hospital was great. She said that everything looked great with the baby, that I hadn't done anything wrong to make this happen - it's just one of those things for some women. Assuming everything comes back okay on the 24-hour collection, the diagnosis will be Gestational Thrombocytopenia. She said this basically means that my platelet levels will continue to fluctuate during these last few weeks of my pregnancy. The kicker with this is that whenever I come to the hospital to deliver, they'll check my levels - and if they are under 100, I won't be able to have an epidural.

So, we're really going to have to prepare ourselves for labor and delivery without any pain aids. I'm sure I can do it - but would LOVE to have the option of a bit of relief! :) As my Papa Bob used to say, we're "hanging in and hanging on!"

PS... Be sure to keep scrolling down to see last week's entry with pictures of the nursery & the announcement about our little girl's name! :)