A Change Of Plan

What a couple of days... Where to start!

On thursday, Lisa went for her community midwife appointment. It was just a normal checkup at our GPs surgery, to check her progress. Her blood pressure was quite high, and a urine test showed some traces of protein. This, in conjunction with some other symptoms, made the midwife think that it would be best if she went to the hospital to have some further tests. So I was summoned from work, and met her at the hospital where we went through some further blood pressure monitoring, and some blood tests. Her BP was still quite high, so we were given an ultrasound, which showed that a couple of the babys measurements were a little low. After some deliberation, the assement unit midwives decided that Lisa should be admitted to the maternity ward so that they could keep a closer eye on her for a couple of days.

She went into the ward at about 5pm on thursday night, where she's been monitored more closely, whilst also collecting gallons of wee for various tests. At lunchtime today I decided to nip out for some lunch, and to do some errands. Of course, by sods law, the doctor came in to see her 5 minutes after I left and gave her a rather unnerving diagnosis, which has changed our plans for the next few weeks quite considerably.

Basically, Lisa has been diagnosed with (not sure if it's official yet though) pre-eclampsia. This basically means that her high blood pressure is causing problems for the baby and his growth, and the only cure is to deliver the baby. The consultant explained all of this, and has basically said that we won't be going full term, and the baby will have to be delivered by cesarian section at some point in the near future. I'm not exactly sure what determines when he'll have to be forcably ejected, but they said it could happen tomorrow, or in 2 weeks, or 4 weeks. She should be able to leave the hospital tomorrow, but will be under close observation by the community midwife.

Whatever the trigger is that has us being rushed to theatre, baby will be spending the rest of the normal term living in an incubator in the hospital. As it stands, he could be anything from 31 weeks when he arrives, so he's going to have a really good chance. With any luck he'll last another few weeks, provided that the doctors think he's ok in there, and should have no problems when he comes out.

So all our original plans of having him home after the birth are left in tatters. We'd made all our plans around him being born at the right time, and then us taking him home several hours later. As it stands, we're going to be spending time with him in the special care baby unit for a few weeks, and Lisa is going to be back on the ward for a little while after the delivery, recovering from the operation. As you can imagine, not at all how we wanted this to go :(

But in the end, the best thing will be done for all concerned, and the prognosis is good for both mother, baby, and my sanity! The important thing is that this problem has been caught early, and both Lisa and baby are in the best possibly place they could be to make sure they both come through this well! I've now got to contend with fixing this crummy house up in double time, and washing my own underpants for a few weeks. With any luck, Lisa will be back at home tomorrow, and no doubt loaded with more information to share.

Phew...

Graeme