What has happened since Mid-January
To begin this blog, I am going to write out what has happened since mid-January. Whenever I updated the blog, it will be what is happening in the present. Mostly, I just want a way for people that I know to have access to what is going on instead of sending out a million emails or posting on other blogs, etc.
First, I will write about what brought me to the hospiatl for my first stay. Then, I am going to just cut and paste in different emails and posts I have sent out to various people. I will try to fine tune it, check for spelling errors, etc. So for some of you, this will be repeat information. Finally, I will probably post a completely new entry with what has happened today (or what will happen tomorrow). I am very blessed to have so many wonderful family and friends who care about me and want to be kept "in the loop".
So here goes...
About a month ago, on Thursday Jan. 19, I was feeling really yucky. I was at home with Pavlos and I could barely walk up the stairs without getting completely winded and slightly dizzy. I just thought that it was because of having to recently increase one of my meds and the fact that I was in my third trimester of pregnancy. Pavlos and I spent the day watching movies. I wasn't too concerned because I had a scheduled doctor appointment on Friday and I thought I could just tell my doctor then how I had been feeling. By the end of the day, I was not improving and decided to call the on-call doctor. Most of you know that I have lupus and so pregnancy for me can be complicated. But with Pavlos, there were very few complications so that's why we went ahead and decided to have another baby. Back to the on-call perinatologist... I called in, he suggested me coming in to check the baby just to put my mind at ease, and so we went to the hospital. And, low and behold, the baby was fine, but I was not. My hematocrit was 14 and my hemaglobin was 4. Uhm, a little low. They admitted me into the hospital, I went through some IV immuno globulin therapy and a number of blood transfusions (I believe 4) and my levels rose to a point that they were comfortable releasing me. Through out the next week, I had two doc. appt. Both times they drew blood, both times my levels showed that I was dropping again. So they did another of the IV immuno globulin therapy, hoping that would boost me up. It did not. So on Thursday Feb. 2, at my mom and dad's house, I became dizzy. My mom brought me into the hospital and I was admitted again. We went through more blood transfusions, more IV treatment, increased the amount of prednisone I am on, and started a new medication. My levels rose again and so I was discharged. Now, this third admittance, my levels had dropped again and they decided to put me in the hospital until the baby is born so that they can monitor me and the baby all the time. And we ran into problems with the blood transfusions because, for me, I need to have an exact match to my blood because I have these lovely, abnormal antibodies present in my blood. So they were able to find that exact match all the rest of the time, but I am developing new abnormal antibodies and so they were unable to find that exact match. Anyway, they did what is called a high risk blood transfusion which sounds a lot scarier than it is. I have had four of those since I have been in. Yesterday was a tough day because my levels stayed the same... didn't rise at all. Today, my levels rose 4 points to 25 and I am feeling a little better. I will still be here until the baby comes. When the baby comes (whether through induction of naturally) has yet to be determined. I am being monitored constantly.
OK, so that brings you up to speed about the medical aspects of what is going on. I am now going to cut and paste in emails and posts that I have done in the last month, just so you can read them.
Jan. 27, 2006: I was in the hospital for five days last week. Baby is fine. I am severely anemic. We then stayed at my parents home for a few days and are now back at our home for the weekend. Will probably be at mom and dad's again Sunday night. My hematicrit has not gone up enough for the doctor and so I will be going through another IV treatment on Sunday morning. While in the hospital I went through the same treatment twice and had four blood transfusions. I am definitely better, but still very weak and very fatigued. And, again, the baby is fine. Please pray for us.
Jan. 27, 2006: I went back into the hospital last Thursday, again, for the same reason. I am now out of the hospital (Tuesday) and at my parents home. My hematicrit has gone up to 27 and my hemaglobin is up to 8. Still not normal but definitely better than it was. Baby is fine, I'm 32 weeks tomorrow so if this happens again in two weeks (like it did two weeks ago) they will probably build up my blood levels again and then induce me because the baby will be 34 weeks which is a great gestation. I now have drug induced diabetes (not gestational diabetes) and so I have to give myself insulin shots twice a day, watch what I eat, and monitor my blood sugar. This came about because of the high amount of prednisone I am taking. The good news is that if my blood levels continue to rise, they will taper me off of the prednisone and my blood sugars will return to normal. I also came home with a more permanent IV in my arm (aka PICC IV) so that if this does happen again, they won't be destroying my poor veins again. And they can do my blood draws through this IV, too. I will keep this in until the baby is born. I will continue to go to doc. appt's often (meaning multiple times a week). If my levels continue to rise, then we will eventually return back to our own home which I dearly miss (although we are extremely thankful to have my parents so close to us that they are able to take care of Pavlos throughout this whole ordeal). That's all for now... I am supposed to be resting (not bed rest, just rest).
Feb. 10, 2006: This is a link to the book I am currently reading about St. Basil of Ostrog. So far it is very good and not too difficult a read. I am on the second introduction which is an article be St John of Damascus titled God's Miracles: The Foretaste of Eternal Goodness. If anyone knows where I can find a link to the article on the internet, please, let mw know because I would like to provide that link to you, my faithful readers, because it is such a beautiful article:)Obviously I have lots of thoughts regarding the last few weeks. I realized that out of the last three weeks, i have spent 11 days in the hospital (two separate visits). I have received 8 blood transfusions (please, please, please... go give blood. I'm going to find out if I can give blood after this is all said and done and I have a normal hematicrit and am not pregnant... I am deeply indebted to the anonymous person who gives blood that exactly matches me... so go give blood). I am learning to appreciate the two miracle babies in my life... Pavlos and this baby who we will God-willing meet soon. I had always pictured myself having three or four children. I don't know why, really, maybe because there are three children in my family. And I realize that with what I am going through now, that two children may be what we have in our family. And that's ok. When I was 25 (eight years ago), I was diagnosed with Lupus. My rheumatologist told me that I would/should not/never have children. I was single at the time, just finishing up grad. school. Not even dating anyone. Talk about a blow. I walked out of that office and thank goodness my mom was there because I cried all the way home. I had always pictured myself married and having a family. And now this doctor was destroying my dreams. Eventually, I met Paul and he knew that us being able to have children may not ever happen. And yet, he loved me enough to marry me and see what God's will would be in our lives. And here we are on the verge of our second miracle. The first pregnancy was very low key, not too many problems. And so we thought we would try again. And, well, you can read about what we've been going through in my previous entries or go to my mom's blog and read her updates on my health. That doesn't mean that we haven't struggled even in other areas of pregnancy... our first pregnancy ended in miscarriage at eight weeks. Our second pregnancy is Pavlos. Our third pregnancy ended in miscarriage at ten weeks, and this is our fourth pregnancy which is a little rough, but at this point, the baby is weighing in at over 4 pounds:) Definitely survivable. And it actually just dawned on me... I have four babies... just not all here:) Maybe that is God's plan for us.I realize that this blog entry is a bit disjointed, I'm still really tired and I am finding it difficult to do much more than sit in my dad's lazy boy recliner and surf the net on my dad's laptop:) Today was a difficult day because I had a doc. appt. early, early this morning (thank goodness we were able to drop Pavlos off at a friends house so he didn't have to sit through the long appt.). After the appt, my mom and I stopped by the soon to be new church site because neither of us had been there in months. Then, we picked up Pavlos and went to get lunch. Then we went to Babies R Us because the only thing that I really need for the baby is a new diaper bag (which I found one that I liked and that Paul will not be embarassed to carry around). Then we headed home... and it took us over an hour to get back to my parents home because of all the traffice. I think we were gone for 8 hours today. I am tired. So forgive the disjointed-ness of this blog entry:)
Feb. 16, 2006: So I'm in the hospital for the rest of the pregnancy. I just finished up another blood transfusion, baby's kicking a lot right now. When they give me a blood transfusion they also give me an IV dose of benadryl to help in case I have a bad reaction to the transfusion. That makes me a lot loopy and a lot tired. But we are finished with this one, for now (please excuse my typing, spellilng errors, or anything like that... blame it all on the benadryl). I was able to meet Presv. Elizabeth the other day. It was so nice to finally see her in person instead of just through cyberspace. A woman from church came by today and decorated my room a little for me. It now looks much more cheerful, cozy, as if someone actually lived here. Pavlos continues to poop on the potty. I am so proud of my little man. And hopefully my mom can get him enrolled into some sort of preschool or activity to help him have more in his life than just visiting his mommy in the hospital. I am very thankful that they are keeping us. I feel better knowing that both myself and the baby are being watched very closely. Still lots of up in the air things going on with my treatment. Will try to keep you posted (Rob bought me and antenna for the laptop and now I have great internet service in my room). Please contintue to pray for us.I'm at St. Vincent's hospital in Portland, room 313 (or birth suite 13). can't guarentee that I will be my most alive, alert, awake, and enthusiastic becuase of all the benadryl.
I think that's all the history of what's been going on. Please feel free to leave a comment or ask any questions. I do have an update from my doctors to post, but I will do that later today. Thanks for all your support, prayers, love, encouragement, help, concern. I hope this will help in keeping as many people who want to know what's going on in the loop:)
First, I will write about what brought me to the hospiatl for my first stay. Then, I am going to just cut and paste in different emails and posts I have sent out to various people. I will try to fine tune it, check for spelling errors, etc. So for some of you, this will be repeat information. Finally, I will probably post a completely new entry with what has happened today (or what will happen tomorrow). I am very blessed to have so many wonderful family and friends who care about me and want to be kept "in the loop".
So here goes...
About a month ago, on Thursday Jan. 19, I was feeling really yucky. I was at home with Pavlos and I could barely walk up the stairs without getting completely winded and slightly dizzy. I just thought that it was because of having to recently increase one of my meds and the fact that I was in my third trimester of pregnancy. Pavlos and I spent the day watching movies. I wasn't too concerned because I had a scheduled doctor appointment on Friday and I thought I could just tell my doctor then how I had been feeling. By the end of the day, I was not improving and decided to call the on-call doctor. Most of you know that I have lupus and so pregnancy for me can be complicated. But with Pavlos, there were very few complications so that's why we went ahead and decided to have another baby. Back to the on-call perinatologist... I called in, he suggested me coming in to check the baby just to put my mind at ease, and so we went to the hospital. And, low and behold, the baby was fine, but I was not. My hematocrit was 14 and my hemaglobin was 4. Uhm, a little low. They admitted me into the hospital, I went through some IV immuno globulin therapy and a number of blood transfusions (I believe 4) and my levels rose to a point that they were comfortable releasing me. Through out the next week, I had two doc. appt. Both times they drew blood, both times my levels showed that I was dropping again. So they did another of the IV immuno globulin therapy, hoping that would boost me up. It did not. So on Thursday Feb. 2, at my mom and dad's house, I became dizzy. My mom brought me into the hospital and I was admitted again. We went through more blood transfusions, more IV treatment, increased the amount of prednisone I am on, and started a new medication. My levels rose again and so I was discharged. Now, this third admittance, my levels had dropped again and they decided to put me in the hospital until the baby is born so that they can monitor me and the baby all the time. And we ran into problems with the blood transfusions because, for me, I need to have an exact match to my blood because I have these lovely, abnormal antibodies present in my blood. So they were able to find that exact match all the rest of the time, but I am developing new abnormal antibodies and so they were unable to find that exact match. Anyway, they did what is called a high risk blood transfusion which sounds a lot scarier than it is. I have had four of those since I have been in. Yesterday was a tough day because my levels stayed the same... didn't rise at all. Today, my levels rose 4 points to 25 and I am feeling a little better. I will still be here until the baby comes. When the baby comes (whether through induction of naturally) has yet to be determined. I am being monitored constantly.
OK, so that brings you up to speed about the medical aspects of what is going on. I am now going to cut and paste in emails and posts that I have done in the last month, just so you can read them.
Jan. 27, 2006: I was in the hospital for five days last week. Baby is fine. I am severely anemic. We then stayed at my parents home for a few days and are now back at our home for the weekend. Will probably be at mom and dad's again Sunday night. My hematicrit has not gone up enough for the doctor and so I will be going through another IV treatment on Sunday morning. While in the hospital I went through the same treatment twice and had four blood transfusions. I am definitely better, but still very weak and very fatigued. And, again, the baby is fine. Please pray for us.
Jan. 27, 2006: I went back into the hospital last Thursday, again, for the same reason. I am now out of the hospital (Tuesday) and at my parents home. My hematicrit has gone up to 27 and my hemaglobin is up to 8. Still not normal but definitely better than it was. Baby is fine, I'm 32 weeks tomorrow so if this happens again in two weeks (like it did two weeks ago) they will probably build up my blood levels again and then induce me because the baby will be 34 weeks which is a great gestation. I now have drug induced diabetes (not gestational diabetes) and so I have to give myself insulin shots twice a day, watch what I eat, and monitor my blood sugar. This came about because of the high amount of prednisone I am taking. The good news is that if my blood levels continue to rise, they will taper me off of the prednisone and my blood sugars will return to normal. I also came home with a more permanent IV in my arm (aka PICC IV) so that if this does happen again, they won't be destroying my poor veins again. And they can do my blood draws through this IV, too. I will keep this in until the baby is born. I will continue to go to doc. appt's often (meaning multiple times a week). If my levels continue to rise, then we will eventually return back to our own home which I dearly miss (although we are extremely thankful to have my parents so close to us that they are able to take care of Pavlos throughout this whole ordeal). That's all for now... I am supposed to be resting (not bed rest, just rest).
Feb. 10, 2006: This is a link to the book I am currently reading about St. Basil of Ostrog. So far it is very good and not too difficult a read. I am on the second introduction which is an article be St John of Damascus titled God's Miracles: The Foretaste of Eternal Goodness. If anyone knows where I can find a link to the article on the internet, please, let mw know because I would like to provide that link to you, my faithful readers, because it is such a beautiful article:)Obviously I have lots of thoughts regarding the last few weeks. I realized that out of the last three weeks, i have spent 11 days in the hospital (two separate visits). I have received 8 blood transfusions (please, please, please... go give blood. I'm going to find out if I can give blood after this is all said and done and I have a normal hematicrit and am not pregnant... I am deeply indebted to the anonymous person who gives blood that exactly matches me... so go give blood). I am learning to appreciate the two miracle babies in my life... Pavlos and this baby who we will God-willing meet soon. I had always pictured myself having three or four children. I don't know why, really, maybe because there are three children in my family. And I realize that with what I am going through now, that two children may be what we have in our family. And that's ok. When I was 25 (eight years ago), I was diagnosed with Lupus. My rheumatologist told me that I would/should not/never have children. I was single at the time, just finishing up grad. school. Not even dating anyone. Talk about a blow. I walked out of that office and thank goodness my mom was there because I cried all the way home. I had always pictured myself married and having a family. And now this doctor was destroying my dreams. Eventually, I met Paul and he knew that us being able to have children may not ever happen. And yet, he loved me enough to marry me and see what God's will would be in our lives. And here we are on the verge of our second miracle. The first pregnancy was very low key, not too many problems. And so we thought we would try again. And, well, you can read about what we've been going through in my previous entries or go to my mom's blog and read her updates on my health. That doesn't mean that we haven't struggled even in other areas of pregnancy... our first pregnancy ended in miscarriage at eight weeks. Our second pregnancy is Pavlos. Our third pregnancy ended in miscarriage at ten weeks, and this is our fourth pregnancy which is a little rough, but at this point, the baby is weighing in at over 4 pounds:) Definitely survivable. And it actually just dawned on me... I have four babies... just not all here:) Maybe that is God's plan for us.I realize that this blog entry is a bit disjointed, I'm still really tired and I am finding it difficult to do much more than sit in my dad's lazy boy recliner and surf the net on my dad's laptop:) Today was a difficult day because I had a doc. appt. early, early this morning (thank goodness we were able to drop Pavlos off at a friends house so he didn't have to sit through the long appt.). After the appt, my mom and I stopped by the soon to be new church site because neither of us had been there in months. Then, we picked up Pavlos and went to get lunch. Then we went to Babies R Us because the only thing that I really need for the baby is a new diaper bag (which I found one that I liked and that Paul will not be embarassed to carry around). Then we headed home... and it took us over an hour to get back to my parents home because of all the traffice. I think we were gone for 8 hours today. I am tired. So forgive the disjointed-ness of this blog entry:)
Feb. 16, 2006: So I'm in the hospital for the rest of the pregnancy. I just finished up another blood transfusion, baby's kicking a lot right now. When they give me a blood transfusion they also give me an IV dose of benadryl to help in case I have a bad reaction to the transfusion. That makes me a lot loopy and a lot tired. But we are finished with this one, for now (please excuse my typing, spellilng errors, or anything like that... blame it all on the benadryl). I was able to meet Presv. Elizabeth the other day. It was so nice to finally see her in person instead of just through cyberspace. A woman from church came by today and decorated my room a little for me. It now looks much more cheerful, cozy, as if someone actually lived here. Pavlos continues to poop on the potty. I am so proud of my little man. And hopefully my mom can get him enrolled into some sort of preschool or activity to help him have more in his life than just visiting his mommy in the hospital. I am very thankful that they are keeping us. I feel better knowing that both myself and the baby are being watched very closely. Still lots of up in the air things going on with my treatment. Will try to keep you posted (Rob bought me and antenna for the laptop and now I have great internet service in my room). Please contintue to pray for us.I'm at St. Vincent's hospital in Portland, room 313 (or birth suite 13). can't guarentee that I will be my most alive, alert, awake, and enthusiastic becuase of all the benadryl.
I think that's all the history of what's been going on. Please feel free to leave a comment or ask any questions. I do have an update from my doctors to post, but I will do that later today. Thanks for all your support, prayers, love, encouragement, help, concern. I hope this will help in keeping as many people who want to know what's going on in the loop:)
posted by Christina at 11:36 AM
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