Well, I had been hoping that this would be an optmistic and enlightening blog, but I have nothing exciting to share.
Yesterday, I was pleased to see that my ALT went from 351 to 316. With this presumably good sign, we were optimistic that we were starting to trend in the right direction. This had been the first time that my liver enzymes had declined at all since we arrived. With no new information but a potential hopeful situation, Dr Shumate said that if I continuously trended downward with NO elevation otherwise, I might get released on Monday. Dr Shumate's a really cool doctor, I am happy that he's been as cautious as he has been since ecclampsia doesn't really get better, it gets fast and quickly. That all being said, its hard to convince him to do things differently or negotiate with him. I thought if he wanted to see a more continual trend, maybe we should do labs every 4 hours instead of 12. He's got a great sense of humor so he rolled his eyes, laughed, told me that 2 lab sets dont make a trend and that he applauded my effort.
With the idea that no news is good news, we went about our day, entertaining tons of friends and family while we essentially waited for lab to come back. I'm tired of getting stuck all the time, my veins have tolerated this all well, but I actually get excited at lab times because I know that means result times soon.
The on-call doctor for MFM (maternal fetal medicine) came in and continued to say what a mystery I am and we discussed potential discharge plans and things that I can and can't do. #1 on the can't list is cardio at the gym, which I'm ok with. I asked primarily about lifting weights and she said I could. It was hard to convince Matt that she did infact say yes, but I had his parent as witnesses. I was ready to send him home and bring me my bodypump weights. I also got "cleared" for short small walks, which is great since I had been sneaking them in anyways, now I dont have to hide from the nurses when I refil my own ice water in the room 12 steps from my room. Most everything else would presumably go back to normal upon discharge it sounds like, just have extremely close monitoring at the doctor's office via non stress testing for the baby, which I'm currently doing 3 times a day, and getting labs every few days.
Come lab time yeterday, I was more anxious than anything to see if our trend of enzymes decreasing had continued. Unfortunately for me, since I'm this mystery right now, my labs went back up. Ah the joys of being unique. I imagine becoming some random case study for the next grand rounds after all this, 4 specialists essentially scratching their heads wondering what to do with me. ID and GI have pretty much said this looks like atypical preeclampsia, MFM sometimes thinks it is depending on the day and the doctor on call, and Dr Shumate seems to think so as well, but most of my "symptoms" aren't too classic of true PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension) . I have a few that would suggest PIH, some that would suggest liver issues, which have been essentially ruled out, and more than anything, my symptoms just say that I'm a pain in the ass.
Symptom wise, I have felt great for several days. I get some RUQ pain with back pain at times, haven't had a headache in a few days, no blurred vision. The swelling in my hands and my feet have gone up but I'm still for the most part comfortable and able to wear my wedding rings. I pretty much feel healthy and well all day, but I'm trapped in a hospital. BPs have been great over the last 24 hours. I think my highest was 122/78 which is pretty much text book for normal. They of course watch this closely and if I become more symptomatic, they'd take it more often but it seems I'm only getting BP checks 3 or 4 times a day, most in conjunction with the fetal monitoring which has been normal.
It sucks to not have better news to write about, I'm kinda getting used to the trend of simply having not enough information. Maybe today they'll have some idea of a grand plan. I think they'll send me home at somepoint soon but I imagine that once I'm home, I likely wont stay there long and I'll get stuck here again based on bad labs again or BP. Nice to imagine leaving and being able to run errands or visit people so I dont have to be babysat to make sure I'm not doing too much. Can't wait to tidy the house, cook, and go get my own stuff from the store instead of delegating. Its touching to see how many people want to do things for us, I'm just ready to do things myself and stop being so dependent. Matt has also said how much he wants me home, even though he's with me for 90% of the day, he says that I need to take care of him cause he can't do it himself..... maybe thats why he's at the hospital all the time, he's not needing to cook or anything that way.....not that Matt cooks. :) Hopefully he's getting good rest as I type. After 2 days on the day bed, aka the roomy twin, he decided to get rest at home and I can't blame him. We had both been sleeping on the day bed but its not big enough for either of us to be anywhere but on our side so it was trapping, one of us would inevitably head for the reclining chair at some point. The hospital bed doesn't get used that often, its more like an occassional chair or just something we put books, DVDs, and games on. I can't sit on it for longer than baby monitoring because my back starts hurting. Hospitals really should invest in tempurpedic, I know they have the money to.
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