Big, big, big apologies for the lack of updates in the last few days. I bet some people even thought that Pixie and Dixie had arrived! But, no, they’re still hanging in there until further notice. So what happened?
What happened was that I was admitted to the ante natal ward again!
Tuesday last week I had my weekly appointment to see Mr O’Sullivan, however we weren’t seen by him. The appointment went well enough and at the end of it we were ready to go home. However, I still need to go 2-3 times a week to Triage for CTG scans, so we decided to go up and have it done there and then, since we were already in the building.
We went up, checked in with a midwife, and just a few minutes later whilst we were waiting in the waiting room the midwife came back saying that the consultant had telephoned and asked to admit me in the ward. Obviously that was Mr O, having reviewed my notes after being seen by the other doctor who was happy to let me go home…
Doh! So close to almost get away with it!
This time, however, my hospital bag was packed and in the car!!
So yeah, I spent three nights in the ward this time. What made things a bit more difficult was the fact that my mum was here with us, so we had to send her back to Spain the following day (that’s when having bought only a one-way ticket came in very handy). It worked quite well, though. As she spent 4 full days with us, bought us things, cooked for us, looked after us, and was happy that I was being looked after properly by Jon and the doctors. She had started to get a bit bored at home, so her going back to Spain at that time worked well for all of us. She went with the promise of coming back once P&D are comfortably settled at home.
I actually wrote a blog post about this whole thing whilst I was admitted, but I had a bit of a technical glitch on the iPad and lost all the text before being able to publish it, and then I never bothered to rewrite it again.
The stay in the ward was good. There was another lady in the bed opposite me and we got on very well. I honestly don’t mind being at hospital at all. Some of the food is not great, but the care received is fantastic. Those midwives are worth their weight in gold!
And finally, after a couple of days of my blood pressure being constantly on the high side, the doctor decided to start me on some high blood pressure medication… finally! It’s only been months! It is now kind of settled, but it is still on the high side (something like 135-140 / 85-90) but nothing to worry about, apparently.
I was discharged on Friday and I’ve been relaxing at home these days.
Yesterday I had another appointment with Mr O, and this time we were seen by him. He revised my notes, asked the common questions, took my blood pressure, and despite of it being slightly high, he showed no concerns and let me come home this time. Yay!
We still haven’t discussed a date for delivering Pixie and Dixie. For the last month or so he kept saying “let’s try to make it to 34 weeks”, but we are now on the 34 weeks target and since the pre-eclampsia symptoms don’t seem to be getting any worse, and the babies are growing more or less ok, he is happy to let us go a bit further. Making it to 36 weeks is now my main objective, as 36 doesn’t count as premature any more.
Something else that I was told whilst at the ward last week is that there was an outbreak of MRSA in the Neonatal Unit recently and any babies due to be born before 36 weeks would have to be transferred to either Winchester or Southampton hospitals. In all honesty, whatever is best for Pixie & Dixie I will be happy with but I had already kind of accustomed to the idea of them being born here in Basingstoke. I mentioned this to Mr O and he said not to worry about those things as they change from one day to another.
Something else that Mr O’Sullivan said to both Jon and me, which we really liked, is that he thanked us for being such patient patients. He says that a lot of people get very pushy at this stage for answers or plans or decisions to be made and that can make his job more difficult. We are happy to coast along with whatever decision he makes, as he is the professional and we trust him. There is nothing to be gained from being pushy on something like this!
And not much more for now. I have another scan with Miss Nejad tomorrow, where she will measure the babies again (last week’s scan was only a “doppler” one, where they look at the blood flow from the placenta to the babies through the umbilical cord). In the previous growth scan we saw that Pixie was starting to stall a bit, so hopefully she is not too behind…
And I leave you with a couple of pictures from my regular visits to the MDAU/Triage. The CTG scan in the photos is quite new (or at least new to me!). I’ve only used it twice and I find it much better than the ones used in the past. This one seems more reliable and sensitive, and doesn’t lose the heartbeat as much as the other ones, making it faster to get the readings.
More updates to come soon!
