Slowly Catching Up

I figure it is about time I caught this blog up and provided more details on things that have happened during this pregnancy!  Or at least the details of issues I’ve had at this point in this pregnancy.  There have been pains, but they are things I don’t want to forget!  That’s the problem with me not doing it as I went, I’m sure I’m going to forget things, but hopefully I’ll hit on the highlights.

I will do another post to fill you in on all the actual appointments, but for now, the post will likely end up being about other issues I have faced in the pregnancy and not super pregnancy specific.  Sorry about that!!

So, as you all know, September 15^th, we discovered we were having twins again.  This led to several MFM appointments being scheduled, both locally and in Tulsa.  Of those three appointments, we only went to one.  After that one appointment, which was a massive mix-up anyway, I corresponded with the doctor and learned they really couldn’t do much to help, as I mentioned in a previous post. 

While this was going on, I connected through an online friend, with another girl online, as I’d mentioned who had last twins, and at that point, had twins about 2 months old.  She saw a high risk group in Kansas City, who treated her with a pessary and progesterone vaginally.  None of the MFMs I had appointments scheduled with had ever even heard of the use of the pessary, so, I quickly decided that Dusty and I would be going to Kansas City and would see the doctor she saw.  Tulsa would have been about a 2 hour drive, Kansas City was around 3 ½ hours, so, not that much more, and really, you can’t put a price on saving your babies’ lives. 

Anyway, there is so much I want to blog about regarding the pessary, including pictures, and placement, and all that jazz, so I’m going to dedicate an entire post to that. 

That being said, let’s continue to catch up on how this pregnancy has gone so far so I can look back on this and remember it!

I had my “prenatal appointment” with my local OB on September 30, which really didn’t consist of much, besides us being given what our payments would be on our payment plan, and then talking with a nurse.  It was sad and scary all at the same time, really; sad because it felt like it wasn’t too long ago that we had just sat at that same desk, talking to the same nurse, filled with excitement over our pregnancy, and scary because at that point, we didn’t have a plan for how this pregnancy would be treated differently.  At the end of the appointment, the nurse snuck us into the ultrasound room and we got a quick peak at our babies, which was awesome!  The ultrasound tech didn’t know there were two, and was quite surprised when she started the scan!  She joked about how she usually does the surprising, not the other way around!

Also at that appointment, I remember I had just started having this cough.  I’d had it for several days, but assumed it would go away, and just took the safe medication list from the nurse and thought, if it doesn’t go away, I’ll look at this list and figure out what I can take. 

So, my pregnancy progresses, and things were going smooth, as far as I knew.  We made an appointment to go to Kansas City, and would be going on October 16^th.  That was a relief and something to look forward to.  I was so glad they wanted to get me in as soon as possible, because all of the other MFMs wanted me to wait until close to 16 weeks, which just wasn’t soon enough for me!  In my pessary post, I will blog about this appointment.

In the meantime, I had my first appointment with local OB on October 15^th.  At this point, I was just over 10 weeks pregnant.  We talked to Dr. H about going to Kansas City.  I talked to him about the pessary and told him that I hoped that would be an option.  He’d never heard of a pessary being used like that, but was pretty intrigued by the idea of it.  Then he used the Doppler to try to listen to the babies.  And nothings…and he searched some more…and nothing.  And of course, I freak out.  I know I got this panicked look on my face, and had to look like I would lose it at any second.  Dusty was there with me, thank goodness, but he wasn’t much better.  So, we went and waited for an ultrasound to check on the babies.

While we were waiting, we saw our dear friends, Candice and Adam, who were very close to term in their first pregnancy.  We chatted with them for a minute, and then they were led back to their room.  Candice texted me and told me that they told Dr. H they saw us in the hall when he had a hard time finding their little girl’s heartbeat and how she told him that thing better be defective!  That made me laugh while we were waiting for the ultrasound.  Anyway, we finally had the ultrasound and all was great!  Thank God!

Well, remember that cough that I mentioned having on September 30^th?  Four weeks later, it still hadn’t gone away, and so on October 30^th, feeling absolutely awful and so tired of coughing constantly, I went to an express care place, and was diagnosed with bronchitis.  Lovely.  They couldn’t do a chest x-ray to really know if that was it or not, of course, but given how long I’d had it and the various meds I’d tried to get rid of it, she figured it was bronchitis and prescribed a z-pack for me.  Of course, me being me, I freak out and call my ob to make sure I can actually take a z-pack, which I could, so I started that hoping it would do the trick.

Everything continued to go very well with the pregnancy.  I was being seen every other week by my local ob, and had plans to go back to Kansas City at 15 weeks to have the pessary placed.  Again, I’ll do a whole separate blog post for that. 

So, back to the stupid cough I had.  The z-pack helped slightly, but not really enough.  The cough was still there, and was in fact; causing me to cough so much that at times I’d gag and throw up.  I really think my morning sickness would have tapered off much earlier had it not been for the cough.  I had an appointment with Dr. H on November 2^nd and mentioned it, and he prescribed tessalon perles, which did help some.  I’d still have coughing fits at time, and hated taking those pills constantly.  That led to the lovely experience of, what I’m pretty sure was fracturing my rib.  Towards the end of November (yes, two months of coughing at this point), I was coughing in the shower, which led to throwing up, and then a very loud crack and an incredibly sharp pain in my rib.  I instantly started yelling in pain, and poor Dust, he just stood outside the shower wishing he could help me.  I called Dr. H’s nurse and she told me to see my PCP, which I didn’t have, but he recommended one to me. 

I went to the doctor that afternoon for my rib.  By this point, I can barely talk, walk, anything, it is hurting so bad.  The doctor couldn’t do a chest x-ray, of course, but told me that 3 of 4 times, when that happens (the pop and shooting pain), it’s a tendon.  So, if it got better in a couple of weeks, it was likely a tendon.  If it was still hurting 8 weeks later, it’s a fractured rib.  I’ll just let you guess which it was…Needless to say, I was still dealing with rib pain as recently as a couple of weeks ago.  Ouch!  A fractured rib hurts terribly!

Since the middle of November, I have been seen at least every other week at both Kansas City and my local OB’s office.  We’ve got lots of pictures of these two beautiful babies!  I’ll do another post and catch up on my Kansas City appointments (as the others really have just been listening to the babies and me asking any questions I can possibly think of).  This post has gotten long enough, so I’ll stop for now!!