I was worried of course that we'd have another mc but there was no real reason to think that.
My period was 1 day late. Most normal people wouldn't even consider that 'late'! I hardly slept that night, I was willing it to be morning so I could get up and do a pregnancy test with my morning wee! That's the best time apparently.
I got a very faint line and hoped that it was a positive. I went back to bed and told DH that I might be pregnant. He was delighted, obviously, but understandably cautious.
So, over the next few days and weeks I probably tested about 10 more times, just to be sure.
I was fairly sick over the weeks. Once, I ate some grapes before I'd had any breakfast and was sick so much that I blocked one of the sinks in the ladies toilets in work. THAT was a tad embarrassing and it was also the last time I ate grapes.
We had booked a holiday a month before we got pregnant, to America. We were going to see family in San Francisco for Thanksgiving in November and having 5 days in New York on the way back. This was my 30th birthday celebration and I'd be 28 weeks pregnant. First though we squeezed in a week in Portugal in September 2010. We had a lovely holiday. Very relaxing and finally at 18 weeks my sickness stopped! Yay! Or so I thought.
I had my 'big scan' at 19 weeks and everything was great and the consultant said he'd see me before I was due to go to America but he didn't envisage any problems with our trip. Excellent. We were getting excited!
2 days later I started itching my hands and feet. It was worse in the evenings and kept me awake a bit at night but I also scratched during the day. I 'Googled' and found it was probably an increase in Oestrogen. Satisfied I bought calamine lotion and bath oils to ease the itch.
A week later I had to go to hospital to get my confirmation of pregnancy form for my employer & I mentioned the itch to the midwife/sister person, Jane. She said she should take precautionary bloods but it was probably nothing.
She said she'd phone if there was any problem. I told DH then went out for lunch with my mum. I think I actually forgot about it because when I looked at my phone later and saw 8 missed calls I was very surprised. I was at home and I listened to the messages from Jane asking me to call, when my home phone rang. It was Jane. My bloods were irregular, it's probably a mistake but could I come back down and 'why didn't you check your phone'? I panic, obviously and phone DH to come home (he has our car & I need a lift!). I pack a small bag, just in case, and I called my boss in work, also, just in case.
In hospital I had more bloods, more bloods and more bloods taken. My liver function was 'Grossly elevated'. There were questions about holidays etc (Portugal) and they thought I had Hepatitis A. That's ok then.............WHAT!!! How will this effect my baby? Me? What!!!!
I was kept in overnight and booked for a liver scan. Baby's heartbeat was checked a lot and if it couldn't be found I was dragged off, panicking, for a scan. I was only 20 weeks it was normal for the heartbeat to be hard to find but all this made me feel they weren't telling me something and that they were worried about my unborn baby. The liver scan etc was normal but my liver function tests (LFT's) were getting worse. If I remember correctly, normal was 35 and mine was 550 of whatever measurement LFT's are carried out in. They wanted me to stay in for the weekend. I didn't want to stay. I felt fine, I want to go home. Ok, I could go home but I had to come back EVERY day for scans and blood tests to see what was wrong. I had no other symptoms of HepA but just in case I shouldn't really see anybody. Great.
The blood tests continued and my results continued to get worse. They thought I had a condition called Obstetric Cholestasis (OC) but I was far too early pregnant for that. There was consultation with another hospital and a liver specialist and more appointments for scans. By the end of a very long week which one day had me in hospital for 5 hours by myself, waiting, I was diagnosed with OC and given medication. Obviously I Googled OC constantly and scared myself half to death. Why do we do that?
Anyway, the condition meant I had to be seen every week at the hospital for a scan to check all was ok with the baby. It also meant I was a bit of a special case I think. I was the 'patient with Cholestasis', all the midwives had heard of me.
The medication wasn't really helping and the itch was sending me insane. Many a night DH would find me in the bathroom with my foot in the sink running cold water over it. I would cry with it, I hardly slept and I was still working.
My LFT's and Bile Acids continued to rise so the medication was increased every few weeks to try and find the right level. My blood results were off the scale. Everybody was worried and my consultant had never seen results as bad or the condition in anybody this early. She was speaking to professors in London and specialists in Belfast trying to see what to do.
We were approaching November and our trip to America. I was kind of dreading the flight etc because of the itch and because I wasn't sleeping I knew I'd be tired. New York would be hard work if I was tired.
I shouldn't have worried. My consultant said about 4 weeks before that I couldn't go. They were afraid of me going into premature labour and if that happened in America then I'd be stuck there for months. Can you imagine the medical bills?!
So, whilst we were upset we knew it was the right decision and if I'm honest, was I up to travelling round America? No. I was glad someone else made the decision for me.
My results continued to get worse and I was hearing things like 'We need to get you to 30 weeks' 30 weeks!!!!! Scary.
I finished work at 28 weeks. I was tired. I wasn't sleeping. I was being seen at the hospital twice a week. My consultant agreed that finishing work was a wise idea. I was devastated. No, really, I was! I had been off one Thursday, the day my results hit their all time high and I went back into work on the Friday to get cleared up and handover to my team. That was it. I worked late and sneaked off at about 7pm. Nobody really knew I was finishing. I cried the whole way home. Nothing was going how it was supposed to.
When I finished work I rested, slept, went to hospital. The bad snow hit in December and I was housebound except my trips to hospital. 30 weeks came and went and baby was hanging in there. We even had to go to hospital on Boxing Day & New Years Day.
At around 36 weeks the itch disappeared. Actually went away. Wow. But by now I couldn't sleep anyway because of the size of my bump!! Typical. I was ready for this to be over. I practically begged for a section.
I was amazed to have got this far.
My bloods had all calmed down so it looked like I would get to 38 weeks. Danger to the baby increases at 38 weeks so I wouldn't be allowed to go any further.
We'd done it. We'd got through a really tough pregnancy, a condition most people have never heard of and we were ready to meet our baby! We were booked in to be induced on Thursday 3rd February 2011, I would be 37 + 6.
Great first post can't wait to read the next instalment!
ReplyDeleteWhat a terrible time of it you had xx