Where does the time go?

My due date is exactly 3 months from today. On April 9, I am due to deliver a child! I honestly cannot believe it. The time has honestly flown by.
On Friday, I met with the hematologist for another follow-up. He had taken a bunch of blood in October to test and make sure that all my clotting levels and the like were normal. I got to my appointment about 20 minutes early. At exactly 1:15, the nurse took me back and drew some more blood. She took my blood pressure, and then weighed me. She showed me to the room and asked me which specialist I was seeing. I should have known when she commented, "Oh, you know how his schedule goes!", that I would be waiting. Thank God there were magazines, be it 5-9 month old copies of Time, and Money, at least there was something to kill the 1 and a half hours that I spent waiting! He's lucky I like him!
So, the doc came in, did a little examination, checked my last set of bloodwork, and gave me the great news.....everything is NORMAL! I never thought hearing the word normal would make me feel so good! Basically, he thinks that since all these clotting issues have been ruled out, it only makes logical sense that birth control caused my P.E.!
When I was finished, he commented that he wanted to see me post-partum. I scheduled an appointment for May and it was so surreal. As the receptionist repeated the date and time, I caught myself gasping as I remembered in May I would have a child! I will be a Mom the next time I go to the hematologist! WOW!

From blood clot to baby...the whole story.

I mentioned in my first blog that I would tell the story of my blood clot sometime. Today, I had my finaly hematologist appointment before the birth of baby, so it really made me reflect on my whole ordeal. I guess I should put my story in print.
In the summer of 2006, I decided to work the extended summer program in my school district for the pre-school handicapped class. The summer was going great. I had two classes of really adorable kids, 2 wonderful aides, and looked forward to a nice change of pace. These feelings of ease and relaxation were quickly replaced with anxiety and fear as the third weekend of July rolled around.
As we did many weekends in the summer especially, we'd make the trip down from our place outside Trenton to visit Bry's mom and go the beach. As we went to the beach on Saturday, July 15 my chest was really uncomfortable. As I attempted to lay on my towel in the sand, it felt like someone was standing on my ribs. I also noticed that when I took a deep breath in or laughed or coughed it felt like I had a side stich. Being a former distance swimmer, I knew those pains quite well and just figured I pulled a muscle. We went back home and relaxed. That night, I attempted to sleep on the couch the pain continued to intestify. I couldn't get comfortable and felt like my muscles must be spazzing. As Saturday night transitoned into Sunday I promised myself I would head to a doctor if the pain continued. I kept popping advil and early Sunday afternoon we made the trek back home. The side stitch pain remained, varying in intensity, and it felt like I had a huge knot in my shoulders. Being the awesome husband that he is, Bryan took to massaging my shoulders with Flex-all. When I asked how big the knot was in my shoulder, he commented that he couldn't really feel one. Looking back now, I realize that should have been a sign for me. Exhausted, I popped a few more advil and attempted to get some sleep. Around 1 am, as my night owl husband watched t.v. downstairs, I woke up with the most horrible chest pain I have ever felt in my life. It literally brought me to my knees. I SHOULD have went to the ER then, but my brain starting to question the pain. Was I being hyperchondriac? I popped a few more advil and then pain lessened. I then found a position on my stomach, with my arm across my chest which helped ease the pain. I got a few hours of sleep and woke, and got ready for another day of pre-school.
July 17, 2006 is a day I will never forget. As I made the 40 minute commute to school, the pain came and went. At one point, I remember taking my left arm and reaching it across my body almost touching the passenger seat door trying to stretch out what I thought was a muscle cramp. I get to school and immediately strike up a conversation with the school nurse. She eases my fears, saying it sounds like a muscle pull or spasm, and recommends taking Advil and using a heating pad.
Somehow I make it through until 12:30 and get back into the car to head home. I'm still in pain, but still exhausted. As I get home, I search the web for a new doctor, since we'd just moved. I call up someone who says they can see me August 10. Yeah! Sign me up?!?
Distraught and exhausted, I took another dose of advil, pulled out the heating pad, and fell asleep.
About 2 hours later, I woke up and the pain was there...still...strong...and uncomfortable. When I woke up, I just knew in my gut, something was wrong. I skimmed through the internet again and found a doctor's office just around the block that had walk-in hours from 5-11 p.m. Wearing a pair of grey cotton shorts, and a Roxy t-shirt I drove around the block to the office and walked in exactly at 5. I filled out the appropriate paperwork and signed in listing my symptoms as chest, neck, and shoulder pain. I was surprised when they took me back quickly.
I met Dr. Young, a new member of the practice fresh from her residency in family medicine. As I spilled out my symptoms, she nodded and said that it sounded like a muscle spasm or pull. She had the nurse do an EKG in the office to rule out any heart issues. After that, she came back and said that everything was normal, however she wanted me to go to the Emergency Room for a chest x-ray just to be certain.
As I walked out to the car, I started to cry. I got on the phone and called Bry who started giving me a hard time. Did I really need to go to the ER when this was just a muscle pull? he asked. I asked him to come home and come with me, and lucky for me, he did.
By the time we got to the ER it was about 6:15. Bryan asked if he should call my parents. Why? I asked. Everything will be fine.
After getting triaged, they moved me back to a curtained room, took some blood, and got me ready for x-rays. The nurse was great, telling me how it sounds like a muscle pull and to stop worrying. After a few hours and bad t.v. the nurse came back with some muscle relaxers and stronger pain pills. She also checked my lungs again. It was during this time as I was suppose to take a deep breath, that I noticed the expression on Bryan's face change. I could hardly breathe in deep without a sharp, shooting pain in my side. With each supposed deep breath, I would cringe and almost cry out. As the nurse walked away, my usually joking husband looked at me with a worry in his eyes as he said, you're really not okay are you?
It was around 10:30 by now and I was hungry, exhausted, and still terribly uncomfortable. I also felt bad for Bryan because he was still in his suit and loosened tie. The nurse came in again mentioning that the lab results would be in any minute and she started to talk about what I would do once I got home. The conversation stopped when the physician assistant walked in with a nervous look in her eyes.
"The bad news is the the d-dimer test is positive. You have a blood clot in your lungs, and need to be admitted ASAP".
Excuse me?
The nurse was giving me discharge instructions. Everyone said it's muscular. I have school tomorrow. I never get sick! What are you talking about, a blood clot!
Immediately I started to cry and Bryan looked dumbfounded. After moving me to a closed room in the ER, waiting for a bed upstairs, Bryan called my parents. Luckily, they only live an hour away and even more good news, my sister who was in medical school was on a break and home too. The three of them hauled ass to the hospital.
Immediately, they reviewed my chest x-rays and saw two clots, one in each lung. Two Pulmonary Embolysms. They started me immediately on i.v. heprian to thin my blood to help weaken the clot.
Around 12:30, they found a bed for me and it was around that time my family came to. I couldn't believe it. I was never sick! Hospitals were for sick people, why me?
Bryan made a run to Wendy's and seriously a cheeseburger has never tasted better! Around 1:30, my parents and my sister left to stay at our place while Bryan set up camp next to my bed on a metal framed chair.
The next few days were a blur. Every four hours my blood was being taken. Between chest x-rays, ultrasounds of my heart and legs, and even a cat scan, my head was in a frenzy. How did this happen?
I met with a hematologist, a cardiologist, and a pulmonlogist. They probed and prodded me as they asked any number of questions. I went from the girl looking for a primary girl doctor, to the girl who might need a crib sheet to keep all their names and specialities in order. The overwhelming thought was birth control was the culprit, however they didn't want to rule any other things out, so more tubes of blood were collected. It also was decided that I did not present typically most likely due to my lung capacity. My blood oxygen level never went lower, even though there were clots in both my lungs. They attribute that to my years as a distance swimmer. Thank you Seton Hall!
I don't know how i.v. drug users do it. My arms looked like a mine field and by Friday it took them 15 minutes to take a vial of blood! Once I became therapeutic on the heprian, they started me on oral blood thinner, coumidin.
I spent Monday evening through Sunday mid-morning in the hospital. I did not go back to working that summer school, and instead spent the rest of July and August recovering from the ordeal.
So for 9 months, I went to various hematologist and cardiologist appointments. I remained on a daily dosage of coumidin and waited to figure out what caused the P.E. At some point they thought I might have a clotting issue called: elevated levels of anticardiolipid antibodies. The good news is that there are relatively few side effects with this disorder. The bad news, the side effects that do occur are primarily associated with pregnancy, specifically late term miscarriage. During these few months on the coumidin, thinking I had elevate anticardiolipid antibodies, I worried if I would ever be able to get pregnant and carry a baby to term.
In June, we set up an appointment with a high risk OBGYN. While we weren't ready immediately to start trying for a baby, we wanted to know what risks he felt were there for us. It was also during this time my hematologist abruptly left the practice leaving me without a hematologist Bryan found this OBGYN because he has a history of working with women with clotting issues. We met with the Doctor, he basically said that if I were his wife, he would have me off the coumidin, so that weekend I stopped.
Amazingly, less than 2 months later, we're spending a Sunday afternoon down the shore, buying pregnancy tests so know one we know will see us, and low and behold, we're having a baby!

God Bless baby Jack

My online friend and fellow blogger Megan recently lost her infant son Jack to moebius syndrome. http://www.faces-cranio.org/Disord/Moebius.htm,. It honestly breaks my heart to think how short his life was, yet I was truly amazed with Megan and her husband P.J.'s continued faith.
Please keep Jack and his entire family in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you.

From zero to 60 in no time flat...

That's how quickly our office/ guest bedroom has been transformed into a nursery! We made the trek from Jersey to Delaware yesterday, since it is the home of tax free shopping. Our mission: to find a crib and dresser in our price range that matches my ever picky tastes. My sister mentioned a children's furniture store. After checking the website, and Bryan mapquesting directions we were off! The trip is relatively easy, unless you decide to try and circumvent the traffic right over the Delaware Memorial Bridge, like we did. After driving through some of the more "colorful" areas of Wilmington we somehow found a round that was actually on the mapquest map. After a few more turns, ta-dah Closic's Children's Furniture! I get nervous walking into these places. Suddenly I feel like I'm a little kid, when in fact I have an opinion of what I like and even more of an opinion of what I don't. They were great there! We gave them our ballpark and we were able to spend less without them trying to sell us more crap than we need. So here's our crib and dresser: Imagine them both in white!

From Closic's we took a bit of a detour. Friendly's was calling! Who doesn't love Reese's Peanut Butter cup sundaes?? We then attempted to surprise my parents and family friends as my mom was housesitting in PA, but that didn't quite go over as well as anticipated so somehow about 2 hours later we're on the way back home. That is until we saw IKEA on the side of the road! Backstory a bit: Bryan HATES Ikea. He hates the idea that people go into the store and actually purchase entire rooms from rug to couch to picture frames. So, as I suggest IKEA for a new single bed, I thought he'd laugh. Yesterday, he had a change of heart. He saw IKEA as I do- a great place to purchase inexpensive furniture that requires some sweat and an allen wrench but overall worth the cheap price. We did the grand tour, as is the only way to shop IKEA. After dancing with the notion of purchasing another metal daybed because it was only $59, we settled on this. Not too bad right, for under $200. While the bed isn't too snazzy, the storage underneath is sick! Really I think the baby's entire wardrobe can fit in the deep drawers. If my crafty side comes in play, I may even paint the wood orange or green to match the bedding! Of course that wasn't the only thing we bought. We have a snazzy new desk lamp that's about the size of a bottle of soda shining on the computer. Plus new wooden hangers, 6 lightbulbs, a red circular rug for the kitchen, and we found a blue elephant for the baby! Now, it's time for Bryan to whip out the allen wrench and attempt to assesmble this bed, because the boxes really clash with the Christmas decor in the family room!

Can you believe viability is only 3 days away?

I mentioned to Bryan that my doc sister has a 24 wk. preemie in the NICU that she sucessfully intubated. It was as I was saying this that I realized, Wednesday we are 24 weeks. Baby could come and survive and while I told Bryan I found it exciting, inside I could not wrap my mind around it. Bryan, meanwhile, went into an immediate panic. Making another list of what we need, complaining that my shower location is not booked, barking at me to set up a tour of the hospital, as well as enrolling in baby readiness class.
This pregnancy has been a dream thus far. Really, besides my huge boobs and ever growing stomach, nothing else really has changed. In the first trimester, I kept waiting for the morning sickness to come. Days turned into weeks turned into nothing! It was also during that time that I was sure I would miscarry. I remember thinking to myself, "now don't get too excited, you could loose it any day". Just like the morning sickness, that day never came. No extreme tiredness, no moodiness, no crazy cravings- everything has been good. While I normally consider myself an optimistic, I still think something is going to hit me. I keep knocking on wood. My mom said that the healthiest she ever felt in her life was during her 3 pregnancies. I'm guessing I'm following her lead. Hopefully my labor will be short like hers too!

Chicken Pox and Head Lice and Runny Noses- Oh my!

Friday started out as any other day. I got dressed in my new long sleeve t from Gap which honestly feels like pajamas, made the commute up the turnpike and rolled into school. Everything was going normal. My kiddies were a little crazy, be it a Friday that's nothing new. I was sitting at my desk correcting some papers when our school nurse stepped in with a piece of paper in her hand. "Nothing really to worry about, but I just wanted you to read this" as she hands me a letter from a mother of a student I had had last year. "I wanted to write to inform you that I think I may have chicken pox. While we're not 100% sure, I thought it would be in the best interest of everyone if I let you know.....please let Mrs. S know since she's expecting." CHICKEN POX on an parent?!? I didn't even think about worrying about the possibility of that. Luckily my kiddies had Spanish so I was able to sneak to the office and call my OB. After calling the other office, I finally get in touch with the OB coordinator and try to explain my story. It went a little something like this:
"A parent of a former student may have chicken pox and I'm wondering if I should be worried". I say
"The student shouldn't be in school if they have chicken pox!" Says the nurse.
"It's not the student, it's their parent."I say.
"The parent should know better than to send in a student who has chicken pox!" says the nurse
Deep Inhale hear then slow exhale by me
"The student is fine, it's her mother that may have chicken pox!"
"OHHHH! Sorry. If you had the chicken pox and your tests early on would show your levels you should be fine. "
Sigh of relief from me
Nurse says "Let me go check your file to see what your levels were like early on".
Insert cheesy hold music here.......
Nurse comes back "Yeah, you never had that test. So we you come in next week, I'll give you the paperwork for it. But I think you'll be fine!".
Great, one more thing to worry about....but the day gets better.
I get back to my room and things go on in their usual crazy manner. The nurse comes in via intercom asking to see a certain student. Student heads down and within five minutes she comes back on asking for his things. Weird, right?
Ha ha, there's more. She then says that he has some houseguests on his head and could I send down some of my kiddies to get checked. The four letter word that brings fear into every heart of elementary school teachers has come into my class- LICE! Luckily all the kids, myself and my student teacher were clean, but it didn't stop us from itching the rest of the day. It ended up this child and his entire family had it and the nurse said she had never seen them such large ones before. Nice, I win the fattest lice game!
The day continues and my nose starts to run. Normally, this situation could be handled with any number of OTC drugs but not now, not with baby on board. So here I am, with box of tissues next to me sniffling away. I've heard vitamin C helps, I wonder if there is such a thing as too much orange juice?

"Everything looks perfect"

Those were the words the doctor uttered after looking at all the frames from the ultrasound. Our baby is developing fine. We're only a few weeks away from "viability" and it's really starting to feel more real. I have started to feel on a regular basis this kid kicking me. Speaking of kicking, let me mention this child's measurements thus far. The head, stomach, etc.. all measured about 21 to 22 weeks. Exactly where I am, that is until the tech got to measuring the leg bones. Surprise- 24wk. 4 days! We thought that was long,until the tech measured the arms- 25 wks. I think we can safely assume that is going to be one long baby! At the end of the session the tech punched in all the numbers and gave us an estimation as to how much the baby weighs at 21 weeks. Typically babies are about 3/4 of a pound. Not our little porker! All ready, they're saying it's 1 1/4 pounds! I should also mention that's with me being on lovanox- a blood thinner whose only side effect is low birth weight! What does that mean- can you imagine how big this kid would be if I wasn't on the blood thinner?!?
With each week, I'm getting more and more excited. Before we know it, April will be here and we'll know whether it's a boy or a girl. Until then, it's orange, and green, and yellow!