Another day down. 22 weeks 3 days. I had a new goal since coming back to the hospital. Originally I'd set 26 1/2 weeks as my goal . . . now that seemed impossible. Deep down I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep her in for much longer now that I'd had more bleeding and my liver enzymes were elevated. My new goal was the first milestone, 23 weeks. Her chances wouldn't be great at that point, but at least she'd have a chance. Anytime before that and we would lose her for sure. When I woke up I told myself we only have to get through 4 more days. We'd already made it through 10 days and were starting the 11th, which is a lot more than 4 . . . surely we could do this right? I'd be in the hospital for the duration now too. That meant if anything were to go wrong they would be able to intervene quickly. My movement would also be minimal . . . up to the bathroom and a shower (but I'd already told myself that wasn't going to happen every day . . . what was I doing to make myself dirty anyway?). I could do this.
A little after breakfast the high risk doctor I'd been seeing (and who did my surgery) came in with an ultrasound tech. They were going to check on our daughter, see what the fluid level of the amniotic sac was, and see what my cervix looked like. Our daughter still looked good. She was still breech, but other than that things were fine. Being breech wasn't really a problem except that she was kicking at my cervix, which we'd determined was weak, so the extra pressure/activity wasn't helping. The fluid level looked good too. It was on the low end of normal, but it had always been that way. Finally it was time for the assessment of my cervix. The stitches were still holding. That was the good news. The bad news was that the amniotic fluid was pooling next to it, creating pressure. It may sound strange, but I could feel it. I'd felt a heaviness at my cervix since we came back and now I knew why. He told us he'd take a physical look at my cervix tomorrow to get a better idea about how things were.
For right now he wanted to focus on determining why my liver enzymes were elevated. As of my blood work this morning they were still climbing. The 24 hour urine collection would be over at 2:30 pm, but they wouldn't get the results probably until the next day. They used the ultrasound machine to look at my gallbladder, thinking I might have stones which could explain the elevated liver enzymes. They couldn't see any stones but thought I had "sludge." While this showed my gallbladder might not be working 100%, it still wasn't really enough to explain the liver enzymes. He decided to take me off one of the antibiotics I was on because it is filtered through the liver and put me on a low fat diet with the hospital to try and reduce the stress on my liver and gallbladder and see if it made any difference. Tomorrow they'd do blood work again and look at the urine results and go from there. If my enzymes were still up they'd order a better scan of my gallbladder and possibly my liver. Just add it to the list of things that were going wrong at this point. The only good thing was that he didn't seem overly concerned at this point, he just wanted to find the problem and take care of it. It was more of a mystery than an actual concern at this point.
My regular OBGYN came in too. It was nice to see her and get her encouragement. She said I'd for sure be in the hospital for the rest of my pregnancy, which was actually a relief to hear. As much as going home sounded wonderful, it didn't turn out that way and I liked knowing I'd be surrounded by medical professionals in case something happened.
Since things seemed pretty status quo at this point, Adam decided to go to work that night. We knew I could call if something changed and his boss had already given him permission to leave at the drop of a hat. He left after the doctors were done to take nap at home before he needed to go in. Needless to say neither of us had slept well the night before. My mom would stay with me tonight and they'd work out a new night schedule the next day or so.
Today was pretty normal as far as the past days in the hospital go. The doctor said I should get up to the bathroom again, so no more bed pan. This was a relief and scary all at the same time. I really didn't like the bed pan, it was awkward and difficult, but it also meant not getting out of bed. I wondered why a catheter wasn't an option, but I supposed they were concerned about infection, especially since I have a history of urinary tract infections. It was a pain to get up because of all the things that had to be unhooked, but at least the bathroom wasn't far. I was still bleeding a bit off and on throughout the day, but it wasn't much and it was really only noticeable when I went to the bathroom. They let me put the hospital underwear with a pad back on that afternoon. My skin was really irritated from the upside down chucks and I hadn't had any leaking, so they thought the underwear would be OK at this point.
I spent most of the day trying to be as flat as possible, trying to nap, watching TV (although I really didn't pay attention), talking to my mom and other family members and just hoping we could make it to Saturday. I was trying to put on a positive face, but I was scared and nervous. It was hard to have hope at this point. Thank goodness those around me were staying positive. Hearing them helped. I went to sleep that night with my eyes on Saturday and making it to 23 weeks.
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