PPROM: Preterm premature rupture of the membranes at 28w6d

At around 6:30AM on Friday, December 7th, I started to feel a mild trickle of water in my PJs. At the time, I was lying down in bed, and cuddling with my pup, and my initial thought was, "Ive reached the incontinent stage." I noticed that it only trickled when I took a deep breath in, so didn't immediately attribute it to anything else. I laid there still for a few more minutes, but with each deep breath, I would feel that slow trickle. I got up to empty my bladder, and noticed my PJ's were soaked. I was alarmed, but still thought that it could still just be urine. I took my now wet PJ bottoms and did a load of laundry, and put on a new pair of PJ pants. I laid myself down again, and noticed the leak was not going away. 

My husband had already left for work, so I tried calling him. He didn't answer, so I called the OB nurse my insurance offered for free 24/7. The nurse started asking me ridiculous questions, like if I felt a baby's leg in my vagina, or if I was having 'shock' symptoms. When I felt like she was just asking me generic questions, I told her I knew what I had to do and hung up. I texted my husband I thought my water had broken, and he called back within a few minutes. He rushed back home to take me to the hospital. I still didn't know if I believed that my water could have broken, and I still thought there was a chance I peed.

We entered the maternity section of the hospital, and I walked in hunched over and wet PJ pants. They directed me to registration. I had already sent in my registry papers by mail, so I was irritated when they said they didn't have them. I kept stalling the registry woman I was leaking and I was in pain, but she kept asking me about my social security and insurance, as I was leaking onto her chair, *sigh*. I took a deep breath and answered all of her never ending questions about my insurance and address, She had me walk myself through the triage doors and the nurses took over. 

They immediately asked pertinent questions to my situation and the nurse got a sample of the fluid that was leaking to do a "fern" test. The "fern" test confirm is the fluid was amniotic fluid. A few minutes later, the nurse returned confirming that my water broke and that I was going to be admitted. 

They kept me on fetal monitoring while I waited for an open room. I was having regular contractions every 10 minutes, but they were not intense. They started me on magnesium which reduced the frequency of the contractions. Magnesium deserves its own blog post, but I will summarize here. IV Magnesium is like the "flu in a bottle." It made my teeth chatter from chills, and the next minute, I was burning up. My muscles were so weak (it relaxes muscles to ease contractions), I could barely move on my own. It makes you light headed and gives you terrible headaches. All in the name of saving my babies and keeping them inutero, I endured for 48 hours on Magnesium. My doctors also told me it helps with cerebral safety for the babies should they delivery early. 

Once admitted, they administered a steroid injection that is intramuscular. If you are at risk to deliver early, they will administer two steroid injections over the course of 48 hours to accelerate baby's lung development. 

Their primary goal was to keep them inutero until Sunday. This would give the steroid injection enough time to work its magic on the babies' lungs. I've made it until Monday afternoon, and I hope many more afternoons until they induce me at 34 weeks. The longer they stay in the better! 

I was cleared yesterday to shower, and cleared today to go outside in a wheelchair. I'm so excited for this! It's the little things I get to look forward to now. I will update later. 

7w2d: Nausea without vomiting

Nausea without vomiting is an ICD10 code. It's also the definition of most of my days.

I am barely functioning at work when the nausea hits. I feel like I want to throw up and sometimes I feel the vomit coming up, but as gross as it sounds, I swallow it before it can make it out of my mouth. I don't want to be throwing up the Estradiol medications I am taking three times daily. IVF doc called me in Bonjesta after giving me six free tabs. At first it was helping, but has since stopped. It made me very drowsy, even the next morning. In a way, I am kind of glad it stopped working. Even with my insurance, it was $600 for 60 pills! That is robbery. Diclegis was not much cheaper at almost $400. I asked the doc for some Zofran prior to the frozen embryo transfer (FET), but he said there were too many side effects. My co-workers just keep telling me to "sneak" a zofran, because they all did it in their pregnancies, and they were fine. But I have always been one to listen to what my doctor tells me. I would feel guilty if something happened to my babies and I had taken zofran.

I also started having strange aversions to some foods. I don't want to look at fruit yogurt, chicken doesn't taste good, and mint ice cream looks disgusting. The only thing I want or can eat is at dinner time, at this one hole in the wall Mexican food place. I love their carne asada burritos. Except last night, it started tasting questionable to be too. I force myself to eat breakfast, since I wake up ravishing, but nothing sounds good. Eating breakfast sometimes helps the nausea subside slightly too.

I am still getting intermittent cramps, but they kind of feel like round ligament pains, just based on where the cramps are. It hurts when I sneeze or cough. I have never spotted or bled though.

I have never been prone to headaches, but I have been getting them more often. Not migrainous in nature, and not the worst headache of my life, but definitely there. I take Tylenol and a two to three sips of Pepsi sometimes to settle it.

Later this afternoon, I will have my second ultrasound with the IVF clinic. They had appointments early this morning, but I wanted husband to be there, in case it is bad news. I keep thinking of the worst. I can't help it. Today I am 7 weeks 2 days.

I am hoping for the best, because I haven't had any bleeding or discharge.

Is it this normal to be anxious about every ultrasound?

Second Beta Results

After the longest 48 hours, my appointment finally arrived to draw my second beta results. I walked in at 7:54AM for my 8AM appointment trying to shield my mind from all doubt.

The night before, I took my second home pregnancy test. My logic for this, was that if my hcg levels increased, my line would be much darker than my 11dp5dt one (from Monday). And it was much darker! Even though this was my second home pregnancy test in a 48 hour period, this "magic trick" of seeing double lines never gets old.  The darker line gave me some assurance and some sense of security that my numbers had to hav increased in the past 48 hours. 

3 hours and 20 minutes later (which was almost as long as the 48 hours in-between the two beta tests) I got a call from my fertility clinic. The nurse on the other line sounded monotone, and I felt my heart sink. Then I heard the words "came back good." I breathed a sighed of relief, and asked her what my numbers came as. She said 810. The number from my first beta was 276, so my beta number didn't double, it tripled! 

The first half of work day after that phone call was easy breezy, and I was slap happy. Come 3pm, I had a whole mood swing, I felt moody, exhausted, and overwhelmed. On top of that, I was insanely bloated to the point my  loosest scrubs felt tight. I took a gas-X that morning to help, which it did, but I don't like taking anything unless absolutely necessary. I hate that I am already having to take Tylenol everyday for my extreme back pain. I should have brought another one from home, because the bloat was unbearable as the gas-x wore off that afternoon. Gas-X was one of the medications on my pregnancy approved list from my IVF doctor. 

We had such a large influx of patients come in from 2pm to 8pm that I had just enough time to eat a small portion of my Mac & Cheese and yoplait peach yogurt lunch I brought from home, but barely enough water. I usually drink 160oz, but barely drank ver 80oz yesterday. I felt so nauseous that I had to carry a vomit bag in-between seeing patients. My head started spinning, and I got my first headache since starting hormone therapy and since finding out I was officially pregnant. I took 1500mg total of Tylenol yesterday for my back pain and headache, which helped, but nothing would stop the nausea. I had no mints to suck on, and I had no time to eat. My 12 hour shift felt like 24 hours, and I didn't get home until 9:45, and I was 45 minutes late for my PIO injection. 

I woke up in the middle of the night with just my torso and pelvis drenched in sweat. Granted, I get very cold before bedtime these past two weeks, so I bundle up in sweaters, and sweats, with three blankets... but have never woken up in a cold sweat just over my torso before. I also had my first bout of mild diarrhea between one of my many night time trips to the restroom to pee all night. 

Despite all the crappy symptoms, I am grateful to be bloated, cramping, back pain, frequent urination, cold sweats, and even my one bout of diarrhea. 

Sincerely,

The former, now pregnant, egg donor