I had the best NST experience today! Honestly, I feel like I've been having NSTs for months already the way everyone knows me and I'm already starting to repeat the people I see, but today's visit was amazing!
So I got another 3:15am wake-up call this morning. Fortunately, it wasn't extremely heavy, so I went back to sleep until around 7. Off and on bleeding all morning, though still not terribly heavy, so I just waited until my appointment at 10:30. The ladies who checked me in were so nice. One lady has a birthday on 10/11 so we chatted a little about October being such a wonderful month to be born in. She almost asked my due date, but then said, "Oh, there's no way you're due in October if you're already here." And I said, "No, and I don't think I could hold out that long if I tried."
They got me right back and the nurse I was with was the same nurse I saw the morning my membranes ruptured! Her name is Sheila and she's wonderful. Sooo very caring. You can just tell that her heart is in what she does and she actually listens to you and wants the best for you. She told me that she had been wondering what had happened since the last time she saw me and was so happy to see that I was still pregnant 5 weeks later.
She got me all set up and took vitals. My blood pressure was a bit elevated - something like 138/81. Not astonomical, but that's quite high for me. I'm usually in the low hundreds over something in the low 70s. But she didn't freak out, just said we'd leave the cuff on and check again. By the time I left, I was back to normal. I think part of it was that it's been in the 60s today and I was chilly.
I told her that I had been having more bleeding and she said that they would probably want to do a speculum exam to find out where the blood was coming from and send another blood sample to the lab. I told her they'd done the spec exam Monday morning, Dr. M did a sonogram Tuesday and Thursday and they were pretty certain that all the bleeding was coming from my cervix and I REALLY did not want to repeat the exam. Bless her, she told the doctor in the MOP room (as they call it) everything I had just told her. The doctor, Dr. Foster, was great too. She said that she agreed with me, that if they'd already done the exam she really saw no point in repeating it, as just messing with things down there can stir up more bleeding as well. But she did want to take blood to see how things looked - if I'm losing too much, becoming anemic, etc...
The tech (Mo) who took my blood was so nice. The blood came right out for her. She then chatted with me for a little while. She told me some of what she's learned about drawing blood and we talked about kids. She has a daughter who is 28 and has an 8-year-old and a 3-year-old. We laughed about how they try to convince you that they "need" ice cream. Or tell you to "go away". No idea where they get that. She used to work in the Peds ICU as well and told me that she has seen 27 weekers go home. Good to hear. Although I'm guessing that most, if not all, of those were not PROM preemies. She asked what week we are shooting for. I told her 34. After which, she told me that Dr. M will tell you exactly what he thinks and he must think I can make it to 34 or he wouldn't have said so. that made me feel good. I know he's been pretty honest and up front about everything from the start, but he hasn't discouraged us from setting our sights on 34 weeks since we hit the 24-week mark.
Baby looked fabulous on the monitor. He actually stayed on the entire time. A very few decels, but his heart rate went back to normal very quickly, so no concerns there. Still no noticeable contractions either. The lab work took about an hour to get back. Bless them that they let me just lay on the bed while we waited rather than sending me back to the waiting room. Anyway, the results came back and my bloodwork was not only good but really good! I scored a 38. (Honestly do not have a clue what that means, but apparently it's really good because they told me I could go ahead and keep bleeding. In jest, of course, but that's a relief to hear! It will definitely make any more bleeding easier to take.)
So I was released after that and headed for the elevator. I turned to hold the door for someone and saw Dr. M at the end of the hall, but after that NST, I figured I'd give him a break from seeing me almost every day this week!
I got on the elevator just in front of 5 other ladies who were heading to a meeting. One started introducing another to the others and, amazingly enough, I was on the elevator with the head of the L&D department and the head of the NICU! What are the odds? As we were going down, the L&D head turned to me and asked how I was doing. (I think she may have been one of the ladies checking me in, but she had been decked in operatory stuff at the time so I'm not sure.) I said I was doing fine and I'm sure she could tell I didn't have a clue who she was because then she introduced herself saying, "I'm Margie. I've heard so many wonderful things about you." It was so nice to hear. Not sure exactly what she's heard, but I think it must be kind of fun for them to follow cases that aren't run of the mill, especially if it's a positive story. I told her it was so nice to meet her and I hope to see her many more times and, no offense to the NICU head, but I hoped not to have to see her in the future. I loved her response. She said, "No offense taken. I hope to be out of a job someday."
So, after a rough start to the day, I walked away from this NST feeling so optimistic and so well cared for. Just such wonderful people taking care of me and this tiny miracle inside of me. It just puts my mind at ease and I know that can only help!
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