Off to the hospital I go!

Yesterday I was 33 weeks, 3 days and had my weekly appointment at the OB office. The day started off with a biophysical profile sonogram of the twins. Both looked great according to the tech; good heartbeats, enough amniotic fluid, moving, and practicing breathing. The appointment took an unexpected turn when the nurse took my blood pressure and it was initially 140/100! She had me lie on my side and retook it twice. By lying down, my blood pressure came down to 130/90's. However, there was also +2 protein in my urine sample according to the dipstick reading. These new symptoms, plus my occassional headaches and gigantic swelling of my hands and feet was enough for my OB to send me to the hospital to get checked out for preeclampsia.

So here I am. Day two at the High Risk Perinatal unit of Holy Cross Hospital. Last night was my first overnight in a hospital as a patient! It's definitely a different experience when compared to working here as a nurse. I am having my blood pressure monitored and undergoing a 24 hour urine collection to get a more accurate measurement of the protein in my urine. I am also on bed rest with bathroom priviledges only. Yesterday consisted of getting settled into my *thankfully* spacious and private room, starting my urine collection, getting a betamethasone shot in my butt (which hurt like hell) to help mature the babies lungs in case they are delivered early, and having the babies heartbeats and my contractions monitored occassionally. So far my stay has gone well and my nurses have been excellent! I've also had a good amount of visitors (co-workers and family) stopping by to entertain me and keep me company :)

As of now we are simply waiting on the results of my urine collection. The bedrest has allowed my blood pressure get down to the 130/80's range; still high for me personally, but not within dangerous ranges. So the plan is... If the results of my urine collection shows a protein level of 5 grams or more, my OB will deliver the twins this evening. Severe amounts of protein is an indication of possible kidney damage due to the preeclampsia. So for my safety and the babies well-being, they would need to be delivered so that my blood pressure will stopped rising. The alternative scenerio is if the amount of protein is less than 5grams, but greater than 300mg my OB will keep me in the hospital to continue monitoring my blood pressure. I don't know how long they intend to keep me in the hospital.

At the moment I'm just resting in bed and praying that I don't get cabin fever :)