Donna Metler
September 24th 04, 12:52 AM
We had the first BPP today (at least for now, the peri wants these every 2
weeks, which at least gives me an extra excuse to get out of the house).
"Cuddles" looks great-she scored at the top of the scale on everything, and
there are no physical signs which would indicate a reoccurence of PE or
HELLP (no liver swelling, for example). It was neat having the test done
because a student sonographer from the Baptist College of Health Sciences
did it, with the regular certified technician standing there to assist (and
to recheck the student's readings on important things)-and the student
tended to verbalize EVERYTHING she was looking at and to ask a lot of
questions of the sonographer, which was also interesting to me. The
sonographer who usually has done the U/S's has been good at answering
questions, but the student asked things I wouldn't have thought about. In
addition, it was neat to see all the blood flow things and oxygen saturation
(though I have no clue how they can tell that using a sound wave).
What was interesting is that apparently they were able to monitor the baby's
heart via the ultrasound and do the NST that way, so we didn't have to do a
formal NST-and "Cuddles" got pretty active by the end of the test, although
she slept through the first 20 minutes or so.
There was one kind of scary point when the student first flipped on the
audio on the blood flow through the umbilical cord, and it sounded simply
hideous-I think it scared the student, too. Luckily, it turned out that the
last sonographer who had used the machine had turned the volume WAY up, and
we were hearing distortion on the speaker!
The best thing was that "Cuddles" is obviously breathing at this point-that
is, she has the physical lung motions, the diaphraghm is moving, etc. While
the peri cautioned me that this doesn't mean that she is in any way ready to
breathe on her own yet, it's really reassuring since the one sign we were
hoping for with Brian was that he'd show any signs of being able to breathe,
and he simply wasn't ready.
The peri thinks that everything looks great at this point. Obviously, we'd
prefer my BP to be in a normal range instead of this borderline
semi-hypertensive stuff, but I show many fewer signs of incipent PE than I
did a month ago, and I seem to be relatively stable at this point.
Unfortunately, he does concur with continuing the bedrest and activity
limitations, since it seems to be working-but feels that at this point,
unless things change, we're on target to go all the way.
Based on the test results, also, it doesn't look like "Cuddles" is getting
much if any of the phenobarbital-which is a real relief since I'm still on
it for the time being, since it seems to be controlling the symptoms which
were so scary a month ago.
Here's the current pictures-she wasn't very cooperative, so they aren't as
clear as the 24 week ones.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/dmmetler/26weeks.jpg
Donna-mother to (Angel) Brian Anthony, 1/1/2002, (22 weeks, severe PE and
HELLP) and "Cuddles" (girl), EDD 12/24/04
weeks, which at least gives me an extra excuse to get out of the house).
"Cuddles" looks great-she scored at the top of the scale on everything, and
there are no physical signs which would indicate a reoccurence of PE or
HELLP (no liver swelling, for example). It was neat having the test done
because a student sonographer from the Baptist College of Health Sciences
did it, with the regular certified technician standing there to assist (and
to recheck the student's readings on important things)-and the student
tended to verbalize EVERYTHING she was looking at and to ask a lot of
questions of the sonographer, which was also interesting to me. The
sonographer who usually has done the U/S's has been good at answering
questions, but the student asked things I wouldn't have thought about. In
addition, it was neat to see all the blood flow things and oxygen saturation
(though I have no clue how they can tell that using a sound wave).
What was interesting is that apparently they were able to monitor the baby's
heart via the ultrasound and do the NST that way, so we didn't have to do a
formal NST-and "Cuddles" got pretty active by the end of the test, although
she slept through the first 20 minutes or so.
There was one kind of scary point when the student first flipped on the
audio on the blood flow through the umbilical cord, and it sounded simply
hideous-I think it scared the student, too. Luckily, it turned out that the
last sonographer who had used the machine had turned the volume WAY up, and
we were hearing distortion on the speaker!
The best thing was that "Cuddles" is obviously breathing at this point-that
is, she has the physical lung motions, the diaphraghm is moving, etc. While
the peri cautioned me that this doesn't mean that she is in any way ready to
breathe on her own yet, it's really reassuring since the one sign we were
hoping for with Brian was that he'd show any signs of being able to breathe,
and he simply wasn't ready.
The peri thinks that everything looks great at this point. Obviously, we'd
prefer my BP to be in a normal range instead of this borderline
semi-hypertensive stuff, but I show many fewer signs of incipent PE than I
did a month ago, and I seem to be relatively stable at this point.
Unfortunately, he does concur with continuing the bedrest and activity
limitations, since it seems to be working-but feels that at this point,
unless things change, we're on target to go all the way.
Based on the test results, also, it doesn't look like "Cuddles" is getting
much if any of the phenobarbital-which is a real relief since I'm still on
it for the time being, since it seems to be controlling the symptoms which
were so scary a month ago.
Here's the current pictures-she wasn't very cooperative, so they aren't as
clear as the 24 week ones.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/dmmetler/26weeks.jpg
Donna-mother to (Angel) Brian Anthony, 1/1/2002, (22 weeks, severe PE and
HELLP) and "Cuddles" (girl), EDD 12/24/04