Schierer Space

Another weekend has passed and still no sign of the little one’s arrival. K’s official due date is tomorrow so we’ll shortly be going into overtime.

K has another appointment on Wednesday if the baby waits that long.

Scientifically speaking, our recent experiences are far from a representative sample of the modern health care industry. Yet as the obsessive analyst that I am, I can’t help but make some observations. Last night as we were discussing with the various health care professionals it was easy to be skeptical about their primary motivations. The viscious circle of liability and insurance was clear with regards to taking the lowest risk to the medical staff and not necessarily the minimally invasive approach. It is worth noting that the medical insurance company and the medical professionals have slightly conflicting interests here, but in the end the insurance provider doesn’t want to be responsible for harm to the patient either.
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After all of her various test results came back a-ok, K was released to come home this evening. Although her Dr continues to be concerned about potential risks related to the hypertension/preeclampsia, there were no definable symptoms of either while K was under observation. She will follow up with her regular Dr tomorrow at the office, and we’ll probably start all over again.

For now, she is comfortably asleep in her own bed.

Stay tuned…

K was moved “downstairs” to the regular maternity wing this morning about 10AM. Her vitals look fine, and her blood pressure seems to be in the normal range. By 5 PM tonight they will have 24 hours worth of collection to analyze for kidney or liver problems. I fully expect that they won’t find anything, but we’ll see. Hopefully her Dr will stop in after the labs are back and we will be able to discuss strategy. K looks and feels pretty well, except that she has her normal headache.

My appointment went well this morning (other than taking way too long waiting to have an x-ray). I got some digital goodies from the Dr which I will post when I have time to write them up sufficiently. I’m hoping to get a copy of the “before” x-ray to post, but I’m not sure that I will be able to. Anyhow, he says everything looks great, and I’m released to regular activity within the limits of personal comfort.

K has been admitted to Crouse for observation due to hypertension (as of about 5PM on Wednesday). The labs are all good (so no preeclampsia) but it doesn’t really matter, since gestational hypertension (high blood pressure) and preeclampsia are treated pretty much the same way. As K’s Dr likes to say “They’re both cured by the same thing… delivery.”
Since there are no dangerous signs like vision problems, pain in the abdomen or kidney or liver problems, there’s very little to do but wait. One of three things will happen at this point: A) Labor will start on its own, B) Some symptom will get worse or different leading to induction (or c-section if severe enough) or C) The Dr, K & I will decide enough is enough and begin induction procedures (in order to avoid B).

K is still on the Labor & Delivery floor (labor/birthing rooms) of Crouse for tonight, because the maternity recovery (regular hospital rooms) floor is booked. Assuming nothing changes, she’ll be moved to a regular room in the morning… and the wait will continue.
As K will be moving from room to room in an unpredictable way, you would be best to try to reach her on her cellphone. Please, only call during the hours from 9AM to 9PM ET, she needs her rest. Unfortunately, there is no public network access in the hospital rooms, so I had to wait until I got home to send this. I will seek out a better option tomorrow.

In the other camp, I’m feeling ok, but still having pains and discomfort in my chest in weird and seemingly random locations. This continues to feel like I’m generally sort of lopsided and strangely stretched inside. I wonder if this is how an old balloon feels? I have a follow-up x-ray and appointment with the surgeon tomorrow, so we’ll see what he says.

You know the one:

Imagine yourself sitting in the movie theater impatiently viewing the movie previews when somewhere in the theater you hear a popping kersplatter followed by the sound of dozens (hundreds?) of small objects rolling on the floor. Shortly thereafter Peanut M&Ms are noisily bouncing against your feet and the chair supports etc.

Yes. That was me. I was opening said bag when it failed catastrophically, sending half its contents clattering to the floor (not to mention a few dozen in my lap and seat).

The movie, Spiderman 3, was pretty much what we expected: very little plot mixed with several hours of computer animated special effects. You won’t have missed much if you skip it (although the Venom goo animation was nicely oogily creepy.. sort-of Addams family Thing mixed with black glistening slime mold), and don’t pay more than matinee.

K & I went to Crouse Imaging today to have her amniotic fluid level checked (sonogram). None of us (including her Dr) expected the levels to be any different than Wednesday. We fully expected that she would be admitted and the delivery would be induced this weekend.

Not.

Her fluid levels are back up over 11cm (5cm is the level of concern). We attribute this to K resting a lot, and the imaging center having much fancier sono equipment that the Ob-Gyn office.

Back to Plan A: Wait for the baby to push the eject button.

Edit by Kristin - According to the tech’s measurements, the baby is currently 8 lbs. 0 oz.

Grand-dad Schierer made this fine changing table for the baby…

which converts into this beautiful dresser for the child to be (the top comes off):

This was actually delivered over the weekend, but for obvious (read below) reasons, I didn’t get this post up until now.

For the record here’s a gratuitous shot of my palid engineer body complete with bandages. This was taken on Tuesday. I’ll spare you the shot after the bandages were removed, but suffice it to say that I have less skin after than before.