Kidney Stone is Gonners -All Back to Normal

Great news here -since yesterday, my pain is now totally gone and I feel completely normal again. The theory is that there likely there was a small kidney stone that has dissolved itself and passed through by now. Apparently kidney stone pain is often equated to that of childbirth. OK, well except you can't dress up and take photos of that cute little calcium lump that you pass, and do you really think anyone is left in full active labour at home hanging over a toilet for a full 7 days??? I'd like to hope that delivering a baby will be a far better experience.

I had my regular monthly OB visit today. We talked about this last week's kidney scare.  He thought we did all the right things by going to emergency and felt the care that I received at the hospital was very appropriate, and all safe for the pregnancy.  I now just need to stay well hydrated and hopefully I won't get another episode. Milk and calcium containing foods are fine but no extra calcium supplements for me. I was using the odd Tums for heartburn, so no more of that! I can take Zantac instead.

The baby is growing well, and ticking along like nothing ever  happened. I'm measuring on track with the top of the uterus just at my belly button now, and blood pressure is 110/80.

My routine anatomy u/s is booked for Aug 17th -a bit later than the 19 week mark, and right when we were planning to be out of town, so I might try to call and get a cancellation. We had 3 ultrasounds of the baby this past week, so I guess there isn't a huge rush really.

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Hospital Admission, and Home Again

I ended up getting admitted to the hospital yesterday. I wasn't holding down fluids, and the Tramacet was not holding off the pain so we went back to emergency. They ran a lot more tests for gall bladder, appendix, kidney, and general infections. They called in a urologist and the OB to see me. I was also in contact with my RE by e-mail.  I got on IV fluids and morphine last night and feel like a different person today. This morning the pain had eased off enough to manage with oral meds. I got released home this afternoon and am finally allowed to eat solids again. The baby has been mostly oblivious to the whole ordeal, but has definitely perked back up to the usual more vigorous movements again  now that I'm eating and off the morphine. Whew, what a ride.

The working theory is that there might be a small kidney stone that they can't see on ultrasound. The plan is to strain my urine through a sieve, monitor for a fever at home, and continue with the oral pain medication as needed. I need to make sure I stayed well hydrated, and if I can't keep fluids down again, need to go in for another IV. I am to follow up with my regular OB this week.

Possible Kidney Stone

Well, I've had an eventful 48 hours. Wednesday night I had a sudden severe pain develop in the right side of my lower ribs. It was so intense it made me vomit. At first I thought it might have just been something I ate, so I took it easy on the couch and watched some TV. About an hour later it happened again. My DH decided he needed to take me to the emergency to get things checked out and make sure the baby was alright.


The emergency was chock full of all of my community's finest -people who'd been in brawls, injured or overdosed themselves. 2 hours later I finally saw the first ER doctor who suspected a kidney stone. He did an ultrasound to check the baby and everything was fine there, so he ran a urine test and booked me for a kidney ultrasound for Thursday. Normally they would do a CT scan to identify the location of any stones and then use heavy duty sound waves to break them up -neither of which can be done when you are pregnant.  I was told to fast in case they needed to do surgery for a large stone.

We came back to the hospital the next day to have that ultrasound done, and saw another ER doctor to follow up. The kidney scan didn't show any definitive large kidney stone, but the right kidney was a bit dilated.  They ran another urine test that came back clear so sent me home with a recommendation to take Gravol and plain Tylenol. Thursday night the pain was more continuous (the max dose of Tylenol wasn't helping) and I noticed that I was a bit swollen and tender on my right side. I'd also not been able to hold down food, or more than small sips of water and was getting worried about the baby getting enough hydration & nutrition. I called my OB's office and he wasn't back in until Monday, so ended up seeing a GP at my clinic to establish a plan for over the weekend. He consulted with the OB on call who suggested a prescription for Tramacet to better manage the pain. I started that this afternoon and it seems to be helping a lot. I was able to keep a banana smoothie down today and drink a fair amount of water -progress!

They also had me go back to the lab at the hospital for more blood work and another urine test. The white cell count was slightly up, but it was felt that it was just due to the pregnancy and not an infection, and the other results were all normal. So they don't really know what's going on, but feel there is no threat to the baby. I'm to go back to emergency if I get a fever or rash, and follow up with my OB on Monday. I sure hope this passes quickly.

Taps and Tickles

I'm now just shy of 16 weeks, and I think I'm starting to feel fetal movements. I'm quite convinced of it now. It started last week with very gentle little taps, like a soft fingertip touching my abdomen. I'd feel it while lying in bed really still. As soon as I'd start to recognize it, it would stop. The last few days it's been more and more frequent. Often little taps, or sometimes faint little tickles from the inside. DH rushes over and tries to feel my them, but it's so subtle, even for me that they just can't be detected from the outside yet. I'm sure they'll only get stronger as time goes on, but for now I'm enjoying our little bonding sessions just me and mini-Silver. It's as if he/she is saying "hello mom, just letting you know that I'm doing great in here".

Vancouver Visit

I hopped on the ferry yesterday to catch up with some friends "overseas" in Vancouver. The first visit was with a woman I met online almost 2 years ago when we were initially having trouble with TTC. She can be credited with introducing me to ivf(dot)ca. We met in person for the first time just over a year ago when she was newly pregnant after IVF. Following a complicated pregnancy, she now has 6 month old twins. She and her husband picked me up from the ferry and we went to another couple's home who have a set of IVF twins just a month older.

4 beautiful babies, two mommies, two daddies and a preggo -quite the gathering. The babies played side by side on the blankets and took turns sitting on various laps while we nibbled on some yummy appetizers. I brought some little outfits and toys for the babies, and to my surprise, left with some nursing tops and a pocket fetal Doppler!

Later in the afternoon, I stopped in on another IVF friend who is 35 weeks along. She's staying away from her family in Vancouver while waiting to deliver by scheduled c-section at BC Women's. We took a nice stroll along the waterfront and treated ourselves to gelato and cold drinks. My thoughts will be with her for a safe delivery and hospital care of her little one.

I made the transit-ferry connection home, and before going to bed had to try out the Doppler. Since I didn't have ultrasound gel in the house, I figured I'd try using the closest thing did have  -Preseed lubricant. LOL, I  was glad to have a good use for the stuff finally, because it sure didn't work for the egg meets sperm business! It took a bit of searching but then picked up little baby Silver's heart beat (150bpm) and a few kicks to boot -so cool.

Please help me figure out if the comments are working!

I've had a couple of people give me feedback about not being able to leave comments on this blog. I'd like to make this new blog an interactive one and encourage reader's comments, so if you are reading this, please do me a favour and add a comment by clicking on the "post comment" at the bottom of this post. You can sign in with an ID if you have one or use the Anonymous option.

If you do experience issues, and would like to let me know by e-mail my address is: silverdollar777(at)yahoo.ca

Thanks a million!
-SD

Prenatal Class #1

In my community the Public Health Unit offers free prenatal classes to all expectant parents. There is one class that they offer during the first trimester, followed by a 6 week series later in the pregnancy. On the pamphlet it recommends calling as soon as you find out you are pregnant. So, I called way back in April after my second beta just hoping to get the class schedule. The nurse who I spoke to tried to get me signed up for the class the very next week -Yikes! That was far too early for me. The next month's class didn't work with my schedule, so that left July. At 14.5 weeks it's a bit late, and my husband is working out of town all week, but I went anyway on my own. The topic was on prenatal development and nutrition, and it was taught by a dietician. All a good review of the information I've already read, and she had some extra handouts on updated guidelines on vitamin and mineral levels which are good to have for a reference. I was amazed that a few of the women there didn't know they needed to be taking a prenatal vitamin, cutting down on coffee, or eating breakfast.

The topic of weight gain came up and most of the women were shocked that they could expect to put on that much weight during the pregnancy, and were worried about their figures and how quickly they would bounce back. This is the least of my concerns, as long as my baby is getting enough I'll sacrifice my body in whatever way is necessary.

She showed a video of fetal development. Of course it started with the couple lovingly holding hands, then the egg being released from the ovary and sperm meeting it in the fallopian tube and working to break through the shell, then and the fertilized egg traveling down into the uterus. As I watched I thought about the very different start to life our little one had. The team of people at the fertility clinic extracting the eggs, stripping the coating, picking out a few single sperm and inserting them into the eggs with a needle, growing the embryos in a dish and then dropping them back off in the uterus a little earlier than when they belong there. On the upside, we have photos of our baby at 2 weeks + 3 days when he/she was just 8 cells big. I've been monitored very closely through the most critical time of the pregnancy for fetal development, and I'm very conscious of what I do and eat to give my baby the best chance at being healthy.

The "push the baby out" classes, as my husband likes to call them, aren't until the fall, so that should give me some time to get used to being in a crowd of pregnant people asking strange questions. I hope by then I won't feel so different from the norm.

The Swimsuit

I have been a swimmer for a number of years, sometimes with a masters swim group and instructor, sometimes on my own, but always early in the morning. I figure that moderate swim workouts are something I will be able to continue throughout my pregnancy -all the books say that swimming is a great low impact form of exercise for pregnant women. The only thing they neglect to say is that you might have to resort to swimming in the nude because finding a swimsuit that fits is no easy feat.

For the first part of the pregnancy I thought I'd be just fine with my regular suit. That was until my breasts began to rapidly enlarge, and after one workout my suit had crept down so far it was nearly exposing my nipples! OK, time to figure out a new plan. Off I went to the swim shop, to begin searching for a solution. The woman there was most helpful. First she suggested a 2 piece. A 2 piece?!?!? That's for lounging around on the beach, not for swimming. Real swimmers do not wear 2 piece swimsuits. Besides, do I really want to have a nude belly hanging out for all to see, stroke, and rub? Uh uh, no way. Then she pulled out a box from the back of the store marked maternity. Oh boy... These little black numbers were just what I'd suspected. Frumpy. Low cut across the hip, a little skirt to cover the expanding backside area, and... you guessed it, an empire sash and bow. This is not a swimsuit intended for actually swimming -this is more of a swimming costume! The other factor when you swim a lot is to get a good quality polyester material because the spandex just breaks down after a few weeks of wear.  Then I had a brainwave, what about getting a swimsuit in the same style I'm used to, but just in a couple of sizes larger? I pulled out a few of these from the rack and whipped off to the change room.

Ta da! It worked. I've now got a proper swimsuit for actually swimming that has room for my expanding parts, and it's got a pretty design to boot.

Funny Spam -Joke's on them

I opened my inbox today to find a new comment on my "Seaweed Spa Treatment" blog post from February describing my experience with a laminaria insertion to stretch my cervix prior to surgery. To my surprise it was a spam post trying to advertize for a spa in Australia. Here is the comment:

"Feeling the stress of a hectic lifestyle, leave it at the doorstep as we welcome you into our tranquil world of rejuvenating therapies. Our quaint spa is a dedicated therapeutic wellness clinic that provides regenerative therapy treatments designed to restore wellness and balance to individuals seeking relief from their hectic lifestyles."

Whoa! The joke is on these people... nobody is going to visit their spa if they read my account of the seaweed cervix stretch first! Yikes!

OK, the settings have now been adjusted to disable the ability to search this blog on Google. Hopefully there won't be too many more of these unwanted ads. Although we could have a bit of fun with some of the topics included in this blog -daily wandings, self injections, sex restrictions...