MRI
This past week has been a little busy. As you may remember Baby A's right lateral ventricle has been measuring larger than normal for a couple weeks now. The doctors offered me the chance to have an MRI done to get a definitive measurement and see if there are any signs of brain bleeds or any other problems that could have been caused by the TTTS surgery. The original appointment was scheduled for this past Tuesday but the radiologist got called in for jury duty so they moved the MRI to Wednesday.
On Wednesday morning things got started early. Labs came in at 6:30am to get a blood sample to check for antibodies since I am A-negative. I can't remember if I ever explained what that means so here's a refresher in case I haven't. Greg and I have different blood types. Normally this wouldn't be an issue but because our babies may have Greg's blood type instead of mine, I need to get shots of Rho-Gam. This is an antibody that keeps my immune system from attacking the babies if they did have a different blood type. Lab technicians comes by every 3 days to take blood and check for those antibodies. If the test comes back negative for them then that means I need another Rho-Gam shot.
Ok, back to the MRI. By 7:15am I was being wheeled down to the radiology department. I had to wear a special gown that didn't have any metal snaps and I had to make sure that I had removed all jewelry & metal. When they had the machine ready for me I got wheeled into the room. This room was HUGE but looked small once you got eyes on the enormous MRI machine that took up most of the space in the room. The hole in the middle of the MRI couldn't have been more than 3 feet in diameter. They had me get up on a gurney that was protruding from the center of the machine, put a rolled up sheet under the small of my back to help support me & strapped what felt like a shield over my stomach. In my right hand they placed a squeeze ball that was attached to a long cord, this was my "oh shit" button. If at anytime I felt overwhelmed or that they needed to stop all I needed to do was squeeze that ball and someone would rush out to meet me. I was told that the MRI would take between 30min-1hr depending on whether the boys were in a good position and then they started to move the gurney into the MRI machine.
I now completely understand why they ask you if you are claustrophobic prior to having an MRI. Once they had me completely in position inside the machine my nose was about 4" from the top of the tube. There were two strips of light that ran down the top of the tube that made me feel like Leelu in Fifth Element when she first wakes up after being recreated. There was a nice breeze running thru the tube which helped a little but honestly, the only way I could keep myself from freaking out was to keep my eyes tightly closed. Once they started the machine my ears were ringing with the sound extremely loud beeps coming from various places around me. It was deafening! I thought to myself that maybe I should ask for headphones or something to take the edge off but I didn't want to interrupt them now that they had started. If I just let them get on with it then it would be over sooner. Every once and I while I opened my eyes and was quickly reminded why I made the decision to close them in the first place. At different times the gurney slid farther into the machine and then back towards the opening, my guess was to get me into the correct position for the different cameras in the machine. The whole MRI took about 25 minutes but honestly it felt like an hour at least.
Once they had gotten all the images they needed they moved the gurney back out of the MRI machine and helped me get back into my wheelchair so I could be wheeled back to my room. The radiologist told me that I should be hearing back from the doctor about the findings in about an hour which was almost exactly right. The doctor came in and said that the MRI looked great! Both twins were in perfect positions for them to be able to get all the images they needed in a single pass. Although the radiologist saw that Baby A's ventricles were different sizes there was absolutely no indication of previous brain bleed or any other issues that should concern us in the future. The ventricle measured at just over 9 which is in the perfectly normal range! Hurray!
DREADS
Ok, so lets talk about my dreads. When I had my dreads put in back in June of last year I had my dread artist put extensions in to give me the length that I wanted since my hair was so short when I had them put in. These dreads are made of human hair which is crocheted into my hair, It takes about a year for the extensions to become one with your own hair so I knew going into it that it was going to be a journey in patience all by itself. Now sometimes the connection between my hair and the extension gets weak and eventually the extension falls out. It is very easy to get my dread artist to reattach the extensions but I have to go to her studio in SE Portland to get it done. The week before my water broke I had 5 extensions fall out (this usually coincides with stress). My first night in the hospital I had 6 fall out, all in one night! Over the next couple days I had even more fall out so I pulled out my phone and texted my dread artist to see if she would be able to do me a huge favor. I asked her if she would be able to come to the hospital to do a maintenance appointment on my dreads and reattach all the dreads that had fallen out. She was in the middle of some VERY busy weeks but she said that yes, once her schedule cleared up she would definitely come out to the hospital to do my hair. I had been looking forward to getting my hair fixed and the day she was available was Wednesday afternoon after my MRI. I was able to schedule the fetal monitoring sessions around our appointment. She was able to reattach all 19 dreads that I had lost and cleaned up all the wispy ends that were out of control. This was one happy Mama! I finally felt whole again :)
For the past week I was staying in one of the NICU swing rooms. There are 4 swing rooms in the NICU and sometimes they are used for inpatient moms and sometimes they are used as overflow rooms for the NICU babies. Last week there was a HUGE influx of delivering moms so I was moved over to one of the swing rooms. They are about a third of the size of my first room but they have a much larger TV that is a lot closer to the bed. I didn't mind being in the smaller room. It's not like I am really using the space in the larger room anyway. I would also rather that the delivering moms get the larger rooms. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon (hopefully) so being slightly more confined is no big deal. Well, Wednesday evening, after my dread appointment the nurses told me that they had gotten a HUGE influx of babies in the NICU, they needed the swing room back so they needed me to move back to my original room. No problem, I packed my room up and we moved back to the larger room. It's nice being back but Phew! That was a really big day.
WEIGHT & MUSCLE ATROPHY
Today is day number 25. I would say that it's amazing how time flies but time doesn't fly when you're in the hospital. My days are pretty much the same every day. Fetal monitoring 3 times a day, vitals check every 2-4 hours during the day, ultrasounds on Tuesdays and Fridays.
At the ultrasound yesterday they took growth measurements! Wait till you see this! So we all remember how back at the beginning of March the twins differed in size & weight by 24%. Baby A was right where he should be in size and weight and Baby B was smaller by 24%. Yesterday's ultrasound showed normal fluid levels on both babies and here were the weights:
Baby A - 3lbs 3oz
Baby B - 3lbs 6oz!!!
Baby B is actually larger than Baby A!! Who would have ever thought that was even possible! These babies are always blowing my mind with their ability to bounce back. Both babies are exactly where they should be according to weight and size.
Yesterday morning they weighed me too. Now I am going to be completely honest about my weight because this blog is mainly for the other mamas who are finding themselves in the same position I am. I am proud of who I am and that number that shows on the scale is not a number that defines me as a person. It is just a number and you should NEVER judge yourself according to a single number, be it weight, IQ, etc. But in this situation it is a number that is important to ensure that I am healthy as well as the babies.
For the past 15 years I have varied between 170-190 depending on work schedule, stress level, etc. Before I got pregnant I weighed 184 lbs. A month ago I weighted 205 which was right on track for weight gain while carrying twins, I was right where I needed to be. They weighed me yesterday and I came in at 194. I have lost 11 lbs since getting to the hospital and it is due to a number of factors. Being on a diabetic diet has definitely cut down on the number of calories I am taking in each day. I am also not able to move much at all. I have only allowed to walk about 50 yards max per day which is a drastic change from all the exercise I got while being at home. I have lost a fair amount of muscle being here and the twins are consuming more than I am eating per day. The doctor is a little concerned about my weight especially when you consider that I weight only 10 lbs more than I did pre-pregnancy and at the same time I have almost 7 lbs of baby in my belly. They took me off the diabetic diet and I now need to drink 3 Boost shakes a day to help get more protein in my diet. This is a big change but we need to make sure that I am gaining enough weight to help get the twins as far along as we can before they are delivered.
I haven't leaked amniotic fluid in over a week which is great news. One of my doctors was hoping that they would be able to send me home since the only reason I was admitted in the first place was because of the leaking. But the problem is that I live 1.5 hours away from here, that is a long ways away when you think about what could happen if something went wrong. I also gain an immense amount of comfort each day from the monitoring sessions and vitals checks that I would not have at home. It would be very difficult to be on bed rest at home even if I camped out at my parents' house during the day. For these and many other reasons, we decided that it was best for me to stay right where I am. I have already been here for 25 days, what's 3-4 more weeks? Not that much when you start to think about it. The most important thing is to keep our boys healthy and growing and there is no better place for me to do that than right here at the hospital.
This morning I asked the doctor if it was possible to get clearance to go "off campus" for a little while some days if my Mom wanted to take me out to lunch or if Greg and I wanted to go on a date. She said that considering how well the twins are doing that it wouldn't be a problem at all. She could write me up passes that would allow me to be off site for up to 4 hours. I can't use them all the time because I need to continue to stick to bed rest as much as possible but she completely sympathizes with my need to get out of this room for more than a 15 minute walk each day. Greg is coming this way tomorrow and we're gonna go on a real date! A date at a restaurant! I am super excited!!
So I guess that's all for now. Still pregnant, still making the most of being stuck in one place. The staff here is amazing and they are the ones that do the most in helping me get through each day. It's very hard to be so far removed from every aspect of your normal life but the best thing you can do is stay positive and take each challenge and stressful situation in stride. This too shall pass, normalcy will return eventually, use this time to try out a new hobby or teach yourself something new. Who knows when you will get the chance to do that again once the babies are born.
With Love,
Whitney