"monitoring the babies' heartbeats during contractions- I can't worry to much because Mike keeps me entertained"
Since Monday, I have been contracting with increased frequency. I am allowed to have 4 contractions per hour and I have been having 5-10 contractions per hour depending on the day and time. Each time I "fail" a monitoring session by having too many contractions, I have to give myself more drugs and then re-monitor myself and resend the information into the terbutaline pump company so they can see if the new dose of medicine worked. All week I have been failing and having to monitor myself 4 and 5 times each day and so we have been increasing my drugs all week and U have been a bit wired due to side effects. By Wednesday, my drug levels were getting pretty high but my contractions were not necessarily getting better. Finally on Wednesday evening, after monitoring myself off and on all day with no decrease in contractions, the terbutaline reached its maximum capacity and my uterus stopped responding to the drug. I was told that this might happen, that my uterus could stop responding to the medicine, but I was hoping for a few more weeks. Since I was contracting every 4 minutes steadily and there was nothing else I could do at home, the doctors decided to bring me in to the hospital again. I was upset and I didn't want to go because I knew what I was in for, but I didn't really want the babies to come today either so I called Mike and he took me in to the hospital. After 5 hours of monitoring and tests, the doctors decided that I had to stay and they admitted me and decided to give me magnesium sulfate again. I had a mini panic session at the thought of all the IV's, machines, monitors and being trapped in my bed again, but Mike talked me down and I accepted pretty quickly this time that it was inevitable and he could not sneak me out and take me home.
They got me all hooked up and started me on a wopping high dose of magnesium sulfate and this time it was different, thank god, and I was not dizzy. I still had hot flashes and my eyes burned and my mouth was dry but I was pretty with it and I could follow conversations for the most part. I was still groggy but nothing compared to last time. It was a long first night and I was pretty uncomfortable and I think that I woke Mike up every hour for some beeping noise or to have him help me to the bathroom, but he survived. I stayed on the magnesium for 36 hours and then they had to stop it because there is a limit to how much they can give someone and I was close to reaching it because of the high dose that they had me on. The magnesium worked better this time and slowed down my contractions to every 7-10 minutes or so. The other benefit is that it also works on the same receptors as the terbultaline so it cleaned out all of the terburaline from my system and gave me a fresh start. The doctors called it a magnesium washout or a terb holiday meaning that if I got the magnesium the terbutaline might start to work again and I would get to go home again on the pump, which is the goal.
They got me all hooked up and started me on a wopping high dose of magnesium sulfate and this time it was different, thank god, and I was not dizzy. I still had hot flashes and my eyes burned and my mouth was dry but I was pretty with it and I could follow conversations for the most part. I was still groggy but nothing compared to last time. It was a long first night and I was pretty uncomfortable and I think that I woke Mike up every hour for some beeping noise or to have him help me to the bathroom, but he survived. I stayed on the magnesium for 36 hours and then they had to stop it because there is a limit to how much they can give someone and I was close to reaching it because of the high dose that they had me on. The magnesium worked better this time and slowed down my contractions to every 7-10 minutes or so. The other benefit is that it also works on the same receptors as the terbultaline so it cleaned out all of the terburaline from my system and gave me a fresh start. The doctors called it a magnesium washout or a terb holiday meaning that if I got the magnesium the terbutaline might start to work again and I would get to go home again on the pump, which is the goal.
Friday morning they put me back on my terbutaline pump and it worked again. It brought me down to 2-4 contractions each hour. The doctor came in a few hours later with a good surprise and told me that since things looked so good she would let me go home Friday evening. I called Mike at work and told him to come get me after work. I am happy to be home again and hopefully I will get to stay home for another few weeks. Our goal is 3 more weeks or 32 weeks gestation, we are 29 weeks now. We will be seeing the doctor once a week from now on and we are hoping that the little guys stay in there for a bit longer.
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