Life in the 3rd Trimester.
It is hard to believe that while I type this I am now in my 31st week. I am 8 months pregnant.
For those of you who haven't read my blog before - one of the reasons I decided to get fit and healthy was to give myself the chance to get pregnant. I lost 7 stone, had a myomectomy (which is when the remove fibroids from the uterus) and I was put onto clomid. I found out I was pregnant on Mothers Day (6th March 2016) but sadly I found out that I had lost the baby on 5th May just before the baby reached 12 weeks gestation. Fast forward a few months to when I was to go and see my consultant (and I mean the day we were to see him) about the next course of action and to decide if we really wanted to try again .... I found out I was pregnant again. Total shock, surprise and riddled with fear!!!!
That is a really quick and brief history of what brought me to here.
So what has life been like for me this pregnancy?
It hasn't been easy. I've had awful sickness, I've got pelvic girdle pain, I have nausea, heartburn, headaches, I can't sleep, scar pain, shortness of breath and my mood swings are astronomical and more. BUT I'm also loving it because this little girl is coming to us after a time of pain and when we were ready to throw in the towel.
Right now I'm in hospital ... why? well I will tell you ...
Last Friday (10th Feb 2017) I was experiencing more pain around my scar (from my myomectomy) and had been told at my antenatal clinic earlier in the week that if this happened I had to go up to my maternity ward. So i did. While I was there being assessed and baby was getting her heart traced, my shortness of breath got very bad. I felt very faint, clammy, hot and my pulse went through the roof. To put it bluntly - it was terrifying!!! (on the plus side at least this time I was with people) the midwives worked quickly to get my breathing under control and paged the Doctor to come. I was checked out and because of the pain and the shortness of breath the doctor wanted me to see my consultant at the earliest time - Monday 13th February. During this clinic I could tell he wasn't happy about the pain or the shortness of breath. He wanted me admitted for observation. I was able to go home, grab some dinner, essentials and get back up to the hospital later that evening.
While I've been here I've been undergoing tests to try and understand the shortness of breath and where it comes from, while trying to stay on top of the scar pain.
On Tuesday I had an echocardiogram. If you don't know what this is, it's an ultrasound of your heart. The procedure itself is painless which is good. Although I did have to lie on my back for a minute which exaserbated my breathing. The whole test took about 10 minutes for her to get a proper look at my heart and blood flow to the heart. Thankfully everything was all clear. No clot, no holes - perfect!
On Wednesday I was seen by the medical team to get their assessment of what was going on. The Dr believes (after a few bedside tests) that the most probable cause of the problem is there is a clot somewhere - even just a small one that due to the increased blood flow of being pregnant has made itself known. He ordered a chest X-ray to be done. Another non-invasive procedure. I was concerned about this one because I remember when pregnant with Jonathan and doing my nursing placement I wasn't allowed to take patients for their x-rays because it wasn't safe. Anyway - the radiographer was lovely he put my worries to rest and told me that because I was pregnant I was getting to have 2 lead skirts to protect my baby. Again everything in the x-ray was clear.
I also had bloods done - haemoglobin to check my iron levels which are good (thankfully cause I'm already on an iron supplement) and blood gas levels done which were good too.
The next course of action is a CTPA scan (a CT pulmonary angiogram) which will hopefully happen on Thursday and maybe shed some light as to what is going on in my body.
I haven't been sleeping properly since being on the ward - the noise (all the lovely ladies who are being induced and who are in pain), the bed, and oh my word the HEAT!!! I do manage to get a lie down or nap at least once during the day - although with the noise and tests and my observations I'm not left alone much.
My favourite part of the day? When my husband and son come in to see me. I miss my wee boy something fierce and I know that he misses me when he gets emotional when he has to go home. It's not nice to be separated from them for (in my opinion) such a long space of time. I'm normally with Jonathan all the time and to only get to see him for an hour or two a day is hard. Makes me all emotional - and I'm already hormonal so that's just perfect!
I'll update you when I know more - and hopefully I will get some answers today!
For those of you who haven't read my blog before - one of the reasons I decided to get fit and healthy was to give myself the chance to get pregnant. I lost 7 stone, had a myomectomy (which is when the remove fibroids from the uterus) and I was put onto clomid. I found out I was pregnant on Mothers Day (6th March 2016) but sadly I found out that I had lost the baby on 5th May just before the baby reached 12 weeks gestation. Fast forward a few months to when I was to go and see my consultant (and I mean the day we were to see him) about the next course of action and to decide if we really wanted to try again .... I found out I was pregnant again. Total shock, surprise and riddled with fear!!!!
That is a really quick and brief history of what brought me to here.
So what has life been like for me this pregnancy?
It hasn't been easy. I've had awful sickness, I've got pelvic girdle pain, I have nausea, heartburn, headaches, I can't sleep, scar pain, shortness of breath and my mood swings are astronomical and more. BUT I'm also loving it because this little girl is coming to us after a time of pain and when we were ready to throw in the towel.
Right now I'm in hospital ... why? well I will tell you ...
Last Friday (10th Feb 2017) I was experiencing more pain around my scar (from my myomectomy) and had been told at my antenatal clinic earlier in the week that if this happened I had to go up to my maternity ward. So i did. While I was there being assessed and baby was getting her heart traced, my shortness of breath got very bad. I felt very faint, clammy, hot and my pulse went through the roof. To put it bluntly - it was terrifying!!! (on the plus side at least this time I was with people) the midwives worked quickly to get my breathing under control and paged the Doctor to come. I was checked out and because of the pain and the shortness of breath the doctor wanted me to see my consultant at the earliest time - Monday 13th February. During this clinic I could tell he wasn't happy about the pain or the shortness of breath. He wanted me admitted for observation. I was able to go home, grab some dinner, essentials and get back up to the hospital later that evening.
While I've been here I've been undergoing tests to try and understand the shortness of breath and where it comes from, while trying to stay on top of the scar pain.
On Tuesday I had an echocardiogram. If you don't know what this is, it's an ultrasound of your heart. The procedure itself is painless which is good. Although I did have to lie on my back for a minute which exaserbated my breathing. The whole test took about 10 minutes for her to get a proper look at my heart and blood flow to the heart. Thankfully everything was all clear. No clot, no holes - perfect!
On Wednesday I was seen by the medical team to get their assessment of what was going on. The Dr believes (after a few bedside tests) that the most probable cause of the problem is there is a clot somewhere - even just a small one that due to the increased blood flow of being pregnant has made itself known. He ordered a chest X-ray to be done. Another non-invasive procedure. I was concerned about this one because I remember when pregnant with Jonathan and doing my nursing placement I wasn't allowed to take patients for their x-rays because it wasn't safe. Anyway - the radiographer was lovely he put my worries to rest and told me that because I was pregnant I was getting to have 2 lead skirts to protect my baby. Again everything in the x-ray was clear.
I also had bloods done - haemoglobin to check my iron levels which are good (thankfully cause I'm already on an iron supplement) and blood gas levels done which were good too.
The next course of action is a CTPA scan (a CT pulmonary angiogram) which will hopefully happen on Thursday and maybe shed some light as to what is going on in my body.
I haven't been sleeping properly since being on the ward - the noise (all the lovely ladies who are being induced and who are in pain), the bed, and oh my word the HEAT!!! I do manage to get a lie down or nap at least once during the day - although with the noise and tests and my observations I'm not left alone much.
My favourite part of the day? When my husband and son come in to see me. I miss my wee boy something fierce and I know that he misses me when he gets emotional when he has to go home. It's not nice to be separated from them for (in my opinion) such a long space of time. I'm normally with Jonathan all the time and to only get to see him for an hour or two a day is hard. Makes me all emotional - and I'm already hormonal so that's just perfect!
I'll update you when I know more - and hopefully I will get some answers today!
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