Hospital Life

As I said last time I am settling into the hospital life routine, however there are three things that I wanted to share with you about what I don't like about hospital life and what you should prepare for should you be in a similar situation!

1. The food! This is getting quite funny now because they just can't seem to bring me what I ordered. Every day (up until today actually) I have asked for a sandwich on brown bread. I have circled 'BROWN BREAD' in capital letters, underlined it, double circled it and underlined it at the same time and every day they bring a white bread sandwich. Today when I got back to my bed guess what - I had brown bread!! But not Ham & Tomato like I ordered, it was Chicken Mayonnaise! Evening meals are pretty much the same, you ask for one thing and get given the complete opposite. Last night I asked for an omelette and a yoghurt  and I ended up having chicken curry and ice cream! Breakfast seems to be the easiest to accomplish.

2. The stockings! I knew I would have to wear stockings to prevent blood clots if I was to have a c-section but I didn't realise I would have to wear them ALL the time. Even in  this heat! They are very fetching white knee hot socks. They're on it too, you can't fool them, if you take your stockings off they are on you like a shot! However it seems you can take them off for outings, thankfully I don't have to sit here typing this in Starbucks with them on.

3. The heat! This is only an issue at the moment because of the heat wave we are having but it is like a greenhouse on our ward. What a week to be in labour! Add point two to point three and the result is not good.

Now that I have moaned about all that I feel like I should say something positive. So on the plus side everyone has been lovely and the midwives are fantastic, which is the main point over the food, stockings and temperature!

Just a couple more days to go till my induction, I will try and squeeze one more post in before then!

34 week + 0 update

Can you guess where I am then?

Lots has happened since my last post as you can probably tell from the picture. I had a couple of half written posts and each time I went back to them they were now out of date as things had moved on so much. This could become quite an essay but I will try and summarise and come back to the details another time.

I’ll tell you the outcome first and then work backwards so as not to leave you all in suspense! At the moment the baby plan is to induce me next Friday 25^th May  (I never expected a May baby!) when I will be 35 weeks pregnant. The reason being is that as well as the concerns over the baby’s growth they are also worried that a drop in my insulin requirements recently could indicate that my placenta might be starting to fail. So best to get him out but it’s all about timings, not too early and not too late – a bit like a nice joint of roast beef.

I came to the hospital on Tuesday for my regular appointment with the obstetrics team and also for another growth scan. The scan results weren’t too alarming, when I looked at the graph relating to his tummy size of course it had increased but it hadn’t gone steeply vertical it had progressed along on an upward curve. Estimated fetal weight was 6lb 9oz, I had in my head between 6-7lbs, so just under 2lbs weight gain since the last scan nearly four weeks ago.

In my obstetrics appointment I explained that over the last five days I had reduced my basal doses by 40% across the board as my BGs just seemed to be dropping and I was having to eat quite a few extra sweets and snacks without insulin to maintain normal levels. I hadn’t thought in depth about this to be honest, I had thought it was a little early for my requirements to be leveling off and had a fleeting thought as to whether I could actually be further along in my pregnancy than I thought. They said I wouldn't be that far ahead, a few days maybe but not a few weeks. There were a few discussions about my blood sugars etc and then the words I knew may come before I even reached 36 weeks ‘we’re going to admit you’. I savoured my last hour and went and got a coffee and made some calls before heading up to the maternity ward. Even though I know my hospital quite well I had never ventured up to here before and it felt very much like when you arrive at a hotel and need to work out where everything is. What was ironic was that we were booked to do our maternity ward tour later that day, I didn't need one now I was going to experience it for real! Within a few hours I had been passed from pillar to post and finally settled in the third bed they put me in and it was there I stayed until this morning.

On Tuesday afternoon I was given my first dose of steroids via injection in order to speed up the baby’s lung development. I was also put onto a sliding scale of insulin (I think I will probably do a whole post or should I say vent on sliding scales later!) and taken off my pump, my BGs were then monitored every hour and the sliding scale adjusted accordingly. Nothing else really happened on Tuesday in terms of finalising the plan for birth etc. but on Wednesday morning I was the hot topic (well that’s what I like to think) in the morning meeting between the doctors, paediatricians and who knows who else. The report came back to me that they wanted to hold off another week if possible and induce when I reached 35 weeks. In the meantime I was to stay in hospital to be observed and for the baby to be monitored three times a day to check he was okay. When I pushed them to ask if it really was necessary for me to stay in between now and the birth they said that it was a recommendation and that they wouldn’t keep me here unwillingly but if anything happened whilst I was away from the hospital they wouldn’t take responsibility. It was just like the Australia saga all over again…

Being type 1 there is a chance of still birth and they threw it at me that if anything happened when I was here I could be in theatre within minutes, at home the outcome could be much worse so what was one week in hospital putting it all in perspective? That doesn’t make it easy though for some reason I long to go home even though I am only a couple of miles down the road!

There’s loads more to tell and lots of updates for those interested in all the diabetes details but I’ll leave it there for now and let you digest. Blogging from hospital isn’t impossible but with no wi-fi I will now venture off to find myself a little wi-fi spot so I can post this online. One week from today it should all be happening and unless anything changes I will keep you well posted in the meantime.

P.S. This photo is already out of date they have moved me again since I took this, now on bed no. 5!

Appointments and more appointments!

This week has been an appointment filled week! I knew that having diabetes would mean I would have my fair share of appointments compared to a 'non-d'. I thought I would be at the hospital every week but it hasn't been that bad I am glad to report.

Tuesday saw me at my diabetes antenatal clinic. I'm having my baby at Chelsea and Westminster hospital who have managed my diabetes with me since I moved to London in 2007. There are designated diabetes pregnancy clinics, mine always being on a Tuesday morning. Normally there is little wait but this Tuesday I waited a good hour to then be seen by three people I had never seen before in my life and who were obviously in quite a hurry because of the backlog of patients. It was very disappointing, all the questions I had written down ready to ask were shelved and I found it really frustrating. The doctor asked me when I had my pump 'fitted' and then told me he wasn't concerned about my high blood sugars just the hypos (of which there was none). The only thing that rectified it not being a complete waste of time was that the obstetrician had a feel if my tummy and we has a quick look at baby. I have my 20 week scan later this week so I really didn't want to see too much! I thought I saw a little something in that area and then decided I am useless with scans and for all I know it could of been anything!

Wednesday afternoon and I was off to Charing Cross hospital this time. In my last retinopathy check up there was a slight change that had been detected and they decided to refer me to a specialist just to make sure everything was okay. I was pretty prepared that this appointment would involve some intense waiting, after all the letter had told me to keep the rest of the afternoon free! The wait was another hour. Luckily everything was completely fine and I felt like a bit of a fraud being there. The doctor couldn't see any problems and said my eyes looked very healthy considering how long I have had diabetes (since Jan 1998).

So two down and just one more to go...my anomaly scan. The most important appointment of all! Really looking forward to seeing if baby is developing okay, hopefully everything will be healthy and as it should. Not to mention we will find out if we are having a boy or a girl. I'm so excited - it's like waiting for Christmas Day!! Next time I post all will be revealed...