My Historic Hospital Week

Well, I've had a very good excuse not to blog lately. My last week of work ended abruptly on Monday (2nd June) night after my fortnightly Doctor's appointment. My blood pressure was way too high, so my Doctor sent me to the hospital. It was the first time he had told me that everything was not "squeekedy clean" so it was a little scary and definitely something I didn't want to hear.

I called Kevin, who was already at home and told him to pack me a little bag and that he would be taking me to the hospital. We thought that it might just be a matter of monitoring me overnight and then I would be ok to go home. I was later told that it was a real possibility that I would have to spend the remaining 6 weeks of my pregnancy in hospital. The thought of not being able to go home again before the baby was born was a little disheartening, but really my health and the baby's health comes first.

So over the next couple of days I was told that I have Pre-Eclampsia although it seems that it's really hard to diagnose as it's mostly asymptomatic. The only sign I have right now is high blood pressure and a small amount of protein in my urine (which I'm sure everyone wants to know about = ) ). I am on medication to control my blood pressure although it's still fairly high. I am being closely monitored by the hospital and my next appointment is Friday. I have to really take it easy as most symptoms are simple everyday things like headache, starry vision and stomach pain. Even if I get another symptom it doesn't necessarily mean the worst. It's the whole combination of symptoms coupled with my blood tests, etc. that will determine what the Doctor's do with me.

Right now we are just taking each day as it comes. We haven't even figured out our birth plan as it's totally up in the air as to whether the birth will still be a natural/active one or a c-section. I have had two injections of steroids which matures the baby's lungs and is standard procedure for any Mum where the baby may be born before 37 weeks.

The worst part about this is that it is totally out of my hands. The blood pressure issue is something that I can't control and everytime they took my blood pressure in hospital it was like a lottery. All I can do is continue to take it easy, which I am doing. It's amazing how much my belly has grown over the last week and how hard it is now for me to walk. Obviously being mostly bed ridden and then getting up and having to walk around with a big gravity change is difficult. I'm finding it's easier to walk than to stand still right now.

Now to the historic part of my stay:

I guess most Queenslanders will know the new Mater Mothers Hospital opened on 4th June. I was happy with this date as I knew having a baby due on 12th July would mean that I would be in the nice new hospital and that I also would not be one of the first patients testing out the new facilities.

As it happened I was totally wrong, I was a part of the big move. I was the last patient in bed 422 and the first patient in bed 913 and 922 at the new hospital. The buzz around the hospital the night before and the day of the move was quite amazing. Everyone, midwives included was looking forward to the lovely feeling of a new building where everything worked and if it didn't they were allowed to have it fixed. Sometime in the middle of the night between 3rd and 4th June a little bag appeared on all of our side tables with a note that read:

Walk This Way

To celebrate the move of the Mater Mothers' Hospitals, Mater Health Services is proud to present you with the enclosed commemorative slippers.

Thank you for your patience on this historic occasion.

It was a nice little touch that really wasn't necessary but was definitely welcome, especially by me as my swollen feet wouldn't even fit into my crocs!

The morning of the move a lovely lady came in and told me what time I needed to be ready and that she would take me to my new room. I was fine to walk there, so that's what we did. There were people EVERYWHERE. People in lifts with service keys controlling what floors they went to, people directing traffic, people moving all kinds of things about the place, people setting up new signs, etc. It felt like everyone in Brisbane was there for the day to help out. One patient said "if I worked here I would have called in sick today". I really felt that it was quite the opposite, every hospital employee wanted to be a part of this day. I heard one lady talking on her phone, she was really sick but still wanted to come to work to help out.

My day got so much better when we walked into 913! It was a single room....woo hoo! I went from a room with 6 people to my own room. It was perfect, just like a motel room and I treated it as one too. I had room service, my own toilet and shower, a bed that could sandwich me in two (great for swollen feet) and it was all new! I slept great that night. In fact the head honcho of the hospital even came to ask me how the move went. I felt a lot like royalty...hehe.

The next day I attended a little group as a way of getting me out of the room and socialising. As I was in the dining area I saw some flowers being put on a table in the room opposite. I thought "they look like my flowers" and then thought nothing else of it until a lady walked in and said she had to move the people from rooms 913 and 914....DOH! Bye bye single room. We never really did figure out why we got moved. It's possible they were made rooms for private patients and it's also possible they were fixing a few things as there was an issue with the light. Obviously being spoilt rotten for the first night in the new hospital made the rest a little harder to handle, although everything was really still great. It's only two people per room and you share the toilet/shower with them. Also the bed is one of the crappier ones as you can't quite sandwich yourself in half with them!

I'm sure that there might be a few people that are reading about my hospital stay for the first time here. I want to reassure you that I am fine, infact I have felt fine this entire time. I am in the best hands that I could be in. The Mater Hospital takes problem patients from all over Queensland and the amount of rural patients that I came across was phenomenal, it seems every hospital in Queensland sends people to the Mater. The baby is now strong enough that if he/she was born tomorrow they would be completely fine. The baby is still getting perfect results on all tests.

Being in a double room meant that I was able to learn a bit more about birth and problems associated with it. I was next to another woman with pre-eclampsia. Her blood pressure rose and she had a few too many symptoms so they took her down for a c-section (which was planned for her anyway). It was re-assuring to see that despite the Doctors making that decision everything was still calm and not rushed. As she had just eaten it would be 6 hours before the procedure would begin. I also saw another woman who had her baby naturally at almost 35 weeks, baby was fine.

I guess the best thing about my time in hospital is feeling so much more re-assured that I am in the best hands and that the people looking after me really want to be there and do this kind of thing every day, infact many times every day. I accept that it is a real possibility that I might be re-admitted on Friday depending on my results. Obviously, I hope I'm not but I'm prepared anyway. My next post might be with baby pictures, but I'll keep you updated.