April 22, 2006

Greetings from ... HOME!

That's right - I have been temporarily paroled from Methodist Hospital. I only have limited time here, so I'm going to make this quick. I haven't been able to establish an internet connection at the hospital yet (hopefully Monday...), so I'll give you the super-fast version of my week.

After many delays on Monday, April 17, I checked into room 159 at Methodist Hospital. I promptly (with Todd's help) moved into my room and made myself at home with photos, air fresheners and other homey touches. The monitoring started very quickly and I was soon settled in. The room was small, but adequate. What did I expect?

On Wednesday, though, it was announced that I would be moving rooms. Apparently, there is some multi-gozillion dollar expansion going on at Methodist and Room 159 was going to get the boot! So, they moved me into what's called a Deluxe Single. And wow -- deluxe it is! I mean, it's no five-star hotel, but as far as hospitals go, this is the cream of the crop.

I have my bed, plus an extra bed for Todd or ZZ or any mysterious, dark stranger who thinks I'm really sexy. Along with that, though, I have a living room (think fake leather here)/atrium area that looks out onto a courtyard, a small dining table with chairs and a mini-fridge. The extra room makes it a LOT easier to have Devin come visit. He can run around and play with Hot Wheels (and other such boyish toys) without the chance of accidentally knocking over some expensive piece of equipment or igniting the free-flowing oxygen. :)

So life at Methodist is good. I'm not as bored as I thought I'd be (although I am stiff from not moving around very much) and I actually have found that I don't have enough time in the day to get done what I need to get done. Specifically speaking, a number of you have called and I have not returned phone calls yet. I apologize profusely for that... The fact is, I really only get ten or 15 minutes at at time to talk because I'm either being monitored (and being monitored for twins is WAY different than being monitored for a singleton -- I usually spend an entire hour chasing them around my uterus, trying to get their heartrates to show up and spend another full hour sitting perfectly still so the heartbeat won't disappear again!), or having my temperature taken or being assesed or something else.

And as you all know, I like to talk, so ten or 15 minutes is really not enough. So I've put off a number of phone calls because I know I won't have the time I want to actually converse. Please accept my apologies and know that I WILL call you back. I promise.

The babies are doing great. Both are tracking along where they should. Grace has had some decelerations (where the heartbeat drops and stays below normal for more than a few seconds) and that has prompted my doctor to increase my monitoring sessions from every eight hours to every four. I'm not thrilled with that, but I have to remind myself that I am not there to be catered to with my own decisions, but I am there to watch my girls and get them here safely.

Aside from the decels, though, the girls couldn't be doing any better. I'm not having contractions (unheard of at 28 weeks with twins) and my blood pressure, temperature and everything else are right on track. I've had some back pain and stiffness, but I have been fed Flexeril (a muscle relaxer) a few times and that's more than remedied the problem. Of course, any problem is solved by a drug that keeps you asleep for 12 hours. No kidding.

There was some talk from Dr. Higby about getting me out of the hospital for good and doing in-home monitoring. At first I nearly kissed him on the lips, but the more I thought about it, the more I didn't like the idea. Again, the whole point of this is to get my girls here safely, and if I am at home, 15 miles from the hospital, and we detect distress, then what do I do? What if it's 5:00 in the evening? It'll take me 60-90 minutes to get to the hospital! So much can happen in that period of time and I don't like the "what ifs" of it all.

Dr. Harden agreed with me and spoke with Dr. Higby. Apparently, in-home monitoring and outpatient services are actually more expensive than in-patient monitoring, so my insurance company is happier anyway. Both doctors agreed that I'll just stay in the hospital, but be given passes to leave as long as the girls are looking good.

Hence, being home today! I have to go back in a little while for my 11:00 monitoring, but after that, I'm free for another four hours. Thank God for my ANGEL of a husband who is willing to drive me back and forth. Just being out of my room makes me feel like a new woman!

I'm signing off now. I have munchkin who needs to be tickled.

But before I go, thank you to all of you for your continued prayers, for your phone calls (even those unreturned) and for the visits. I just couldn't ask for a better circle of friends. God has blessed me so ubundantly and I'm having a hard time figuring out how to repay Him. It'll take a lifetime, but that's okay with me. It's worth it for friends like you.

I'll be back as soon as I can...

Until then,
Peace, love and blessings...

PS - Did I say I'd keep this short. Well, I lied. Remember, I LOVE to talk and typing counts as talking in my book...