Well, let's see. I have to start by saying... only 16 days!!!!!!!!!! Wow! That might as well be tomorrow... :o) Ok, moving on. Let's go back to last Thursday, April 5th. It all started at 5:30am getting up and getting showered, getting Samuel up and out the door by 6:30am to go roofing, and then getting myself ready and out the door by 6:45am when my mother-in-law and niece came to pick me up. Lowell was on his own that morning to get his breakfast, lunch and himself out the door. Apparently he did fine. :o) My 1st appointment at Cleveland Clinic was at 8:10 on 8th floor of the Crile Building. Took us a while to get to the building because there were no left turns allowed for about 6 or 7 blocks. I felt like I was back in D.C. where you can see the building you want to get to, but have no way of actually getting to it. Like Lowell and the Kennedy Center... another story for another time... Anyways, that 1st "appointment" turned out to be answering what seemed to be 100 questions on a computer form... They apparently need my life history before I can have a C-Section. Who'd-a thunk?
Well, with that done, we then had to go back down to 1st floor to Internal Medicine. I started with a nurse who took all my stats and checked all my medications, asked me more questions and sent me in to see the doctor. I'm still not quite sure how this doctor fits into the scheme of things, but apparently he does. He pretty much gave me a physical exam from head to toe. He checked reflexes I didn't know I even had. He had the same 100 questions again for me. After he poked, prodded, listened, tapped, squeezed, glared, twisted and checked me, he went over my medications too. He was thinking my insulin was too high this past week and needed to be adjusted back down some. He gave me some strict instructions on insulin for the morning of surgery. He knew all about Cayla and acted like I'd been to him 100 times and were old buddies. I'm just amazed at how many people it takes to have a special needs baby here. :o) I'm not complaining really, because I know it will only get worse. Many hospitals are "teaching" hospitals and CC is one of those too, so I've already been warned about the volume of people that will be coming and going and being a part of Cayla's journey. It's all good if my baby girl survives and does well! Well, this doctor, and I can't even remember his name, will be apparently around the morning of delivery to make sure I am ok and ready for surgery. He was very nice and concerned about my sugar levels. He did say that as I get closer to delivery, my insulin produced by the placenta which is causing the gestational diabetes, will slack off and I will need less insulin. I do believe that is what is happening too. So that's good. I was just getting nervous about this gestational diabetes turning into full-blown diabetes. Not that it still couldn't, but we'll see. I didn't realize the number of family members that have diabetes... it almost seems inevitable.
Ok, moving on. I then was taken to another nurse so that Internal Medicine can get me into their system. She took my insurance card, and checked me all in and set me all up with this whole department. Nice Christian lady! I enjoyed chatting with her.
Then my last appointment for the morning was with the anesthesiologist. I know it's not spelled right, but I'm tired and don't feel like looking it up. :o) I wasn't quite sure why I was having to talk to this department, but apparently they just want me know what all the options are, what I'm opposed to having done and what all the if's are. The young doctor was very helpful, but then he had to get the more senor doctor to come see me too. All she did was tell me about her daughter and tell me I'm in the best hands. Interesting lady. Pretty much said nothing. Oh well, finishing up with her meant I was finished up with CC for the day. Now with only 2 weeks to go, I can truly say, I'm done with visits to CC until delivery. Did you catch that? TWO weeks... Woah Bessie, back that cart up. I cannot believe it's that close. Ahhhhhh!
Well, I'll move on, but am too tired to continue tonight. I will have to finish this tomorrow.
Good morning! We are getting the crib and some other things this morning! Thanks Ann for bringing this over and letting us use it all! We have been blessed! Lowell is off today, so he'll be here to set up the crib and all. Yay! Elise is on her way over for babysitting this morning. It's been a good morning so far! I made a double batch of gluten free bread on Saturday morning, so I had a banana and brown sugar toasted sandwich this morning for breakfast! Don't know when the last time was, but it's been a long while. So, good, and it was even with the Splenda brown sugar. :o)
Ok, back to last Thursday... We were told we'd be done around 11am, and I had my weekly OB appointment at 1pm at Hillcrest. We were actually done at CC by 10:30 so we had some time to kill. We drove through Little Italy in Cleveland. Very quaint with lots of wrought iron and Ristorantes. :o) We stopped at McDonalds for lunch and spent as much time there as we possibly could. We even had ice cream. I know, I had a cup with just ice cream, no toppings, but it turned out to be a good thing because by the time we went to my appt., they took me right in for the ultrasound and Cayla was all wound up. They did the same test on her that they did last week and she passed all of them in about 5 minutes and was racking up tons of extra-credit points! :o) Whereas last week she eeked her points in at the last minute. So now I have an excuse to eat some icecream before my appointment! :o) Isn't that what that means? I think so. :o) Anyways, Dr. Chappa came in and said everything is looking really good. He looked over the insulin change recommendations from the doctor earlier that morning and agreed with him and lowered my insulin in the evening. He's going on vacation this week, so this Thursday I see Dr. #3. No problem, I would just prefer for little Miss Cayla to hold off until Dr. Rajabi's back from around the world. I can't go anywhere, but he can... :o) Oh well, not much else went on at that appt. and we were out of there early once again. Very nice since we were all tired.
Samuel came home tired and filthy with holes in his jeans, but very happy. He loved working up there on the roof with Chris. He just might be more interested in hands-on work than anything else. It'll be interesting to see how his life unfolds in the next couple of years. Lowell came home happy too since it was the beginning of his first 4 day weekend since working at Ken Forging. :o)
Friday was a really nice day. Starting off with Elise coming for a couple of hours in the morning. Oh, and Lowell realized that our tax return had been deposited that morning too! Yay! Then we took off and spent a good portion of the day in Erie, PA. Had lunch at Golden Corral, then went to the mall still looking for a new pair of tennis shoes for Lowell and still didn't find what he wanted for the price he wanted. Samuel got a new purple shirt, tie and tan pants (long overdue and needed). He looked really nice yesterday for Easter. Stopped at some other places outside of the mall and then headed home. I have to say here that a friend blessed us with $ for a new mattress! What an amazing thing! We stopped in Griffiths in Ashtabula on the way home from Erie to check out what they had. They had a double-sided, pillow-topped mattress that was so very, very comfortable to lie on. It was about the same price that Sears had there's for, BUT these prices were marked at 50% off and then he gave us an additional $150 off! So we couldn't refuse, and he said they would do free next-day delivery. So thank the Lord and friends for wonderful gifts! We slept so well that night and keep wanting to go lie down and lake naps on it! God is so good.
Saturday I slept in until 9am and only got up then because I needed to get something to eat or I'd have kept sleeping. Felt wonderful. I looked at Lowell and asked him if he realized how long it will be before we have a nice quiet Saturday morning sleeping in like this again? It will probably be a while. That's all good though. At least I think I can say that. I'll look back at these last pregnant days and wonder why I thought I was busy... I'm sure I'll be longing for these quiet days ahead. Our mattress was delivered. :o) After they moved all the beds around, with Samuel getting our old one, we went over to Lakeshore Park and played 18 holes of Frisbee golf. Ok, I didn't play, I walked around and sat at times watching them from a distance and then walked over to somewhat keep up with them. I really don't want to do anything that will cause little Miss Cayla to come early. Nice being outside on a beautiful day.
Easter was a beautiful day too. We had a great service in the morning and evening! After church, we went over to the in-laws and spent the afternoon with Lowell's family. Everyone was there. Very nice and I had my camera and got pictures of everyone. Love my family! :o)
Lowell's off today, Monday and yes, we have a crib in our room now... weird, in a good way. Enjoyed Elise. Lowell and Samuel went out for a couple of hours while I fell asleep on the couch. I woke up feeling drugged or something. So there's the run-down of the last couple of not much happening days... I really can't picture how drastically my life is about to change. Maybe that's a good thing. :o)
I have been following the birth of Cael. A little HPLHS baby born last week. I don't know that I could even go through all that he's been through the first week of his life, but the first surgery, the Norwood, was a struggle for him and is for every little one that has to go through it. They were just today able to close his chest back up after having to leave it open for monitoring as it is still adjusting to it's new anatomy and reconstruction. He has struggled, but so far he's getting through one moment at a time. I am still amazed that God might actually spare Cayla from this first surgery. I know I've said this before, but it's overwhelming that He would do that! We are ready for whatever may come, I guess I should say as ready as I think we can be. We really have no idea what all Cayla will be facing. She's in God's hands and He will get us through it all!
Thanks for the prayers, love and support! We look forward in 2 more weeks meeting our precious Cayla Joy. :o) Can't wait!
No comments:
Post a Comment