Life in a Hospital Part 1

So, today is Sunday, August 3rd, 2008. We have been at Saddleback Hospital now for 5 full days and we wanted to take some time and share with you how we have been spending this time. These past 5 days have been the hardest days of our lives and nothing has tested our faith more. James 1:2-3 "Consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." Wow. Who would have thought that we would have a chance to live this out. I know in the bible it says that we will go through trials, but really, do we expect to? I don't think I really did. But maybe the important thing isn't necessarily what we are going through specifically, but what we do during that time, and how we respond to the trials. Do we take our experience and trust in God and give the glory to Him? Or do we curse our situation and feel sorry for ourselves? I think the latter is easier but doing the right thing usually isn't whats easy. While there will be peaks and valleys, the overarching theme of our stay is our trust in the Glorious God we serve.

The past 5 days have been filled with fear and anxiety, but overall it has been a time to pray, rely on God, and praise him for His works.

Here is an overview of what Megan has been going through on a daily basis. Upon a routine cervix ultrasound, immediately the doctor saw something wrong. It is such a great thing that they monitor twins so closely because if she hadn't had that appointment who knows what would have happened. So coming in with contractions every 2-3 minutes, they hit her fast and hard with meds. Having 60cc's of Magnesium Sulfate (used to relax the muscles, including the uterus to stop contractions) every hour in addition to two shots of terbutaline right away (It is a pregnancy category 'B' medication and is routinely prescribed to stop contractions. The effects of this shot made Megan shake uncontrollably and gave her a pounding heart, like she just had 4 shots of espresso.) All this while sobbing because this was all SO unexpected. She had never been admitted to a hospital and she was worried about the safety of our little babies so it was really scary! As soon as we got the call; myself, Megan's mom, and Megan's sisters all rushed to the hospital to be by her side. When I got the call Megan was frantically telling me that she has to be admitted to the hospital and I think the first things out of my mouth were, "What? Are you serious?"... "Ok, I'm on my way" Driving up to the hospital i had no real clue as to what was going on so a million things started to rush through my mind. Is she ok? Are the babies ok? What the heck is going on? Once I got there she was already laid out on the bed with people beginning to put tubes and needles in her. A crazy and scary time.
The magnesium does a good job of relaxing things, however, it also relaxes all of your muscles... which can and did cause: flu like symptoms (such as a constant flush feeling, the room is set to 60 degrees and she is still hot, and nausea) and double vision (not being able to have light in the room because it hurts her eyes and not being able to focus on anything). They also have to monitor things like blood pressure, urine output through a catheter (which she has had in this whole time and was one of the scariest and most awkward experiences. It seemed like a scene right out of a movie, a huge light came down out of the ceiling, and as the nurse was inserting the catheter, she asked Megan to blow out, like she was blowing out all of her birthday candles...awkward!!!) They do this because sometimes the kidneys get lazy and decide to store fluid in other places in the body rather than push it to the bladder. The only good thing about it she doesn't have to get up 50 times an hour to go pee. They also have to constantly check the lungs to make sure there is no fluid building up and she has to wear a sensor on her finger (which reminds me of ET's glowing finger) to check the oxygenation level in her blood. In addition to that, Magnesium works in one of three categories; worthless if not given enough, therapeutic (although theraputic sounds like a good thing, it just means it is doing its job) if given within a window of 5-7, and toxic if over 7. In order to check this, people from the lab would at the beginning take Megan's blood every 4 hours... did i mention in the same spot? Since they would do this every 4 hours, that means multiple times during the middle of the night in the dead of sleep, people would barge in, turn on ridiculous amounts of bright lights and stab her in the arm with needles. The good thing is that since then they have dropped the blood drawing from 4 hours to 6 hours and now once every 12 hours because her magnesium levels have been so consistent. Sadly enough Megan now knows which people are gentle enough to let them draw from her arm and those who aren't she asks for them to take from her hand. On top of all of this she has been put on strict bed rest. Now, bed rest isn't as easy as it sounds...or easy.
Strict bed rest for Megan means she is confined to the bed, literally because of all the tubes she has coming out of her arms on each side, and the monitor that she has strapped to her belly that is uncomfortably tight to monitor contractions. Also to keep pressure off the cervix, she cannot sit up, or do anything that uses her stomach muscles (lifting legs, lifting head, or reaching beyond her arm length) for any reason.
They tried to make her bed comfortable however after laying for 5 days straight her hips are raw and because of the weight on her tummy she isn't allowed to lie on her back, she can only lie on either side. Which means her legs go numb after about an hour and then it is a whole production just for her to switch sides because it requires assistance! I can get into that later.
...wow... thats a lot of information so far, so if you are still reading this, thanks! Partially i am doing this so we wont forget this experience because half the time Megan doesn't know whats going on.

Lets talk about funny things people wear on their legs. Megan wins the prize. In order to keep circulation in her legs so that she doesn't get blood clots, she has to wear these contraptions that look like giant leg braces that inflate and deflate with air automatically by a pump which i might add is really loud and annoying. Not to mention really hot for Megan to wear who is already burning up from the Mag... Oh that reminds me, i don't want to forget about the hallucinations Megan had at the beginning when she was getting hit with everything but the kitchen sink. At one time she was picturing Hawaii to try and calm down and all of a sudden the trees started to freak out and dance... or the time where she was looking to the ceiling and thought she saw a lime green cloud with a dragon talking to her... yeah it was real. And when she cant even describe what she saw when she closed her eyes at night. And i digress. So the leg things, she would have to wear them for two hours at a time then have them off for an hour. BUT, only if it was a certain nurse working. Somehow we have managed to swindizzle our way into not having her wear them as long as she did some foot pumping and moving her legs a bit to keep circulation flowin.
A part of the stay includes 3 crappy meals, although breakfast and the salmon aren't bad... yeah thats right i said salmon. She has no eating restrictions but she does have a liquid restriction. Because of all of the fluid she is taking in through IV and Mag, and the risk of having fluid back up in the lungs they have put her on a liquid restriction to about 45CC an hour of miscellaneous liquid..which translates to only a few sips of liquid an hour. While the IV is keeping her hydrated she is dying of thirst! She is excited to drink a huge glass of ice water or juice as soon as she is allowed!