Kadiera's Playground Cute but Evil - it averages out

FYI, Baby stuff will continue to be updated at sprog.quicksilverdragon.com. You should go read there if you haven't for an important baby name change announcement.

Yesterday I went for my follow-up with my OB. He was helpful in insisting that I get a couple of things looked at that might have contributed to this whole pre-term delivery, but not so helpful in dealing with the issue of my blood pressure.

In short, my BP has been running lower-than-normal for most of this week. There are points where it's probably even lower than that (I end up feeling light headed) but I can't get my BP meter to actually read at those points, so who knows what the real number is. He wouldn't lower the meds because he "didn't know how to do it with this much meds, and normal people don't react this way to meds." He suggested I get my primary doc to refer me to someone who deals with blood pressure.

So, I went to see one of the other docs in Dr. M's practice today (Dr. M is on vacation for 2 weeks) for help on the whole root cause analysis and the BP. Dr. S2 is a great doc, and if Dr. M ever leaves, I'm switching to Dr. S2.

She's livid that they didn't lower the meds yesterday - that they sent me home on this many drugs at all, really. As low as my pressure is, I'm obviously taking way too many meds for it. She's also personally familiar with everyone I've dealt with the last few weeks, having delivered her twins early a couple years ago and having been through many of the things I went through. It made for a very interesting perspective :-)

So, starting tomorrow, we're dropping the dose on one med considerably - more than I was pushing for with Herr Dr. M yesterday. If it stays good, I have instructions on cutting things back even farther over the next week or so, with the intention of getting completely off meds ASAP.

Additionally, I have a script for more blood work than I think I've ever had done in a six month period...more than Dr. K with all her crazy infertility stuff, and more than at the hospital. Dr. S2 has a few other suggestions on things we should look at just to be sure, beyond blood clotting issues and the other typical things that they generally look for in these cases. Once we get the results back (some of these are really really crazy tests), she will call with results and a recommendation - which will still likely include a referral to hematology for a sanity check, because there *is* a family history of clotting (or not clotting) weirdness, which no one has ever diagnosed.

So, we have a plan. Plans are good - they make me less anxious about things.

In the meanwhile, I'm taking it easy and looking for tiny baby clothes to dress our little guy in that won't interfere with his wires and tubes, and making reasonable attempts at pumping breast milk. Generally, I get one to two ounces per pumping. I'd get more if I was awake more often, but sleep is a big part of the prescription for me to heal right now, so we'll sort the rest out later.