Yesterday was a tough day for me. I was missing my kids and husband in such an intense way that I felt I couldn't take it any more. If I had access to a car, I am quite certain I would have left the hospital yesterday. It's a good thing I have no way to escape.
A friend from church came and spent 3 hours with me today. That was GREATLY appreciated. I hadn't had any visitors since Sunday. She also took a bag of library books and a bag of dirty laundry. Paul will return the library books and bring me clean clothes tomorrow. I also received another flower arrangement today. This one was from my Aunt. It is absolutely STUNNING - pink roses (my favorite when it comes to roses) and white lilies. The other arrrangement that I received 11 days ago is still looking pretty also (carnations and daisies). I can't think of another time in my life when I had more than one flower arrangement at the same time.
I was praying that today's ultrasound would be more decisive (a smaller range between the numbers), and the Lord answered that prayer as the results ranged from 62-70. I had a feeling that the 67 on Wednesday was probably the most accurate one (even though the tech picked 42), and it seems I was probably right given where the numbers were today. The tech picked 66 today because it was the only number she got twice AND because it was the median. All of the results were in the severe category. 62 was at the very bottom edge of severe, and the other numbers were well up into that area of the graph. I was expecting them to say the transfusion will be tomorrow as the last two times once it got into severe, the transfusion was the next day. Dr. Martinez told me that he wanted to wait a little more because with the first transfusion Oliver was really anemic (needed 30% of his blood replaced), but with the second transfusion (when he was just barely into the severely anemic category), he didn't need nearly as much blood (so probably that one could have been held off for a few more days). He said he didn't want to wait too long, but that he also didn't want to do it too early. I asked if they were trying to wait until Dr. Tressler's return on Tuesday, and he said he didn't think we'd be able to wait that long. He told me he has done transfusions before. This contradicts what Dr. Tressler told me. Dr. Taboada told me last week that she had never done one before.
The bottom line is I'll have another ultrasound tomorrow, which will help determine if the next transfusion will be on Sunday or Monday. I am not in a hurry to enter the operating room again. I just want whatever is best for Oliver. Hopefully it will be very clear to Dr. Martinez tomorrow when the next transfusion should take place. The first two transfusions were 16 days apart. Tomorrow it will be 16 days since the last transfusion. The more we push it off then the greater the likelihood that this third transfusion will be the last, but also the greater the likelihood that they'll deliver him as early as 33 weeks. If the last transfusion didn't take place until 32 weeks, I think we'd have a much better chance of making it until 35 weeks for the c-section. Of course the upside of him being born at 33 weeks is that my bed rest would end sooner, but I know all too well how stressful the whole NICU experience is so I'm not eager to go that route although 33 weeks is FAR better than 22 weeks (when this whole saga began).
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