My Pregnancy

Steve and I went on a date Friday night. While we were sitting at the movies I felt like something was wrong with my pregnancy. I wasn't in a lot of pain but felt if I didn't go to the hospital that it would be irresponsible. So I called the doctor on call and he told me to head over. They hooked me up on monitors and found I was dilated to a 2.5 maybe 3 and that I was having contractions every 4 to 5 minutes. They gave me a steroid shot to help the baby's lungs just in case and then gave me a shot to try and stop my contractions. The shot raised my heart rate to over 150 bpm so they weren't able to give me the second dose. They gave me an alternate drug to try and stop the contractions. Then they drew my blood to check my platelets since that is what caused me to be induced with Shannon at 36 weeks. My platelets came back at 101, if your platelets go below 100 many anesthesiologists will not give you an epidural and you have to have your baby natural. If your platelets are too low than your blood will not clot and getting an epidural could cause you to bleed internally and they wouldn't know and I wouldn't clot. Anyway, 5 hours later we were allowed to leave, it was 2 in the morning. The doctor sent me home with a Rx to take every 6 hours to stop my contractions. On Monday I was in a lot of pain. It felt like I was having a very heavy period with major cramps and pain. I went in to see the doctor and Allen had told the doctor that if I had progressed to a 3 to send me straight over to labor and delivery. Dr. Young checked me and said I was at a 3 but what concerned him more was that my cervix was ready. Sounded like I'll my body needed to do was dilate some more and the baby was ready to come. I headed over to labor and delivery and got hooked up on monitors again. They gave me a heavy dosage of meds to stop the contracting but they were still happening every 8 minutes. I was going nuts. I just wanted to be home and to take care of my kids. I asked Dr. Allen, can I just go home? He said he wanted me to stay 24 hours and then would check me the next day but he would see where my contractions were going. After 6 hours in the hospital my contractions had slowed down enough that he said I could go home but on strict bed rest. So, as of tomorrow I am 33 weeks pregnant. I am to lay in bed for the next 3 weeks only getting up to go to the bathroom and then lay back down. I am on a double dosage of medicine to stop my contractions for the next 3 weeks as well. Once I turn 36 weeks he will take me off my medicine and bed rest and the baby can then come.

One step forward

After just two months of physical therapy Shannon started walking. I believe it was July 15th that she took her first few steps. It is wonderful having her to be able to walk. Now I have to be extra careful about always keeping her in my site because if she wanders off, I can't call to her to get her attention.  She has been sleeping in her own room in the twin bed now for about 4 weeks and she is doing great. It is the same bed I used in high school. I also finished the vinyl in her room which I am happy with.

Last Friday, August 31st, Steve and I took Shannon up to Primary Children's and she had her MRI as well as another ABR done. She fought pretty hard again going under, luckily Steve was there to hold her. This was his first time being there when she was sedated and was very surprised at her strength. The ABR showed the same result in her left ear, which is not responding with this type of testing. The right ear gave us a response this time. I can't remember if it is called wave 4 or 5 but it showed up this time during testing. It is showing severe to profound hearing loss. The scale for hearing loss is this, mild, moderate, severe, profound. So in her right ear she is deaf, really can't hear anything. We still don't know what she can hear with her left. The audiologist, Adrienne, said they are just baffled by Shannon. She said that things like this do happen but it is so rare that they aren't sure what is going on. On Wednesday, I went up to Primary's again to receive the MRI results. Our ENT, Dr. Grimmer, said that overall everything looked normal except for her inner ear on both sides. It is slightly enlarged which can cause hearing loss, but in Shannon's case he didn't feel it was affecting her hearing. So he said to keep going along with our audiologists plan of sound room tests every 3 weeks and that we don't have an answer to what is causing her loss. He also ordered an EKG for Shannon and sent us to make an appointment with a pediatric opthamologist because there can be problems related to her heart and blindness when it comes to her baffling hearing loss. We will get the EKG results soon but couldn't get in to the opthamologist until November 1st. Our regular audiologist, Ranae, wasn't in when we went to see Dr. Grimmer but she called me the next day to check up. I told her what Dr. Grimmer had said about it not affecting Shannon's hearing and she said that she and Adrienne, the other audiologist had been talking and researching trying to figure out what could be going on with Shannon. She asked if we could come back up to Primary's the next day because she wanted to reprogram Shannon's hearing aids and discuss her MRI. So this morning I headed up there with Conner and Shannon. Ranae said she and Adrienne have been talking to another ENT named Dr. Park to get a second opinion on Shannon's MRI. He runs a hearing loss clinic at Primary's and agrees with the Ranae and Adrienne that her enlarged inner ear could be affecting her hearing, he said he wanted to see Shannon. I called and his next opening isn't until December 4th but I am excited for him to see Shannon. Besides Ranae reprogramming Shannon's hearing aids today she also took new molds because her's are getting too small. Her hearing aids are now programmed for severe to profound on both sides since that is what the ABR is showing on the right ear. After programming them we went into the sound booth for another testing. Oh my goodness I should have brought ear plugs for sure. Even though her hearing aids are programmed at a very high level of severe to profound she only responded about 3 or 4 times to the sound. And believe me the sound that was coming through those speakers was LOUD, but it didn't bother Shannon. After Ranae saw how Shannon responded with the newly programmed aids and insanely loud noise she said she didn't think hearing aids would work for Shannon, she will most likely need cochlear implants on both sides. So for now we go back in 2 weeks for another sound test, and then again every 3 weeks, then the next month I will have my baby, then in November we take her to see the opthamologist and in December she gets to see the new ENT.

We are all doing great, as long as I remind myself I don't have to have all the answers. Right now all I am going to concentrate on is getting Shannon to wear her hearing aids all day without ripping them out. Then I will worry about being more consistent with disciplining my children, then I will try to keep up on my house......one step at a time. Shannon will eventually pick up on sign, she will eventually learn to speak, she will learn her name, she will hear our voices. First and foremost she is our happy, happy Shannon.