Yellow flags

First off, to all of those who live in the US, Grey and I wish you all of happy and safe 4th of July! May your day be filled with sunshine of some sort and the only fireworks be the ones you get to "oh" and "ah" over.

For those from Canada, wishing you all a happy belated Canada Day! I hope it was amazing.

Grey and I are celebrating this Independence Day by sleeping in and staying close to home. The start of the week has been a bit too eventful for us and your's truly is now being strictly monitored by the MFMs. As I'm not much for being the center of attention, it's been an interesting few days.

Things started getting interesting on Monday night. Grey has noticed that my ankles have been swelling more than usual over the weekend and that my energy levels were near zero in the evenings. Add in the fact that I've been seeing stars for no particular reason and the end result is a suspicious husband. After a brief discussion, Grey decided it would be a good idea to monitor my blood pressure. Normally, my BP is around 105/60, but with the last couple of appointments we've both noticed it's been slowly creeping up. Still, we weren't expecting the first reading: 134/92. And when we told the triage nurses, it was immediately apparently where we would be spending the next 4 hours.

The long and the short of it, though everyone is fine, is that my liver function is questionable. The appointment I had on Wednesday (growth scan and normal OB check) has my care team on alert as the levels are still higher than normal. After ruling out Hepatitis (I've never had it and have been vaccinated) and seeing that my BP is still higher than normal (averaging around 118/66 with their devices), the concern is preeclampsia. Granted, I have zero protein in my urine and I'm still under the diagnostic range, but considering this isn't my normal they've decided to be prudent and bump me to weekly appointments.

Needless to say, though I'm not happy, I've accepted it.

A couple of weeks ago in our Multiples class, the instructor put up a slide about groups at risk for preeclampsia. Though carrying multiples is definitely a risk factor, both Grey and I quickly exchanged looks when we saw that APA syndrome was at the top of the list. I haven't done a lot of reading about this association, but there are a couple of articles that suggest a correlation with the syndrome and preeclampsia/HELLP.

So, we're being vigilant. Or as the head of my care team has pointed out, we have yellow flags. In addition to monitoring the usual symptoms weekly, I am now starting weekly blood draws to monitor liver function. Grey is also on me about monitoring BP, I officially qualify for disabled parking (which I am applying for on Friday) and that my time commuting to work is officially over.

On a good note, the Beats are doing very well. They both rocked the growth scan, measuring at ~3 lbs (putting them in the 58% for growth). Grey laughed when we got the news that they were doing well. That news helped all of us.

Now if we can just get my body to cooperate. . . .