Week #29 : Preterm Labor

This post is coming to you all from my phone, so I'll apologize now for misspellings and slang... Well, I've made it to week #29, & let me just say it hasn't been easy these last few weeks. I've been having a lot of contractions that I finally decided to have checked out last Tuesday night at labor and delivery. Turns out, it was a form of preterm labor caused by uterine hyperstimulation. They gave me an injection of terbutaline to stop the contractions and told me to come back if i had more than 4 in an hour that are not relieved by rest and increasing fluids. As I walked downstairs, I started having a few, but decided to go home anyways so i could relax. The next morning, I was still having contractions, but got called into work, so against my husband's better judgement and continual warnings, I went in. It was a hell of a shift, and i was working side by side with the Dr regarding several patients for almost the whole time. He called me out on the contractions I was trying pretty hard to hide, so not wanting to be the nurse that "lies about herself, so we can't assume she won't lie about her patients, too" (that's what was going on in my head), I confided in the Dr that yes, just 12 hours earlier I was released from LDR, and yes, I was in fact having several contractions an hour that were pretty painful.

As soon as the seemingly sympathetic Dr left for the night, I received a call at work from my DON telling me she had heard from an anonymous source that i was in labor, and that i needed to leave the facility to go to the hospital, that i could drop everything to go, or I could call an ambulance to take me. I tried to assure her it wasn't necessary, and decided to stay late and finish my charting. Once I sat down, the contractions became less painful, and less frequent, so i decided to just go home... The contractions never really went away. Just kept coming and going for a few more days. I was tempted many times to go back to the hospital, especially Thursday night when I had 11 contractions in an hour and a few minutes. But I was stubborn still, so I didn't. Then Friday, I felt mostly better again. So when i was asked to work from 7p-1a, I agreed. The contractions came on strong again. As my luck would have it, my relief came in an hour early, so i decided to just go to the hospital to get checked out again. The nurse that took care of me wasn't the same nurse from Tuesday night, but she did remember me. She asked why I hadn't followed up with the Dr (the other nurse NEVER told me to, and I have discharge instructions to prove it!), and decided to give me the full workup. She gave me a bolus of lactated ringers solution with sugar (for my nurse friends, she set the pump to 999ml/hr), then once that had infused, she started another. She also gave me Procardia (PO) and told me if that didn't work, she had orders from my Dr to put me into a drug-induced sleep with Demerol, phenergan, and a muscle relaxer. Thankfully after a couple of hours, the Procardia worked, and I was sent home with strict instructions for no work/traveling at least until I see my Dr on Wednesday morning. Starting again last night, I've been having a few contractions here and there again, so i called my Dr. He put me on Procardia again, but I'm just taking it every 6 hours as needed.for the contractions, and i can do that from the comfort of my home. I'm just waiting until Wednesday to see where we go from here. There's my update!! I'll keep you all informed as I find stuff out!