Ciggy Ciggy!

"I think I can fill up this 3-liter container of a day's pee". That's what she said when we were heading home from the hospital yesterday. And true enough, she did. Well not really to the brim but yes it was a lot of pee. I was wondering myself why that many? Well as the doctor explained, pre-eclampsia damages the lining of blood vessels and when they are severed, proteins leak out and it's the kidneys job to get them out of the system - thus the urine that can run your 4-valve engine up to the nearest shop.

SUNDAY, DAY 2

We just got back from Harvey Norman. Yes. (!) We got the laptop and the pretty DSLR that I was talking about from a previous post. Before we got home she was complaining of a headache that she has eversince she woke up this morning. She slumped on the bed the moment we arrived home. After a while she said "love... can we go back to the hospital?". I told her to let me just take a quick shower since I stink of salmon from Springvale. Or that's what I thought because the next thing I know is we are on our way to the hospital and I don't need a net or a rod to announce that I am a fisherman.

"You made the right decision" said the midwife, who was a scot, that's why I was still figuring out what she said (no offense on that one, i love the scots, i am just dyslexic with accents). My wife's BP shot up again up to 160 over 112. On a note, if you have high blood pressure when you are pregnant it doesn't mean that you have pre-eclampsia because there is also gestational hypertension which is the same as gestational diabetes. Both happen when you are pregnant and could easily leave as soon as you give birth. The midwife confirmed that it was pretty much pre-eclampsia because of the result from the 4 vials of blood that we deposited yesterday and a high protein count in that 3-liter pee.

After 3 hours her BP was teetering between 150 and 160. I was asked to get clothes because she may be admitted until they get the baby out. I wanted to freak out but they informed me in a very calm manner. I am screaming in my mind. I can see fear in my wife's eyes. If only pre-eclampsia was a person, I am ready to get jailed for manslaughter.

Have you had an experience where you are driving on the one lane and the car ahead of you is imagining a funeral traffic? And then your phone rings and your wife said an ambulance arrived because they will be transferring her to a level 3 hospital because they lack facilities there. I am always courteous on the road so I persevered the agony behind the little cooper. Not until I've had enough of it or say 60 seconds?

I was very confused when I got back to her room. She got iv'd with magnesium on the left hand to control her BP, water on the right hand for hydration and two tubes into the bladder through her little pee hole to monitor protein leak. If you're a woman you are definitely sure that it's not the man-hole. If you are an ignorant ape like me, now you know. I felt helpless as I hear my wife crying in pain. I can't ask the midwives because they were still busy inserting tubes and needles and what-nots. I stood there with a faint clue of what's happening and that includes her clothes that I brought to the hospital. I didn't even know I was in a frozen shock... not until Phil, the ambulance driver told me to go ahead to Monash Medical Center so I can catch up with the ambulance.

What happens if you have pre-eclampsia? That's the question running in my mind while I race past the lights in an empty freeway to Monash. Is it that serious that the midwives in the hospital are in a frenzy to transfer her to a level 3 medical center? I remember a story my wife told me about a few months ago. She has a friend who was pregnant and couldn't care to go to the doctor (or a midwife) for a prenatal. 7 months into the pregnancy she was admitted to the hospital because she dropped unconscious and had seizures. When she arrived in the hospital the doctors can't open her up and get the baby because her blood pressure was too high. It would cost her her life if that happens. My wife, the only kind friend who showed up in the hospital (and raised money for her) saw how the baby was panicking inside the womb. It was kicking as if it wants to go out. In the end she lost her bub and she got into a coma for 8 weeks.

If that was pre-eclampsia we need all the prayers from everyone.

I was already there when my wife arrived with a dizzy bag in hand. I had a hint that she enjoyed the ambulance ride. They tucked her into a nice, neat bed and minutes later she was fast asleep. I was just looking at her with all those tubes. She will be okay I told myself. Victoria has the best natal care in the country a friend told me. "She will be alright" were the words that is on a loop in my head as I waited for sunrise.

*sniff*

*sniff*

I still stink of fish.

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