Six Months Ago...Part 1 (Happy Birthday X!)
Six Months ago, indigo_eris had just settled into the Hospital for the long stretch. She knew she would be there until the baby was delivered, which would hopefully be at least a few weeks away still. It was a Monday, and I had pspent the weekend with her, slept at the hospital, used their shower facilities, and left for work. I parked at Penn Station, and caught the 8:10 MARC train to Washington DC, as usual. I met Shari in our usual spot in the lower level of the third car, and the train departed. I was telling her about this new Tarot deck under development (by shatterstripes ) I was interested in, when my cell phone rang. It was Tauna. The Doctors had decided they'd pushed Tauna's body as far as possible, and I needed to get back to the hospital as soon as possible, because "they were delivering Xerxes today".
We were just pulling up the West Baltimore train station -- I quickly told the very concerned-looking Shari what was going on, said goodbye, and and got off the train.
West Baltimore isn't exactly nice. It was very warm out, and in that tree-less area, the morning sun was really starting to bake me. I quickly set out walking toward the University of Maryland, whose towering parking garage I could see in the distance. Eventually, I saw a cab, which I had no trouble hailing. I proceded back to the 7th Floor IMC unit. Tauna was surprised at how fast I returned.
The doctors were worried that Tauna's diminishing health (she had pre-eclampsia and later we found out was beginning to develop HELLP syndrome) might cause spontaneous fetal death (like SIDS in the womb) so they were going to deliver by C-Section that day. Bam! Just like that. It was happening. They had another delivery beforem but they were thinking they would have the surgery around three o clock. I started emailing and messaging and calling people. I even posted briefly on here. I was rather freaking out.
What followed was visit after visit by a flurry of doctors and nurses and surgeons, in and out like a revolving door as they briefed her, and began to prep her for surgery. One doctor came in and explained to us all the problems that extreme preemie babies could develop, like brain bleeds, hydrocephalous, PDAs, and, of course, Bad Lungs(tm).
It all proceeded at an odd combination of relatively fast, yet agonizingly slow. Three o clock came and went, and poor Tauna was getting very hungry. I was getting all our stuff packed up and ready, and fielding all the phone calls to keep everybody informed. Eventually they wheeled her off to give her the epidural and made me go into a separate room to dress in the blue scrub overalls and wait.
To be continued...
We were just pulling up the West Baltimore train station -- I quickly told the very concerned-looking Shari what was going on, said goodbye, and and got off the train.
West Baltimore isn't exactly nice. It was very warm out, and in that tree-less area, the morning sun was really starting to bake me. I quickly set out walking toward the University of Maryland, whose towering parking garage I could see in the distance. Eventually, I saw a cab, which I had no trouble hailing. I proceded back to the 7th Floor IMC unit. Tauna was surprised at how fast I returned.
The doctors were worried that Tauna's diminishing health (she had pre-eclampsia and later we found out was beginning to develop HELLP syndrome) might cause spontaneous fetal death (like SIDS in the womb) so they were going to deliver by C-Section that day. Bam! Just like that. It was happening. They had another delivery beforem but they were thinking they would have the surgery around three o clock. I started emailing and messaging and calling people. I even posted briefly on here. I was rather freaking out.
What followed was visit after visit by a flurry of doctors and nurses and surgeons, in and out like a revolving door as they briefed her, and began to prep her for surgery. One doctor came in and explained to us all the problems that extreme preemie babies could develop, like brain bleeds, hydrocephalous, PDAs, and, of course, Bad Lungs(tm).
It all proceeded at an odd combination of relatively fast, yet agonizingly slow. Three o clock came and went, and poor Tauna was getting very hungry. I was getting all our stuff packed up and ready, and fielding all the phone calls to keep everybody informed. Eventually they wheeled her off to give her the epidural and made me go into a separate room to dress in the blue scrub overalls and wait.
To be continued...