I did something really stupid today. I knew it was a bad idea, but that apparently didn’t stop me from doing it. I went online and read up about the possible complications of liver failure in pregnancy and all the possible physical, developmental and psychological problems that can be associated with being born a preemie. The liver pathologies are not nice. One can actually involve your liver, how to say it, exploding internally. Messy. The general consensus about those worst-case scenarios is that they are not very nice. When I left the office to go to Addenbrookes, I was a bit of a mess. Katy had one look at me and got one of the midwives to yell at me (figuratively speaking). I have just enough medical knowledge to be dangerous :)
Turns out that the worst-case scenarios are also rare, and are the result of what happens when you catch them at the last possible moment (or don’t catch them at all). I re-read my previous blog entries and they do sound a bit melodramatic. Katy is not at death’s door. As a matter of fact, she’s doing ok. Ben is still a very active baby and Katy isn’t feeling out of sorts at all (unless you factor in being bored). The worst thing she currently has is high blood pressure. It spiked up earlier today and gave her blurry vision for 10-15 minutes but then everything went back to normal by itself and her BP was normal-ish while I was there. The midwife thinks that her high pressure might be putting some stress on her liver, which might explain the elevated enzyme readings, but it doesn’t seem to be anything nastier than that at the moment. Her bile acids results came in tonight and are normal, which means that it’s not one of the more common potential liver nasties. They’re keeping in her for another 48 hours at least to do more bloods and more BP checks.
Like the midwife said, it’s a watch and wait game. If her liver functions remain high-ish but don’t get worse and her blood pressure stabilizes, there is a good chance of Ben going to full term. She’s going to be well monitored and, at the first sign of trouble, they’ll deal appropriately. She said that there have been cases where one blood test after dozens of normal ones kicks-starts the whole process into high gear. Watch and wait.
For now, all is well. Nothing bad has happened and lots of good people are working hard to keep it that way. I have also been banned from reading medical websites on the Internet, but Katy says that I can browse for porn instead. Have I mentioned that I love my wife recently?
Cause I do.