Hey, Hey, Hey. I'm feeling so much better! I was in hospital yesterday and my haemoglobin, which was 7 when I went into hospital at first (11.5 is normal for a woman), has gone up to 9.5. This is good when you consider that it would be lower because I'm pregnant anyway. My platelet count, which was about seventy when I first went in, is now more than 300. All great news!
Charlie contacted the Care Group from Westhill Episcopal Church and Lyn has organised lifts home for me from the hospital when I need them – which is wonderful. It means that the routine for Amber and Megan will be the same as normal which I'm really happy about. One less thing for me to worry about!
I'm really touched by how wonderful everyone is. Maria from church came round to see us with a fantastic gingerbread treasure chest stuffed full of chocolates – and chocolate is a key part of my diet currently! This is what it looked like before we all had a piece…yum. And all the messages, both via email and the guestbook are lovely – thank you all.
Charlie and some of the guys went to give blood yesterday. Thanks Andy W., Paul, Lawrence, Jim, Andy R., Willie, Jacko. Charlie said you were all very brave…and I won't mention the fainting…?
As you probably know from the blog, today was an important day. I had my 18 week scan today, the first since I've been receiving treatment for my leukaemia. The ATRA drug I'm taking does crossover the pacenta and we didn't know for sure if the babies would be affected or not. The evidence from the reported cases is that they should be okay – but Charlie and I were more than a bit apprehensive just before we went in.
It was a detailed scan and took about an hour in total. The radiographer checked every part of each twin really thoroughly: head circumference, cerebellum, spine, heart (four chambers of the heart), bladder, kidneys, hands, feet, lips, nose, eyes…and everything is first-class. Twin one is the bigger of the two and has measurements which are bang on 18 weeks. Twin two is only a couple of days behind. The babies are really active and the radiographer had a bit of trouble getting them still enough to take pictures and measurements.
I love the fact that the babies seem oblivious to my leukaemia. Seeing them both moving around so much reminded me of just how both Amber and Megan were when they were scanned. I also enjoyed, today, just being another mum-to-be in for a scan rather than sitting in a hospital bed waiting for my blood count ;-|.
When we were trying for a baby, Charlie downloaded loads of stuff about how to have a boy – which we did for a laugh (and a fortune in ovulation testing strips!) – we already have two girls and I think we genuinely thought we would be having girls again but…now I am expecting twin boys (serves me right for thinking it was all a load of rubbish :-). Seriously, we are both absolutely full of joy over this and Amber is thrilled however Megan is a little less thrilled and said "Boys…oh no, two willies…yuk!"
Once we were out of the scan room Charlie did a lap of honour in the corridor of the scanning department…I guess they must have seen that kind of behaviour before…right? Today has been a wonderful day and we've been truely blessed. And now we have to work out names…do I go with "Ant and Dec" or "Dick and Dom"?