What's this? Good news!

Okay, not to get too carried away or excited but we had some encouraging news today. Dr. Huff told Mel about a pump she could use, similar to an insulin pump. It would have Mel on brethene (generic: turbulelene) all the time. This is the med that she gets by shot anytime she has too many contractions in an hour. Well they make a pump that would stay on her body so that she could be on the turb 24/7. The shots always seem to be very effective so Dr. Huff thinks this may be more effective than the magnesium drip. The "turb pump" (scary how much medical lingo we're using already) will be here Saturday morning. They will get it on Mel and start it. Then the plan is to reduce the Mag in her IV and find a good level of turb to give her through the pump. Since it seems her body likes the brethene/turb the hope is that once they find a good level of this to give her constantly it would control the contractions. Then we could start talking about going home.

If we get that far the home health care place would also provide a contraction monitor. Mel could put the monitor on for a time and the nurses (wherever they are) would read the results from their office, call our doc then call Mel and tell her what the doc says. If she did begin having contractions while at home, she could call the nurses and they would turn up the dosage on the pump. Pretty cool stuff. And we found out today that our insurance did approve all of this! So definitely the most encouraging news we've had. We are not going to get too set on this in case the pump isn't able to keep her contractions under control, but it is nice to have some hope of Mel getting to go home. Being unhooked from the IV, catheter and into our own home would be so nice. Keep those prayers going that this method will be effective.

That's it for today. After tonight we'll have officially put one week in here at homey Lakeside Women's Hospital. I'm excited to watch the OU/Texas game on our 19" RCA TV here in the hospital room. Please no visitors between 2:30-6:00 on Saturday. None after that if we lose!! Just kidding. Being here football games don't seem nearly as important so I'd be fine even if we lose. Should be a fun and exciting weekend!

-Gavan