17 P

On Tuesday, October 18th, Aaron and I went to our 16 week appointment with our OB.  Dr. Branaman was out on a delivery, so we saw one of the nurse practitioners instead.  We were able to listen to our little one's heartbeat and I got some blood drawn for the "quad screen" blood test.

The nurse also discussed "17 P" injections with us.  We had never heard of this, but the idea behind 17 P is to help prolong pregnancy and prevent preterm birth in women who have a history of preterm birth.  Since Talan was born at 36 weeks and Hunter was born at 36 weeks and 6 days, I was considered a candidate for the injections.  The injections were to take place between 16 and 18 weeks and would continue weekly until 36 weeks.  The nurse was going to discuss it with Dr. Branaman and give us a call on Thursday.

Aaron and I went home and discussed the injections.  We weren't necessarily convinced if I needed the injections since Hunter was only one day away from being considered full term.  I also couldn't find out much information online about the injections and was a little uneasy about the whole thing. 

On Thursday, I received a voice mail telling me that my doctor had reviewed everything and decided that I would be a good candidate for the 17 P injections and would like to get me set-up with home health care to get them started.  Home health care called me the same day to verify my insurance and make sure that everything would be covered.  I still wasn't convinced I was going to get the injections at this point, but didn't think it would hurt to start the ball rolling with insurance.

Meanwhile, I put in a call to my OB so I could discuss my concerns with her more before I made my final decision.  We were finally able to touch base on Tuesday of the next week.  However, I got a little more than I bargained for with that phone call ...