It really all started some time ago, Valentine's day - but that is another story for another day. We'll start with our eventful trip to Gariep.
Hayley had been having a time of it until then, cramps and a bit of bleeding. We had gone to the hospital twice to make sure and was reassured that everything was fine and that the baby was doing well. Each time his heartbeat was well the range is should be. The symptoms, we were told were unusual, but "it happens to some women sometime". There appeared no real underlying cause.
He just wanted out. As we now know.
Anyway, Hayley needed to do this trip. Gariep was the start of her "Green Label" and was the culmination of a few months of arranging and communicating with an array of interested and interesting people. This was her conference. It was happening because of her and she could not miss it. On top of that Tim, the key "expert" from the EWT had to pull out at the last minute. For her to bail would also meant the likely termination of the conference.
So I decided to go along. It would be a break, but it meant that I could take some pressure off and if things did go bad I could ... ?
Exactly. They did. The second night the "cramps" got bad and the bleeding was heavier.
Gariep is 34 km from Colesberg, the nearest town with a hospital and barely a website. I noted that it had been opened by Manto (our infamous Minister of Health) just 4 years earlier. It was a worst case scenario. Bloemfontein is 180 km, and was our best bet.
Decision time. It was about 9 pm. We were tired and getting stressed so we decided to get ready to go, but tough it out to see if the pills were able to kick in and suppress the cramps. Hayley lay down and tried to rest.
We made it. The cramps subsided and we both got a night of fitful but successful sleep. Hayley woke up able to cope and managed to bring the conference to a the conclusion she was hoping for.
We headed home having had a moment, but hoping that it was just a blip on the radar, inexplicable but insignificant. That was the hope, or the nature of the denial, at least.
2 comments:
Alan & Hayley,
Congratulations on the birth of our newest grandson!
We are grateful for the blog you have set up so that we can follow his progress and development even though we are so far away.
We pray daily for Rain's continued development and growth and for Hayley's good health as well.
Our loving thoughts are with you all.
Mom & Dad
We have just seen the newest pictures of Rain and are thrilled with the progress he seems to be making, although it did bring Mom to tears. It's amazing to see the skill and confidence of the nurse as she works with him.
It was lovely to hear you both comenting on the care and treatment Rain is getting.
Thanks for sharing his development with us.
Our love and thoughts are with you all the time.
Mom & Dad
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