(Fwd) Re: my story
Cris Coffey (CCOFFEY@rugs.bry.indiana.edu)
Wed, 27 Mar 1996 16:47:02 EST5
This is my message from Cynthia. She requested I send it to the
group.
Cris
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 15:36:18 -0600
To: "Cris Coffey" <CCOFFEY@rugs.bry.indiana.edu>
From: Cynthia Faullin <cfaullin@uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: my story
Hi again Cris. Interesting what you say about steroids and growth etc.
Once my water broke in my second pregnancy they gave me shots of Brethane
(also an asthma med) every four hours. Labour began every time we tried to
go longer than four hours. I also had the two shots of Betamethasone for
Trenton's lungs. The Brethane shots went on for a day and a half until
Trenton was delivered. By the way, that stuff made me crazy. I shook so
hard after the first shot that I almost fell out of the bed. My heart rate
was 140 and felt like it was going to pound right out of my chest. Anyway,
back to my original point. I am now beginning to wonder what effect the
Brethane had on Trenton because he too is very large. Today at his 6th
month check he weighed 17lb 6oz. He's big even for a term baby and he was
11 weeks early! I also had a few doses of Brethane earlier in pregnancy for
false labour. Oh, something else that I want to add! When I was in
hospital with Trenton, I never did feel a single contraction. At one point
the perinatologist said I could probably move from L&D to ante-partum and I
refused because I knew that I couldn't feel what was going on with my body.
I'm so glad that I insisted on staying where they could monitor me much more
closely because who knows what would have happened to Trenton when he got
tangled in his cord. Anyway, back to the original point, it would be very
interesting to know what effect (if any) the steroids and asthma meds. have
on development and growth.
Cynthia Faullin
mom to Trevor and Trenton
At 02:57 PM 3/25/96 EST5, you wrote:
>Hello. My son, Brandon was born only 4 weeks premature, but my
>pregnancy was so rough that I want to compare notes with other
>parents. At 19 weeks I went into premature labor. I was placed on
>strict bed rest (bedside potty, no showers....) and began using
>terbutaline to control the contractions. I received my doses of
>terbutaline every three hours via the catheter in my leg. It was
>hooked up to a little machine that timed my doses for me, so that I
>would also receive them in the middle of the night (it's not like I
>could sleep, anyway!).
>
>I was on terbutaline for a total of 16 weeks. During that time I
>also received steroid injections to mature Brandon's lungs--the
>doctors did not expect me to carry him past the point of danger for
>preemies. It turns out that he was a true miracle. I carried him to
>36 weeks. The very day I was allowed out of bed and discontinued
>the terbutaline, I wound up in labor and delivery (I only lasted 3-4
>hours after I stopped the terbutaline and got out of bed--I was
>hanging on by a thread!). By some miracle, Brandon weighed 7 lbs. 3
>oz, and was so healthy that he went home with me the next day.
>
>Now the troubles. Not only did he have his eating schedule as a
>newborn, it was like clockwork. He was hungry every three hours--on
>the hour. Coincidentally, they were the exact hours I had received my
>doses of terbutaline all those months. We think the terbutaline was
>still working on him since he got a jolt every time I got the
>terbutaline dose. Also, he did not develop normally. At 7 months,
>he'd never supported his own head, sat up, rolled over, crawled, or
>anything. He was limp and didn't usually kick his legs the way other
>babies do. Test after test ruled out MD, which is what the
>specialists were suspecting. He was diagnosed with "hypotonia",
>which just means his muscles were weak. Physical therapy brought him
>out of it, and he was walking right on schedule with other babies.
>Since there was really nothing more than that wrong with him, my
>family and I wonder if the terbutaline also delayed his muscular
>development.
>
>Brandon is now an active 3 1/2 year old. He is extremely intelligent
>for his age, as well as BIG! He's so smart, speaks so well, and is
>so big, he is often mistaken (even by his daycare providers!) for a 5
>or 6 year old. I'm wondering if the terbutaline or even the steriods
>contributed to this.
>
>I'd like to hear from anyone else out there with similar experiences
>or children like mine after using terbutaline to control labor. The
>drug has not really been studied all that much for this particular
>use, since it's FDA approved only for treatment of athsma--physicians
>just started using it to treat pre-term labor because they found it
>worked for that purpose. Anyone with a similar story?
>
>Cris Coffey, mother of Brandon
>ccoffey@indiana.edu
>
>