The Misery that is Magnesium

After we left the specialist's office on Tuesday, Craig took me to Methodist Germantown and they admitted me to Labor & Delivery.  The plan was to start me on a medication to slow (and stop) my contractions and if it didn't work, they'd give me their strongest medication: magnesium.  I was on the first medication for only a short period of time before it was obvious it wasn't going to stop anything.  Thankfully, my contractions weren't painful (that's why I didn't know I was having them).  Late Tuesday night, they started me on magnesium.  My advice: Never take magnesium unless held at gunpoint.  Magnesium slows down the body and all of its processes (thus, the hope of slowing the contractions).  You can't eat or drink while on magnesium--I never lost the hunger sensation.  My size was not taken into account when determining the dosage of magnesium.  Magnesium makes you feel very warm, and I was burning up within a minute of the IV starting.  I did not sleep well that night.  By Wednesday morning, I could not speak, keep my eyes open, or move a muscle.  My mom had to feed me ice chips because I couldn't lift my arms.  My doctor came in that morning and took one look at me and had the amount of magnesium lowered.  Later that day, they turned it off completely and started again at a lower dose.  They kept playing with the amount based on my contractions.  Even with the magnesium, my contractions never went away.  On Thursday, they were increasing (12 an hour).  The only good thing about magnesium is that they can't keep you on it for very long.  The plan was to take me off the mag at 7 am on Friday morning and start me back on the original medication.