Archive for the ‘Doctor Visits’ Category
Date and Time
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010Maternal Fetal Medicine Visit
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
We went to the Maternal-Fetal Specialist today and got an ultrasound. I was sent to the specialist because of my blood disorder and also because my belly was measuring small. Everything was fine! Whew. She is in the 36th percentile for size, which is within the normal range. She weighed 3 pounds 1 ounce today. All of her measurements are symmetrical and all of her organs are developing fine. Yay! We got to see her practice breathing by moving her diaphragm up and down. Her face is squished against my uterus and she liked to stick her tongue out at the ultrasound probe. She’s still breeched, but it’s still early and she has time to turn. We also got to see some 3-D pictures and these actually looked better than the ones at the elective place.
The only not-so-fun part was that I was laying flat on my back for the ultrasound and around the time they started looking at the heart I started feeling like I was going to pass out and my breathing felt funny. I thought it was in my head, and kept telling myself to calm down, she’s fine… but it kept getting worse and I started feeling my limbs go tingly and fall asleep, so I finally told the technician “I feel like I’m going to pass out” and turns out that is normal because laying flat causes the baby to compress your veins. A change of position made the strange feeling go away almost instantly. Then I felt silly for not speaking up sooner and lying there for 10 minutes wondering what the hell was going on.
We don’t have to go back to this specialist until 5 weeks and that’s really just to check her growth to be sure it’s still good. It felt good to have a specialist look at every detail and make sure everything was fine. As he went through the ultrasound and told us each organ looked great, I felt like I was checking items off my worry list. The heart is fine, check. The bladder is fine, check. No cleft palate, check. Lungs are fine, check. So the list of things to worry about is definitely shorter than it was yesterday, but I guess now that I’ve started this journey into motherhood the list of worries will never be empty.
Dr Visit at 13 weeks
Monday, August 17th, 2009I went to the doctor today for a regular monthly OB appointment. It took her what felt like an ETERNITY to find the heart beat and I thought I just might die right there if she didn’t find it soon. Alas, she did find it. And she said it sounded “perfect”. That’s my little fetus, practically perfect in every way!
First Prenatal Appointment
Thursday, June 25th, 2009I had my very first prenatal appointment today with the nurse. I was the very first appointment after lunch (1:30) and I STILL had to wait 40 minutes to be pulled back from the waiting room. While I was sitting there I could hear the staff cutting up and gossiping while I was impatiently waiting. I think the doctor wasn’t there and they thought they could take their time and be lazy. I am so impatient.
Once finally pulled back, I had to pee in a cup then sit in the exam room waiting for the nurse. She had me fill out consents for vaginal delivery, consents for c-section, and consents for circumcision. I guess they like to cover all their bases up front. She gave me some papers that told me what to eat, how much to gain, what medicines I could take, and when to call the emergency doctor’s phone number. Then she went through my history, all the usuals. Asked my LMP. I told her the date but said “Also I know the date I ovulated, it was June 4th.” She didn’t seem to hear me and left it at LMP date. Oh well, eventually they will see that I have the more correct due date.
Then I went down my list of questions and some of them she answered and some of them she said she would ask the doctor about. Then it was time to take the blood tests. I asked her if she was doing a beta hcg, she said yes. I asked if I could get the results of it tomorrow (because I am obsessive like that) and she said it takes over a week for the results to come back!! Oh my, how will I ever wait that long.
After the blood work I walked up the checkout counter to schedule my ultrasound and doctor visist. As I stood there suddenly I didn’t feel good. I thought I would fall or throw up or begin to float… I looked at the nurse and told her I didn’t feel so well, and just then her face looked horrified as her eyes widened and her mouth opened, and she ran toward me and grabbed my arm, when I looked down I was bleeding from the venipuncture profusely. She pulled me into an exam room and held down pressure then put a new gauze and cleaned it all up. Apparently my blood wasn’t clotting. I found this extremely weird because I have had exactly 892,343,987,234 blood tests done in my life and never had this happen. The nurse said it was because of the pregnancy, it was making my blood thin. In a very bizarre and perhaps macabre way, this made me feel good. I AM pregnant. It’s even affecting my blood. I love it. If the pregnancy made me turn purple and have hairy spots all over I would love it too, so long as it meant I was pregnant.
First OB Visit Tomorrow
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
I am so excited I feel like a little kid on christmas eve. Tomorrow is my very first OB visit. Granted, it is just a nurse visit so I don’t see the doctor and I don’t get an ultrasound… but i am still excited.
I have a list of exactly 13 questions to ask the nurse. I’m sure she’ll assume I am crazy. But there are so many questions going around in my head. I never realized how complicated being pregnant is until now.
I’ve been having bad back pain, especially while driving. So on the way home today during a 2 hour car ride I stopped at walgreens and bought some of those icy-hot back patches. I used these while non-preggers many times and they really do help. I figured since I can’t take any pain medicine, this patch would help. After getting into car, I open up the package and stick one of those babies onto my lower back. Then as I am driving down the road I thought, surely this is safe during pregnancy since it’s only topical, let me check the box to be ridiculously extra cautious. Dammit!! Quickly remove patch while driving 80mph down the interstate. Then use handfuls of hand sanitizer to clean off back to remove any possible residue. The rest of the drive home my back hurt but it was nothing compared to my bitterness toward the people who decide what is safe and non-safe during pregnancy. I have decided a group of women-hating male doctors sit around a big table in plush leather chairs and stamp products “unsafe for pregnancy” while laughing manically at the silly women who blindly follow their lead.
I want to know exactly WHY icy-hot is not safe for pregnancy, I refused to blindly follow. So that is question # 8 on my list.