November 10, 2004
An amusing baby update
The baby is getting more and more active, for longer periods of time. I can sit and watch a spot on my belly pop up suddenly, then retract. Once, a small bulge appeared on my left slide, slid sideways a couple of inches, then disappeared.
Late last week, I think I felt the baby having hiccups. I know she gets them, because we could see her hiccuping during the last ultrasound (at 20 weeks), but I hadn't felt them yet. This time, I noticed some mild thumping going on low in my abdomen that was strangely rhythmic and regular, so I figure it was hiccups.
This morning, something thumped against my upper belly on the right side. I pushed back with my hand, then the object moved, to pop up again a couple of inches away. I pushed down again, this time distinctly feeling a small hard object underneath my hand. I think it was a foot.
Then this afternoon, she pulled some sort of movement that made me shudder. It felt like she grabbed the front wall of my belly, then pulled it around her or wrapped herself in it like it was a blanket. It was freaky feeling!
Gestational Diabets Update
The evening before my appointment, the clinic called and told me that my scheduled appointment was a "combo" - I was to see the nurse practitioner and then the doctor - but the nurse wasn't going to be available so they wanted to reschedule me for another doctor and push the appointment back an hour. Fine with me.
After I checked in at the endocrinology clinic, Dale and I waited a good 20 minutes or so before I was called back. During the wait, we heard one of the front desk workers calling a patient to reschedule an appointment because the doctor had an emergency situation and wouldn't be available. The doctor she named was the one I was scheduled to see.
Finally, we were called back by a nurse. She got my weight and blood pressure, then asked if I had a copy of my glucose test results. I told her I'd called my ob/gyn last week and they were supposed to have sent over the results. They hadn't, so I gave her my doctor's name so the nurse could call them. The hospital I was in was literally across the street from my ob/gyn, so someone could have walked over and gotten a copy and been back in 10 minutes.
Anyway, the nurse asked if I'd had some test done called a AR5 or something like that. It measures average blood sugar levels over the previous two months. It didn't sound familiar, so she went ahead and did one. It involved a finger prick and putting a tiny bead of blood into a cartridge that went into a small machine. She said we should have the results in about 6 minutes. In the mean time, Dale and I were shown into an exam room.
After another 10 or 15 minute wait, the doctor came in. I guess we'd misheard or misunderstood what the front desk scheduler had been saying on the phone. The doctor introduced himself, then asked if I understood why I was there. I told him I'd been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. He asked if I understood what that meant, and I said, "sort of," so we got a brief lecture on gestational diabetes and how it affects the mother and the baby.
The nurse popped in briefly to hand over my recent test results, along with a copy of my records from my ob/gyn that had just been faxed. Apparently my AR5 (or whatever it was) results came back 'fine' so the gestational diabetes is probably a recent development. Then the doctor took a few minutes to look over my records, and we got the question again: "so, you're pregnant with twins?"
Dale and I had to spend a few minutes explaining what had happened to the doctor and when we were done, he just looked thunderstruck. It's strange to think that something that happened to me still takes medical professionals by surprise.
The doctor moved on to doing a quick physical exam, checking my eyes and such. Then he said what we'd do is get me into a diabetes management class that would explain how I'd check my blood sugar levels at home and use diet and excercise to manage my glucose levels. Then he escorted us to the patient check out. I got signed up for a class tomorrow (Thursday) morning, and we left.
I can't really say I felt that that doctor visit had been very productive. I didn't really learn anything that I didn't already know, but I guess it was something to get out of the way before the diabetes class. Dale and I also agreed that the first impression we got of the doctor was that he was either drugged or half asleep. When he first came in, he was mumbling so I could barely understand him, but he seemed to perk up through our meeting. Overall, it was a strange experience.
Heart update
Monday was my appointment at the Austin Heart Hospital. I was there because I'd complained to my prenatal RN that my pulse rate almost always seemed to be really high lately, and at times it beat so strong, I could feel it in my fingertips and eyeballs. I also have bad shortness of breath issues from time to time, especially after first lying down.
The first nurse took my blood pressure from both arms - good. Then she took my pulse and all but said, "DA-YAMN, girlfriend!" when she saw the results. Sitting still in the chair next to her, it measured 104 beats/minute. Next she did a quick EKG reading, and I think the results were fine/normal.
Next, a medical student came in and introduced herself and explained the doctor who'd be seeing me shortly was her mentor, and would I mind if she asked me some questions and participated in the exam? I told her that was fine then answered a lot of questions about my family and personal medical histories. During that, the RN came in. The intern and RN took turns asking questions, listening to my heart, and feeling my pulse. Apparently, my ob/gyn had sent over some of my records because the RN looked at my file then said, "oh, you're having twins!"
I had to explain that no, I wasn't. I'd had a dual pregnancy, but I lost one in May because it was ectopic. She and the intern kind of stared for a minute, then she apologized. I assured her it was all right, and though it made me miserable to think about it, I was able to get by without crying.
After the doctor came in, he listened to my heart, checked pulse points, and basically did everything the intern and RN had already done. Then he said he could hear a small heart murmur, so he had the other two listen to it while reassuring me that it was very faint and probably nothing to worry about. He said it's likely caused by my heart having to cope with the greatly increased amount of blood in my circulatory system and would be gone after the baby is born.
The doctor also said that while my pulse rate is high, it's not out of the normal range for a pregnant woman. A bigger worry would be if I had an irregular heartbeat or noticed my heart skipping any beats, which I don't. So, he thinks I'm just fine, but he's sending me to get an echocardiagram next week, just to have a look at my heart and make sure it looks good.