What
an interesting week of appointments. On
September 29 I went in for my blood work to be done for Crohn’s and Gestational
Diabetes. On Tuesday I get a call from
my general physician, Dr B. I got
stressed to no end thinking he got the results and is calling me in sooner than
seeing my OB because it was positive for Diabetes. They wouldn’t tell me what it was over the
phone, so I had to go in for a rush appointment. (He was going on Vacation as of
Thursday.) So I get an appointment for
the same day, had to leave work early, so did Deb because we were car pooling,
and when making the appointment, I had forgotten I didn’t have the car that
day. Buggar. We get to the appointment a bit late because
of traffic, and the receptionist wasn’t too pleasant about it, even though we
called to explain we would be late. Once
in with Dr B, he rushed me in because I’m anemic. I all ready F#%*ng know that. I’m trying various forms of iron. Alas he had me try yet another version of
supplements. (Didn’t work). He was looking at the paperwork from the
gastrologist (Dr. W) but didn’t have the results for the Diabetes yet. Are you kidding me, we rushed and stressed and
missed work to find out something I all ready knew. He also had concerns that I might have
arthritis as something was inflamed. At
which point, I asked for a copy of my blood work. After investigating the results, I figured it
was my Crohn’s that was inflamed, and would discuss with Dr. W the following
week.
On
Monday I saw my gastrologist, Dr W. for Crohn’s. That day I was seeing two specialist at the opposite
ends of the city. The first appointment
was supposed to be at 8:45, which in theory left plenty of time to get to my
following appointment at 10:30. Well,
the receptionist at Dr W had double booked time and she had a meeting until
9:30. Needless to say I didn’t get in to
my appointment until 9:45. On the upside
my blood work is looking good. The high
levels of inflammation were within acceptable levels for pregnancy.
From
there I quickly made it to my next appointment, luckily traffic was good. That is the benefits of not travelling during
rush hour. The next appointment was with
the Problems in Pregnancy clinic with Dr H.
I was more excited about this appointment because my asthma is getting
worse and they would be dealing with that.
Originally I thought this appointment was going to be relatively on
time, and get to work at a decent time.
Nope, that was not the case. The
nurse took me in almost right on time. She did my weight, and blood pressure,
both not too bad. Then I waited for the
doctor to come in. After about 20
minutes I saw Dr H’s partner doctor who was helping that day. We went over most of the concerning issues
and questions they had.
One
of the major benefits of that appointment was, I got to get my Gestational
Diabetes results two days sooner. I do
NOT have Gestational Diabetes.
Woohoo.
The
appointment went fairly well, but the partner doctor wouldn’t go over any of
the options until Dr H reviewed the information. So I had to wait again. This time it was about an hour and a half. By this time I was starving. I hadn’t had any snacks, thinking this
appointment would be quick, so I had just eaten breakfast. Snicker Joe was starting to come out, as it
was after 12:30 by the time the two doctors came back in. Apparently there was a medical emergency that
morning which put everything behind.
We
went over everything and the main point Dr H was drilling that I was not happy
about was my weight gain. She didn’t
like that I drank my calories having prune juice with iron tablets to help with
constipation. She instantly lumped me in
the horrible eater category because of my weight, and of course blamed my
constipation on the fact I don’t drink enough water. I do know I need to get more exercise, but as
my asthma is getting worse it is getting even harder to want to walk with the
anticipation of a major coughing fit.
Not once did she ask how much I actually drink, nor did she ask what it
was I eat on a regular basis. The
hopeful silver lining to this appointment was the fact they are changing up my
inhalers to improve my asthma, in theory.
Once
in the car I started to inhale my lunch, and ended up snacking most of the
afternoon. Changing up my morning eating
routine messed up my entire day.
From
that appointment I went directly to Walmart to get the new prescriptions
filled. At Walmart they didn’t have some
of the items in stock, so I needed to pick everything up the next day.
At
work I started to discuss more definite dates for my Maternity leave with my
bosses. Based on generally a clean bill
of health I had figured I would be able to work until December 20th. In my mind that was great news, almost an
extra month of full income, as I had figured I would stop working December 1st
due to medical leave for one reason or another.
My immediate boss was ok with things, bringing in my replacement third
week in November and then us both working the month of December. The next up boss had some slight issues with
the scheduling of things and not getting proper notice if I go on medical leave
if needed, which is why we wanted to bring in my replacement as early as we had
figured. After a slight brief discussion
the higher up boss left having to “noodle” about this, meaning she had to talk
to a lawyer and or read up on medical leave.
I wasn’t having the best of days and this fueled for me to be disgruntled
perpetuated by pregnancy hormones. By
the time I got home I was fuming, the door wasn’t open so I had to hunt for my
keys, with my hands full, which I ended up dropping things, then the dogs were
jumping up and poking their claws in my leg, dinner wasn’t on the go, and even
though I had been snacking most of the afternoon I wasn’t wanting to wait long
for dinner. All very trivial things that
normally would have been no problem, but hormones were making a mountain out of
a few small mole hills.
We
all ended up going out for dinner to a buffet and slowly I calmed down. Needless to say we didn’t get a lot done that
night.
That
brings us to today’s appointment with my OB, Dr C. My blood pressure was good, I had only gained
.4kg since the last appointment, I had figured everything was good to go, and
wanted to discuss maternity leave with a bit more certainty, making sure
working till December 20th was ok.
As soon as I brought up leave, she said I should be stopping work
now. With high blood pressure, the more
pregnant I get the worse it can be, and if it goes off the rails things can go
wrong trying to get my blood pressure back to normal. This totally blindsided me. I mentioned I have a low stress desk job, but
she thinks I should start medical leave as soon as possible. I told her that I still had to train a
replacement and probably the earliest I would be able to stop working would be
early November. She agreed that it “should” be ok for me to continue to work
that long, but not much longer.
Once
back at work, I talked it over with my immediate boss and we came up with approximate
dates to work with while talking with the higher up boss, provided my
replacement can start that early. We had
called my replacement saying she got the job on Monday, and then gave tentative
dates on Tuesday. However we are now
moving things up about a month. My
replacement is pretty flexible but she does have to give notice where she is working
now.
In
the end, my tentative medical leave will start November 8th ish,
depending on the start date of my replacement, as cautious medical leave, and
so I can start to see the home nurses frequently. Other than take my blood pressure, I’m not
sure what they do.
Here
is week 27 belly photo.
The
belly is starting to come in, but still mostly just look like I’ve gained
weight.
