So a fair amount has happened on this ride in the last few days. It was definitely rough this last weekend when we tried to have David and Nathan stay overnight. Nathan lasted until about the end of normal visiting hours before deciding he was ready to go home. Not real surprised there, but it still hurt a bit emotionally because I was looking forward to having my family with me for one night at least. Things are getting strange around here though.
I've been trying to get Dr. Strecker, my OB, and Dr. O'Hara, my perinatologist, together to set a date for the upcoming c-section. Here's the twist though... Today they did a mapping sonogram to see where the cord and blood vessels were at to decide where the incision was going to be made during the c-section. However, during the sonogram today the technicians could not find any vessels of the umbilical cord attached to or laying over the cervix. In plain english this would mean that my vasa previa has corrected itself and is no longer there. I would then get to go home and most likely finish out this pregnancy fairly normally. Neither of my doctors are willing to jump to conclusions though and Dr. O'Hara has scheduled another sonogram for tomorrow afternoon which she will be present at to double check the results since just 2 weeks ago in her office, the vasa previa was still there and nothing had moved.
I'll admit, part of me would really rather be at home with family. Another part is just ready for McKenzie to be here and to have things done and start the recovery so that I can return to my family and prepare for the new school year and all the other fun things lying ahead of me on my path. I also dread trying to control my gestational diabetes on my own if I were to go home. I do miss my family though. What a roller coaster ride it has been the last few days! Did I mention my birthday is just a couple of days away? Let's see what lies around the bend of the tracks and see where it takes us.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Another day closer
So here we are wrapping up another day at Wesley. This marks the end of my first week here and it really hasn't been so bad. There are things I miss, but I keep fairly busy or distracted most of the time. We still haven't nailed down a date for our c-section yet, but thanks to one of my OB's colleagues we might actually set that here in the next day or so. It's really kind of sad that it takes not my actual OB, but someone she works with to try to move things along. I guess I should just vent and I'll feel better.
I believe yesterday I mentioned how my OB, Dr. Strecker (I know I haven't mentioned names before, but I'm tired of just using the job titles of those who are supposed to be taking care of me), had said yet again that she had not heard back from my specialist, Dr. O'Hara, concerning the scheduling of my c-section. This was after the fuss she made of my 1 hour monitoring not being done right after breakfast that morning and acting like there was something more the nurses could have or should have done in response to my vision issue yesterday morning besides what they did of contacting her when she first came on about 10 - 20 minutes after the incident.
For one thing, I found out that Dr. O'Hara started back from her vacation this last Monday and most offices I know of return calls at least the next day if not the day of depending on when the call was put in. Secondly, I remember my first appointment with Dr. O'Hara where she specifically told me that she did not want to wait past week 35 because she did not want to risk any real contractions or labor to start endangering McKenzie's life.This is a concept I discussed with Dr. Strecker's colleague, Dr. Taylor, today and she seemed to get it before I even finished my thought. I wish I knew what was going on in Dr. Strecker's head because this does not seem like rocket science to me and as an OB, I would think this would not be foreign concept to her in a case like this. Suffice to say that depending on what Dr. Strecker says when I see her tomorrow, I will probably be on the phone to Dr. O'Hara's office myself to settle this matter. This is just getting ridiculous.
On a happier note... My birthday is just about a week away and I received permission from my endocrinologist, Dr. Guthrie, to have a pretty traditional birthday of cake and ice cream with family or whatever my family intends to do for my birthday. Yeah!!! I've been trying to come up with alternatives to suggest to my mom and kept telling them I would leave it up to them to coordinate with the nursing staff or whomever, but that I would be happy just to have everyone up here to help me celebrate surviving another year. Well, I think that will wrap up this day on life's path. However, I have a baby blanket to finish and maybe a movie to watch before bed. Until next time... G'night all!
I believe yesterday I mentioned how my OB, Dr. Strecker (I know I haven't mentioned names before, but I'm tired of just using the job titles of those who are supposed to be taking care of me), had said yet again that she had not heard back from my specialist, Dr. O'Hara, concerning the scheduling of my c-section. This was after the fuss she made of my 1 hour monitoring not being done right after breakfast that morning and acting like there was something more the nurses could have or should have done in response to my vision issue yesterday morning besides what they did of contacting her when she first came on about 10 - 20 minutes after the incident.
For one thing, I found out that Dr. O'Hara started back from her vacation this last Monday and most offices I know of return calls at least the next day if not the day of depending on when the call was put in. Secondly, I remember my first appointment with Dr. O'Hara where she specifically told me that she did not want to wait past week 35 because she did not want to risk any real contractions or labor to start endangering McKenzie's life.This is a concept I discussed with Dr. Strecker's colleague, Dr. Taylor, today and she seemed to get it before I even finished my thought. I wish I knew what was going on in Dr. Strecker's head because this does not seem like rocket science to me and as an OB, I would think this would not be foreign concept to her in a case like this. Suffice to say that depending on what Dr. Strecker says when I see her tomorrow, I will probably be on the phone to Dr. O'Hara's office myself to settle this matter. This is just getting ridiculous.
On a happier note... My birthday is just about a week away and I received permission from my endocrinologist, Dr. Guthrie, to have a pretty traditional birthday of cake and ice cream with family or whatever my family intends to do for my birthday. Yeah!!! I've been trying to come up with alternatives to suggest to my mom and kept telling them I would leave it up to them to coordinate with the nursing staff or whomever, but that I would be happy just to have everyone up here to help me celebrate surviving another year. Well, I think that will wrap up this day on life's path. However, I have a baby blanket to finish and maybe a movie to watch before bed. Until next time... G'night all!
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Let Week 31 Begin!
That's right! We've made it to week 31 in our adventure. So far so good. My gestational diabetes seems to be under control now with supervision from one of the best in the nation keeping an eye on it. No complications connected to the vasa previa so far either, yeah! The only major question at this point is when will our blasted c-section be scheduled for McKenzie's arrival?
Over the weekend, my OB said she was going to get in touch with the specialist at the beginning of this week to try and pin things down. She said yesterday and today that she had put a call in to my specialist's office to find out which week she wanted to schedule the c-section. However, I had an interesting conversation with one of the nurses from my specialist's office late this afternoon. She confirmed that my chart said to do a c-section between the 34th and 36th week. The curious thing was that my specialist has been back from her vacation since yesterday and she is really good about returning calls and/or pages. So why haven't we found out? I told the nurse that I would be calling back tomorrow depending on what answer or lack there of I get from my OB tomorrow. The nurse was totally fine with that and was even very encouraging when I said that. So we'll see what happens...
It's been pretty quiet today otherwise. Blood sugar was where it should be this morning at 6 a.m. I did have a little vision issue while finishing getting around this morning shortly after doing my vitals check. It went away pretty quickly and I did inform the nurses about it. They tried to contact my OB even though she wasn't due to come on for another 10 minutes and they didn't reach her until about 30 minutes after she arrived on the grounds. Even at that, my OB did not show up until about 3 hours later and then proceeded to act like the nurses should've reacted quicker or done something else. I don't know that they could have since we had just checked everything shortly before, but oh well... The nurses didn't get around to doing my normal hour long monitoring of McKenzie after breakfast this morning either so my OB ordered a BPP which is essentially a very specific, quick sonogram looking at McKenzie's vitals. I almost prefer these since it lets me see McKenzie and it's a half hour out of the room versus being hooked up to a heart monitor for an hour while you lie on your back in bed. Trying to stay positive though. I do try to warn the morning nurses though because McKenzie is very active when they attempt the monitoring so it's like playing hide and seek with her for an hour.
Pretty quiet otherwise. David came by to visit this afternoon after taking Nathan to his dental cleaning this morning. Not good there, but that's another story for another time. My mom also stopped by after work to check on me and make sure I got what I was supposed to for dinner tonight. Now I'm hoping for a quiet night watching some 'Deadliest Catch', working on a new baby blanket and maybe watch something else later or playing a bit of 'Morrowind' on my computer later. We'll see! By the way... 9 days and counting to my birthday! Let's see how inventive my friends and family can be while trying to work with my diet and schedule here at Wesley Medical Center.
Over the weekend, my OB said she was going to get in touch with the specialist at the beginning of this week to try and pin things down. She said yesterday and today that she had put a call in to my specialist's office to find out which week she wanted to schedule the c-section. However, I had an interesting conversation with one of the nurses from my specialist's office late this afternoon. She confirmed that my chart said to do a c-section between the 34th and 36th week. The curious thing was that my specialist has been back from her vacation since yesterday and she is really good about returning calls and/or pages. So why haven't we found out? I told the nurse that I would be calling back tomorrow depending on what answer or lack there of I get from my OB tomorrow. The nurse was totally fine with that and was even very encouraging when I said that. So we'll see what happens...
It's been pretty quiet today otherwise. Blood sugar was where it should be this morning at 6 a.m. I did have a little vision issue while finishing getting around this morning shortly after doing my vitals check. It went away pretty quickly and I did inform the nurses about it. They tried to contact my OB even though she wasn't due to come on for another 10 minutes and they didn't reach her until about 30 minutes after she arrived on the grounds. Even at that, my OB did not show up until about 3 hours later and then proceeded to act like the nurses should've reacted quicker or done something else. I don't know that they could have since we had just checked everything shortly before, but oh well... The nurses didn't get around to doing my normal hour long monitoring of McKenzie after breakfast this morning either so my OB ordered a BPP which is essentially a very specific, quick sonogram looking at McKenzie's vitals. I almost prefer these since it lets me see McKenzie and it's a half hour out of the room versus being hooked up to a heart monitor for an hour while you lie on your back in bed. Trying to stay positive though. I do try to warn the morning nurses though because McKenzie is very active when they attempt the monitoring so it's like playing hide and seek with her for an hour.
Pretty quiet otherwise. David came by to visit this afternoon after taking Nathan to his dental cleaning this morning. Not good there, but that's another story for another time. My mom also stopped by after work to check on me and make sure I got what I was supposed to for dinner tonight. Now I'm hoping for a quiet night watching some 'Deadliest Catch', working on a new baby blanket and maybe watch something else later or playing a bit of 'Morrowind' on my computer later. We'll see! By the way... 9 days and counting to my birthday! Let's see how inventive my friends and family can be while trying to work with my diet and schedule here at Wesley Medical Center.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Just another day in the neighborhood...
Never a dull moment here. I've had a wonderful time since checking in here so far and have actually lost weight in the process. The nurses have all been fabulous. My husband actually got to stay last night while my MIL took Nathan home. And yet today, being a Monday, had to be "special".
Typical schedule for the most part starting with the wake up call at 6 for vitals and blood sugar check. Lounged around for a change to have breakfast and other things before taking a shower and cleaning up. Probably just as well since Nathan was up shortly after 5 this morning and had his grandma bring them back up here about 10ish. The fun really began when my MIL tried to take Nathan down to get something for lunch and as my lunch was brought in, we received word that she had fallen and that someone would be bringing Nathan back upstairs to us.
Turns out she just bruised her knee real bad, but the medical center I'm in insisted on her getting checked out completely (including charging her $100 for ER fees). Nathan wasn't really phased and tried to insist that he could make it back to my room on his own. He probably could if they had let him, but I'm just as glad they escorted him back. Things stayed pretty quiet for a little while after that.
On about 2:00 I had a visit from my endocrinologist as they were checking my vitals and blood sugar after lunch. I had asked him the day before about the afternoon snack situation since I seemed to be getting hungry a fair bit earlier than I probably should for dinner. He wrote out orders that I was to start receiving an extra snack in the afternoon making it 3 meals a day with 4 snacks. No real big issue you'd think. However...
This evening my dinner arrived late, wasn't what I had ordered when I filled out my menu the day before. It was just barely warm when it arrived by the way except the ice cream which was practically melted. The pink sheet that came with it tried to claim that my medical care delayed my meal time when all I had been doing this afternoon was enjoying the company of my family after my endocrinologist visited and I clarified that he really did intend for me to have 4 snacks a day rather than switching my evening snack to the afternoon so I would have 2 snacks in the afternoon instead of spaced out around meals.
Now they've just checked my blood sugar and it was a bit high so now we wait to see what my endocrinologist says to do since it may be in part because the plate that was sent up for me was marked regular not diabetic. I do have my delicious evening snack stashed away in here so that it won't grow legs and walk thanks to my wonderful nurse from earlier. Let's hope that the rest of the night is pretty quiet and I can make some more headway on the next baby blanket I'm working on for McKenzie!
Typical schedule for the most part starting with the wake up call at 6 for vitals and blood sugar check. Lounged around for a change to have breakfast and other things before taking a shower and cleaning up. Probably just as well since Nathan was up shortly after 5 this morning and had his grandma bring them back up here about 10ish. The fun really began when my MIL tried to take Nathan down to get something for lunch and as my lunch was brought in, we received word that she had fallen and that someone would be bringing Nathan back upstairs to us.
Turns out she just bruised her knee real bad, but the medical center I'm in insisted on her getting checked out completely (including charging her $100 for ER fees). Nathan wasn't really phased and tried to insist that he could make it back to my room on his own. He probably could if they had let him, but I'm just as glad they escorted him back. Things stayed pretty quiet for a little while after that.
On about 2:00 I had a visit from my endocrinologist as they were checking my vitals and blood sugar after lunch. I had asked him the day before about the afternoon snack situation since I seemed to be getting hungry a fair bit earlier than I probably should for dinner. He wrote out orders that I was to start receiving an extra snack in the afternoon making it 3 meals a day with 4 snacks. No real big issue you'd think. However...
This evening my dinner arrived late, wasn't what I had ordered when I filled out my menu the day before. It was just barely warm when it arrived by the way except the ice cream which was practically melted. The pink sheet that came with it tried to claim that my medical care delayed my meal time when all I had been doing this afternoon was enjoying the company of my family after my endocrinologist visited and I clarified that he really did intend for me to have 4 snacks a day rather than switching my evening snack to the afternoon so I would have 2 snacks in the afternoon instead of spaced out around meals.
Now they've just checked my blood sugar and it was a bit high so now we wait to see what my endocrinologist says to do since it may be in part because the plate that was sent up for me was marked regular not diabetic. I do have my delicious evening snack stashed away in here so that it won't grow legs and walk thanks to my wonderful nurse from earlier. Let's hope that the rest of the night is pretty quiet and I can make some more headway on the next baby blanket I'm working on for McKenzie!
Friday, June 8, 2012
Settling In
So I'm officially finishing my 2nd full day here at Wesley Medical Center and the worst part tends to be the separation from my husband and son at this point. I don't like goodbyes and these are the worst right now.
My day is usually pretty full with vitals checks or visitors so I don't stop to think about how long I've been here versus how long I still have to go. The staff has been marvelous so far. My regular OB finally came to see me this morning and said she would be by every day from now on. We shall see if that holds. I think overall my adjustment is going pretty well except I think I'm starting to develop a caffeine headache since I haven't had any caffeine knowingly since Wednesday before I checked in.
My days usually go as follows:
6 am wake up for vitals and blood sugar check after fasting overnight.
7-7:30ish is breakfast followed by an hour long monitoring of baby McKenzie.
9-9:30ish is a blood sugar check after having insulin with breakfast.
Doctor visitors tend to come around this time or a little later depending on their schedules.
10-10:30ish is my morning snack.
11:30 -12:30 is usually when they bring lunch around with another dose of insulin.
1:30 - 2 is usually my next vitals and blood sugar check along with a snack somewhere shortly after.
5:30ish is usually dinner time here with another dose of insulin.
7:30ish is another blood sugar check.
9 is usually my long acting overnight dose of insulin along with a snack before bed.
My family usually comes up to visit in the afternoons or once they get off work in the evenings and stay as late as they can. Gratefully visiting hours don't end until 8:30 and don't actually apply to my husband and son unless they need to go back home for some reason. So all in all, it really isn't that bad around here. I am trying to relax. I've watched some t.v. and movies, played online a little, finished one baby blanket and am fixing to start another soon. The hardest part is trying to deal with separation issues along with being patient while trying to get my insulin dosages right. That has been really tough.
My consulting diabetics doctor is a Dr. Guthrie. He's great. He's just trying to be careful since I've had no prior history of diabetes personally and we didn't discover this until this last Monday? Hopefully we're close and things will start to settle in, but man I wish we could just figure it out. Plus, I seem to be having a reaction of sorts to something like I do with sulfa where I get red in the face from sun sensitivity and the only connection I can see right now is with my insulin shots. Something I'll have to ask about in the morning I guess.
We did have something like a Braxton Hicks contraction earlier this evening, so I guess that's something else to keep an eye on. I don't need miss thing coming any earlier than she already will be if possible. I think that kind of sums up how I've settled in so far on this part of life's path, but I'm sure things will continue to settle in just fine especially with all of my friends' and family's support. Thank you everyone!
My day is usually pretty full with vitals checks or visitors so I don't stop to think about how long I've been here versus how long I still have to go. The staff has been marvelous so far. My regular OB finally came to see me this morning and said she would be by every day from now on. We shall see if that holds. I think overall my adjustment is going pretty well except I think I'm starting to develop a caffeine headache since I haven't had any caffeine knowingly since Wednesday before I checked in.
My days usually go as follows:
6 am wake up for vitals and blood sugar check after fasting overnight.
7-7:30ish is breakfast followed by an hour long monitoring of baby McKenzie.
9-9:30ish is a blood sugar check after having insulin with breakfast.
Doctor visitors tend to come around this time or a little later depending on their schedules.
10-10:30ish is my morning snack.
11:30 -12:30 is usually when they bring lunch around with another dose of insulin.
1:30 - 2 is usually my next vitals and blood sugar check along with a snack somewhere shortly after.
5:30ish is usually dinner time here with another dose of insulin.
7:30ish is another blood sugar check.
9 is usually my long acting overnight dose of insulin along with a snack before bed.
My family usually comes up to visit in the afternoons or once they get off work in the evenings and stay as late as they can. Gratefully visiting hours don't end until 8:30 and don't actually apply to my husband and son unless they need to go back home for some reason. So all in all, it really isn't that bad around here. I am trying to relax. I've watched some t.v. and movies, played online a little, finished one baby blanket and am fixing to start another soon. The hardest part is trying to deal with separation issues along with being patient while trying to get my insulin dosages right. That has been really tough.
My consulting diabetics doctor is a Dr. Guthrie. He's great. He's just trying to be careful since I've had no prior history of diabetes personally and we didn't discover this until this last Monday? Hopefully we're close and things will start to settle in, but man I wish we could just figure it out. Plus, I seem to be having a reaction of sorts to something like I do with sulfa where I get red in the face from sun sensitivity and the only connection I can see right now is with my insulin shots. Something I'll have to ask about in the morning I guess.
We did have something like a Braxton Hicks contraction earlier this evening, so I guess that's something else to keep an eye on. I don't need miss thing coming any earlier than she already will be if possible. I think that kind of sums up how I've settled in so far on this part of life's path, but I'm sure things will continue to settle in just fine especially with all of my friends' and family's support. Thank you everyone!
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Communication Malfunctions
Today has been a day of pulling teeth to get people to do what they should it seems. Today was supposed to be my last appointment with the specialist to see how baby is developing and decide when I should be admitted to the hospital and all of that fun stuff. This was not to be the case today I guess.
The first half of my appointment, the sonogram, went like planned. Then I found out that my original specialist is currently on vacation and a colleague, who seems to be fairly old fashioned and a sense of humor that falls flat under these circumstances, has taken her place for the time being. I don't know when she will return from her vacation and that concerns me a bit after our discussions today to educate her on the situation with the help of an assistant named Amy.
I will grant you that there hasn't been a whole lot of research done on my condition, but my husband and I are no dummies and have read up on everything we can get our hands on. Plus, I remember distinctly what my original specialist and I discussed as far as my time table goes when I had my first meeting with her 2 months ago. If this new specialist is to be believed, I could technically wait 2 more weeks before going into the hospital. This was suggested by her after she just got finished saying that it only takes 5 to 8 minutes for an unborn baby to bleed to death if bleeding should start before the c-section. A comforting thought since we live at least 10 minutes away from the hospital. So my husband asked her if there was any reason why I couldn't or shouldn't be admitted any sooner than 2 weeks. Nothing could really said about that so they switched tactics and said that they could probably even admit me today. To which we pointed out that we would need a little time to go home and gather clothes, personal items, etc. to at least start my stay if we did something like that. This was when we were informed that it was kind of a mute point anyway since they would have to contact my OB because it would be their office that setup my admittance to the hospital.
So flashback to last Thursday when I had my glucose test and regular prenatal appointment. Nothing was mentioned about the hospital situation since we had recently received a letter from their office informing us that they were going to start preferring to work with Via Christi instead of Wesley and would only work with Wesley on a case by case basis. We had already made it known that we are having this baby at Wesley after the fiasco trying to deliver Nathan (whole other story). I was told that it would probably be Monday before I heard anything about the results from my test. So fast forward to Monday midday and I've decided I should probably call them since I hadn't heard anything only to find out that my glucose level was very high. Normal level is 130 and mine was 197 after the test. The nurse told me that she would talk to my OB about how she wanted to proceed since there were 2 options ( 3hour glucose test or direct me to the Mid-America Diabetes Association) and the nurse would call me the next day.
So today I go to my appointment where everything I wrote earlier took place with them finally saying that they would call my OB's office and that I should probably call too. So that's what I did. I waited long enough to get out to the car and called my OB's office and left a message with the nursing staff requesting the information regarding my follow up to the glucose test and to get them started on the hospital admittance issue. When the same nurse from yesterday called me back, she admitted that my OB had not returned her message yet which is why I hadn't heard back yet. However, when she checked my chart my OB had written in gestational diabetes so they were going to set me up with an appointment to see someone at the Mid-America Diabetes Association. This is when I asked how this would be affected by my admittance to the hospital and she started to tell me how they would normally wait for a letter from the specialist's office and would proceed from there. I then informed her that I had just come from there and that they said they would be calling them, not sending a letter, and that the original specialist was on vacation so I gave her the name of her alternate since she was going to go check with the receptionists to see if anyone had called.
Turns out the alternate had already called and talked to my OB, but my OB hasn't talked to anyone yet and no one knows what was said between the two. The nurse promised to try to find out what was going on and to give me a call tomorrow (hopefully) so I made sure they had my correct contact information as I have errands to run in connection to my upcoming hospital stay and the start of school next year.
On the plus side I received a call from my supervisor downtown today and I was offered an additional position for the upcoming school year bringing me up to a .8 overall. This could be good if I get everything in order before they draw up my contract. Sounds like a good fit though. We'll see. Here's to having to fight for the health care necessary to bring life into this world because the people who are supposed to have too many communication malfunctions and probably dollar signs in their eyes to do what's right on life's path.
The first half of my appointment, the sonogram, went like planned. Then I found out that my original specialist is currently on vacation and a colleague, who seems to be fairly old fashioned and a sense of humor that falls flat under these circumstances, has taken her place for the time being. I don't know when she will return from her vacation and that concerns me a bit after our discussions today to educate her on the situation with the help of an assistant named Amy.
I will grant you that there hasn't been a whole lot of research done on my condition, but my husband and I are no dummies and have read up on everything we can get our hands on. Plus, I remember distinctly what my original specialist and I discussed as far as my time table goes when I had my first meeting with her 2 months ago. If this new specialist is to be believed, I could technically wait 2 more weeks before going into the hospital. This was suggested by her after she just got finished saying that it only takes 5 to 8 minutes for an unborn baby to bleed to death if bleeding should start before the c-section. A comforting thought since we live at least 10 minutes away from the hospital. So my husband asked her if there was any reason why I couldn't or shouldn't be admitted any sooner than 2 weeks. Nothing could really said about that so they switched tactics and said that they could probably even admit me today. To which we pointed out that we would need a little time to go home and gather clothes, personal items, etc. to at least start my stay if we did something like that. This was when we were informed that it was kind of a mute point anyway since they would have to contact my OB because it would be their office that setup my admittance to the hospital.
So flashback to last Thursday when I had my glucose test and regular prenatal appointment. Nothing was mentioned about the hospital situation since we had recently received a letter from their office informing us that they were going to start preferring to work with Via Christi instead of Wesley and would only work with Wesley on a case by case basis. We had already made it known that we are having this baby at Wesley after the fiasco trying to deliver Nathan (whole other story). I was told that it would probably be Monday before I heard anything about the results from my test. So fast forward to Monday midday and I've decided I should probably call them since I hadn't heard anything only to find out that my glucose level was very high. Normal level is 130 and mine was 197 after the test. The nurse told me that she would talk to my OB about how she wanted to proceed since there were 2 options ( 3hour glucose test or direct me to the Mid-America Diabetes Association) and the nurse would call me the next day.
So today I go to my appointment where everything I wrote earlier took place with them finally saying that they would call my OB's office and that I should probably call too. So that's what I did. I waited long enough to get out to the car and called my OB's office and left a message with the nursing staff requesting the information regarding my follow up to the glucose test and to get them started on the hospital admittance issue. When the same nurse from yesterday called me back, she admitted that my OB had not returned her message yet which is why I hadn't heard back yet. However, when she checked my chart my OB had written in gestational diabetes so they were going to set me up with an appointment to see someone at the Mid-America Diabetes Association. This is when I asked how this would be affected by my admittance to the hospital and she started to tell me how they would normally wait for a letter from the specialist's office and would proceed from there. I then informed her that I had just come from there and that they said they would be calling them, not sending a letter, and that the original specialist was on vacation so I gave her the name of her alternate since she was going to go check with the receptionists to see if anyone had called.
Turns out the alternate had already called and talked to my OB, but my OB hasn't talked to anyone yet and no one knows what was said between the two. The nurse promised to try to find out what was going on and to give me a call tomorrow (hopefully) so I made sure they had my correct contact information as I have errands to run in connection to my upcoming hospital stay and the start of school next year.
On the plus side I received a call from my supervisor downtown today and I was offered an additional position for the upcoming school year bringing me up to a .8 overall. This could be good if I get everything in order before they draw up my contract. Sounds like a good fit though. We'll see. Here's to having to fight for the health care necessary to bring life into this world because the people who are supposed to have too many communication malfunctions and probably dollar signs in their eyes to do what's right on life's path.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Research Based Peace
Hello again! So I decided that knowledge really can be power and went on the hunt for what lies ahead on my path in life, mainly the c-section. I've always heard stories of how other women tend to prefer c-sections over vaginal births supposedly because it's not as painful and there's supposed to be a quicker recovery. So I hadn't really been bugged when I was told that I was going to undergo a c-section due to my vasa previa.
However, here recently, curiosity got the better of me and I looked up what different medical sites were saying about everything involved in a c-section. OMG! It was enlightening to say the least. I did start to feel a bit more nervous about it which is never a good thing. How could a third or more women in the United States prefer to undergo major abdominal surgery with a recovery time of anywhere between 4 to 8 weeks depending on the individual and where you're doing your research at? This just did not make sense to me. I say this keeping in mind that I inadvertently gave birth the first time around pretty much naturally (no epidural/spinal tap and only enough pain medication to take the edge off until after the birth itself).
I posted that question as a status update shortly thereafter. One of my cousins was the only one to really respond with a bit of a warning about not laughing and heaven help me if I sneezed (or something to that effect) in the first few weeks of recovery because the pain/sensation was a very unique experience. SO not helping me at that point. Gratefully, I have a dear friend, ex-classmate and co-worker that just gave birth to a lovely daughter by c-section who was generous enough to share her experience with me and give a couple of pointers on how to deal with this surgery. Some of what she has said contradicts what I've read in a few places. However, I trust first hand experience(s) over something I read somewhere most times.
So for now I'm back to waiting for the results from my glucose test today, my specialist appointment on Tuesday and maybe a word from my boss about next school year. There are a few things I would like to try to do before I'm hospitalized for this ordeal, but other than that I look forward to enjoying time with friends and family while traveling down Life's Path.
However, here recently, curiosity got the better of me and I looked up what different medical sites were saying about everything involved in a c-section. OMG! It was enlightening to say the least. I did start to feel a bit more nervous about it which is never a good thing. How could a third or more women in the United States prefer to undergo major abdominal surgery with a recovery time of anywhere between 4 to 8 weeks depending on the individual and where you're doing your research at? This just did not make sense to me. I say this keeping in mind that I inadvertently gave birth the first time around pretty much naturally (no epidural/spinal tap and only enough pain medication to take the edge off until after the birth itself).
I posted that question as a status update shortly thereafter. One of my cousins was the only one to really respond with a bit of a warning about not laughing and heaven help me if I sneezed (or something to that effect) in the first few weeks of recovery because the pain/sensation was a very unique experience. SO not helping me at that point. Gratefully, I have a dear friend, ex-classmate and co-worker that just gave birth to a lovely daughter by c-section who was generous enough to share her experience with me and give a couple of pointers on how to deal with this surgery. Some of what she has said contradicts what I've read in a few places. However, I trust first hand experience(s) over something I read somewhere most times.
So for now I'm back to waiting for the results from my glucose test today, my specialist appointment on Tuesday and maybe a word from my boss about next school year. There are a few things I would like to try to do before I'm hospitalized for this ordeal, but other than that I look forward to enjoying time with friends and family while traveling down Life's Path.
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