Today was a double-doctor day. This morning, my c-section consult with Dr. Davis, who will be my surgeon. This afternoon, my regular appointment with Dr. Locke.
Matt came with me to my first appointment. We went in, sat down, the nurse checked my blood pressure (routine), and it was 130/80...ugh! Not what I was expecting. We decided to check again at the end of my appointment.
The conversation with Dr. Davis was quick and less informative than I had expected. I'd thought that we would talk about some step-by-step details; y'know, exactly what to expect when we checked into the hospital, and what the procedure for the spinal anesthesia would be, and what the surgery itself would be like, and recovery. Instead, we mostly talked through the range of variables and complications, and that was is it. He asked if we had questions, and I have a million questions, but none of them seemed pertinent to anything we had actually talked about. I'll try to catch up with Dr. Locke on some of those questions at a future appointment.
Anyway, we checked my BP again at the end, and they didn't even tell me the number, other than to say that it was even higher, and maybe it'd just be best to wait until my afternoon appointment.
Back at church, I spent the next hour and a half between appointments making lists and furiously making preparations to hand off tasks and programs, just in case my afternoon appointment went poorly. I'm sure that my frantic running around didn't help my blood pressure situation at all...
My afternoon appointment came, and right off the bat, my BP was 138/88. Still high.
Dr. Locke did the usual routine of stuff - checked Owlet's heartbeat (140), measured the belly (36cm), took stock of any symptoms (virtually none).
And then he called the nurse back, and set up a whole slate of labs and a non-stress test for me for the afternoon, and an ultrasound for me for tomorrow. Glad that I didn't have any other meetings or appointments scheduled for my day!
Down to the OB department I went. Got my belly monitors all strapped on, and got settled on the bed, trying to stay comfortable, warm, relaxed, and not overly anxious about my forthcoming labs or about their results. The nice part is that instead of hving to go down to the lab, the lab came to me! So I got my blood drawn while relaxing in bed. That was nice.
Owlet's heartbeat and movement were great! And after a while of resting and relaxing, my BP settled back down to 126/81, which isn't as low as it's been this whole pregnancy, but was low enough to satisfy Dr. Locke, at least for today. And my labs all came back in acceptable ranges. So they set me free! Yay! I live to see another day!
I mean, ok. Another BP check and ultrasound tomorrow. And another BP check on Friday. So they're still keeping close eye. Hopefully today has just been one big fluke. I want this baby to keep cooking. We're not quite 36 weeks today, so I'd rather hang on for at least another couple weeks, if not a month. But it also feels nice to so taken care of. My gut says that today's episode hints at an early delivery, but hopefully not yet!
All right, enough drama for today. Let's look at some pretty picures instead:
Matt came with me to my first appointment. We went in, sat down, the nurse checked my blood pressure (routine), and it was 130/80...ugh! Not what I was expecting. We decided to check again at the end of my appointment.
The conversation with Dr. Davis was quick and less informative than I had expected. I'd thought that we would talk about some step-by-step details; y'know, exactly what to expect when we checked into the hospital, and what the procedure for the spinal anesthesia would be, and what the surgery itself would be like, and recovery. Instead, we mostly talked through the range of variables and complications, and that was is it. He asked if we had questions, and I have a million questions, but none of them seemed pertinent to anything we had actually talked about. I'll try to catch up with Dr. Locke on some of those questions at a future appointment.
Anyway, we checked my BP again at the end, and they didn't even tell me the number, other than to say that it was even higher, and maybe it'd just be best to wait until my afternoon appointment.
Back at church, I spent the next hour and a half between appointments making lists and furiously making preparations to hand off tasks and programs, just in case my afternoon appointment went poorly. I'm sure that my frantic running around didn't help my blood pressure situation at all...
My afternoon appointment came, and right off the bat, my BP was 138/88. Still high.
Dr. Locke did the usual routine of stuff - checked Owlet's heartbeat (140), measured the belly (36cm), took stock of any symptoms (virtually none).
And then he called the nurse back, and set up a whole slate of labs and a non-stress test for me for the afternoon, and an ultrasound for me for tomorrow. Glad that I didn't have any other meetings or appointments scheduled for my day!
Down to the OB department I went. Got my belly monitors all strapped on, and got settled on the bed, trying to stay comfortable, warm, relaxed, and not overly anxious about my forthcoming labs or about their results. The nice part is that instead of hving to go down to the lab, the lab came to me! So I got my blood drawn while relaxing in bed. That was nice.
Owlet's heartbeat and movement were great! And after a while of resting and relaxing, my BP settled back down to 126/81, which isn't as low as it's been this whole pregnancy, but was low enough to satisfy Dr. Locke, at least for today. And my labs all came back in acceptable ranges. So they set me free! Yay! I live to see another day!
I mean, ok. Another BP check and ultrasound tomorrow. And another BP check on Friday. So they're still keeping close eye. Hopefully today has just been one big fluke. I want this baby to keep cooking. We're not quite 36 weeks today, so I'd rather hang on for at least another couple weeks, if not a month. But it also feels nice to so taken care of. My gut says that today's episode hints at an early delivery, but hopefully not yet!
All right, enough drama for today. Let's look at some pretty picures instead:
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| 34 weeks - November 18, 2016 |
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| 35 weeks - November 25, 2016 (Sorry about the the world's dirtiest mirror!) |
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