19 Weeks: Double Doctor Duty

Well, it finally happened.  The stars and calendars aligned and I had an OB appointment as well as an endo appointment on the same day.  The festivities began around 10 AM with my OB appointment, followed by my endo appointment at 1 PM, with a light burrito lunch in the middle.  

OB appointment:  

This appointment was fairly boring, if there can be such a thing in this world.  I knew that the nurse would want my pee, so I drank a large decaf coffee before the appointment.  After waiting for 45 minutes, my bladder was nice and ready to give its supply.  Next, she took my weight, which has finally taken an upward trend.  So far I've gained 10 lbs total this pregnancy, which is right on track for what my doctor wants.  It seems my idea of adding a cereal snack at the end of each day worked to beef me up.  I just hope it doesn't start a landslide in the weight gain department.  Then she took my blood pressure, which was 146/74.  It's getting quite comical at this point because my blood pressure was absolutely fine yesterday at the gym and it was 110/70 at the endo's office; it seems I just get anxious at my OB's office--in a good and bad way.  

After all the vitals, I was escorted into a room where Trey was waiting on me.  Another nurse came in to check for little Ferbie's heartbeat.  What happened next is a story so funny that it's definitely one for the baby book.  She placed the wand over my exposed belly and was able to find the heartbeat right away.  "Good," I thought.  But then it disappeared.  So the nurse moved the wand to the other side of my belly where she was able to find it again, but it was there for less than a second before it disappeared again.  "She's trying to run away from me," the nurse said.  Ferbie was not liking having an intruder on her roof, and she began moving up towards my belly button causing me to giggle.  The nurse continued this routine for a few more tries:  find the heartbeat, it disappears, I laugh because I can feel her moving around, repeat.  Finally, she said, "Oh forget it!  She's obviously fine in there.  I just can't get her to stay still!"  I don't know why, but I was feeling quite proud of my daughter at that point and wanted to give her a high five. 

Next, the doctor came in and greeted both of us.  We went over the standard questions:  "Any bleeding?  Loss of fluid?"  No and no, thankfully.  Then he let me ask questions.  If I haven't said it already, my OB is great!  He'll let me ask all the questions I want to for as long as I want.  So I've started keeping a list of questions on my iPod that I reference before my appointments.  I asked him about some muscle cramps I've been having, especially at night that wake me up.  He recommended a magnesium supplement to hopefully relieve the cramps, although I'm enjoying the husband-hired back rubs everyday.  We also talked briefly about pediatricians, which we need to nail down soon before I . . . you know . . . go into labor (!) because they'll need to be there to check her blood sugar after she's born.  Then he measured my fundal height--22 cm.  My doctor was happy with that.  He said he wanted to see me again in 4 weeks for another appointment and ultrasound.  

I made a joke with him "So I don't have to do the glucose test."  "No, definitely not," he said, still clicking away on his tablet.  I smiled and said, "Yeah, I mean what are you going to do?  Put me on insulin?"  This comment caused my doctor to let out a laugh.  I like making fun of diabetes.  

Endo: 

This appointment was even less exciting than my OB appointment, except for this one guy in the lobby who kept staring at my belly.  I just wanted to say "Stare much?  It's not an alien."  But I kept my cool.  

I was called back, and the nurse took my weight (1 lb more than my OB, I'm guessing that was the burrito I had for lunch) and my blood pressure:  110/70.  I just started laughing because the differences between the two offices are quite comical.  I decided I quit on trying to figure it out.  Then the nurse pricked my left middle finger, but she couldn't get enough blood for a strip.  Dang calloused fingertips!  She had to prick another one to get enough.  I was nervous what this A1c was going to be because I had a horrible week during Christmas (just blood sugar wise, the rest of my Christmas was great).  After 5 minutes, my A1c came up:  5.1%  My jaw dropped open because I literally couldn't believe it.  The only rationale I have for it is that when you're used to keeping such tight control that any trend of bad numbers seem significant.  Obviously, my numbers in between these bad episodes were still pretty stable.  

My doctor came in and we looked over my numbers.  "22, huh?" he said, barely any emotion.  "Yeah, that one was pretty bad."  I'm glad he didn't freak out about it, I was done reliving that nightmare.  He changed a few things on my pump to help me keep some lows at bay and hopefully keep me at a more stable trend overall.  We'll see how things go.  I made another appointment for a month from now, but this time it is a week after my OB appointment.  

Overall, I learned that I'm actually doing quite well at this whole pregnancy and diabetes thing.  I need to stop beating myself up when things don't go 100% perfect.  These things fall in line with my only 2 New Year's resolutions:  1) enjoy the rest of this pregnancy to the fullest extent and 2) stop freaking Googling anything health related!!  I'm really serious about that last one, and I've made it 5 days so far!