This has been quite the week. I had 6 appointments all related to this baby. Two were chiropractor visits, one was a massage and one was acupuncture. Those were the ones that helped me feel better, both physically and emotionally and all just happened to land in the same week. But I also had an OB appointment and my liver scan appointment, both on the same day.
My BP at my appointment was 130/79, which was more or less what I’ve been getting at home. Since starting the Labetalol three times a day instead of two, my pressures have been floating around 126-133/66-77. So they’re lower than they were on the medication twice a day. Still, it seems like a shit ton of BP medication considering I’m taking 1,200 mg daily I think the upper limit is 1,600.
Pokemon’s heart rate was in the 150s and he was moving EVERYWHERE. The PA, who is one I haven’t worked with before, was having quite the time trying to get a good reading.
She was really nice. I liked her. I have my consult with MFM next week and she told me that most likely I’ll just see them once and they’ll make their recommendations to my OB clinic. Otherwise, if they have testing they want me to do that my clinic can’t accomodate, they’ll have me go there. Which was nice to hear because I was concerned about adding more appointments to my otherwise busy schedule.
She wants me to make another appointment in two weeks (I’ve been basically seeing my OB every 2 weeks so far in this pregnancy, and I don’t see that changing, especially as we get closer) and wants me to bring my glucose testing supplies to inventory, since I haven’t used them in over 3 years.
I initially declined the glucose tolerance test, then briefly reconsidered, but then decided to just go ahead and test myself. I mean, it’s me, so I have a high probability of failing it anyway. I haven’t checked my blood sugars and she said that was fine, but that I’ll have to start testing to monitor for gestational diabetes here in the next few weeks. I’m hoping the supplement I take might help prevent GD this time around, but who knows.
This past weekend we were in Iowa, as I wrote last week. I forgot to post the photos I took of the trees on our drive down. Driving through Southern MN isn’t usually the prettiest drive most of the time unless you’ve embraced farmland, but this one was breathtaking.
Anyway, Pokemon (and my pelvis) have been much happier after I received a chiropractic adjustment. My body was ALLLLL thrown off which I knew it was, and while the pain is gradually coming back, since Tuesday, things musculoskeletal-wise have been greatly improved. This was a Webster-certified provider, which was appealing to me given my history of breech babies and pelvic pain.
Still, I did decide to go with another local chiropractor that seems to take my insurance (and also does Webster) and I’m hoping, crossing my fingers, not making eye contact, keeping my head down that I’ll get at least some visits covered. Between the monthly massage, acupuncture 1 to 2 times a month and now the chiropractor out of pocket, those alone ran me about $450 this week out of pocket. So I’m meeting with the other chiropractic clinic next week. Fingers crossed my insurance company takes pity on me yeah right.
Pokemon has been moving around like crazy, especially after the adjustment where he now has more room in my pelvis to move around.
I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by all the medical appointments, and after my liver scan Thursday afternoon, I drove home exhausted after being at both there and the OB all afternoon. This is the part of pregnancy that wreaks havoc on my schedule and ability to plan for work when I have 2 to 4 appointments a week.
But I think the scan went well. I won’t know the results until next week, but there’s always the chance it didn’t even find anything conclusive. It wasn’t until I got there into the exam room that the person told me one of the contraindications to the Fibroscan was pregnancy. So… there’s a chance it won’t work, which is pretty annoying to do the test in the first place. It wasn’t too bad though. I had to lay flat on my back which was rough because I felt a bit breathless, and the probe basically thumped along my ribcage and I’m a little sore now.
In other news, Olivia came home with a picture of our family. Mom and Dad, dog Toby, sister Emelia and apparently the baby (“Mom, I forgot the Y at the end of baby!”) who is grown and faceless (“The marker accidentally went through the paper when I drew the baby’s face, Mom!”).
