Sunday, Bloody Sunday...

Warning: this one may be gross.

This past Sunday, I got up, took care of my morning routine, had breakfast, and then headed out to run a ton of errands. I noticed that my lower abdomen was kind of achy in a not-too-bad-but-annoying-nonetheless menstrual crampy way, but I decided to ignore it and go on about my business. At my first stop, I went to the bathroom and noted that my pee looked oddly orange, but aside from the mental note, I didn't think much of it. I figured I was dehydrated or had eaten something strange that had colored my urine. (Kind of like what happens when you eat a lot of beets.)

All day, the crampiness continued and every time I peed, I noticed that it was still oddly colored. By the end of the day, I was starting to think it might be something to be concerned about.

Around 5pm, I finally headed home. At home, I peed in the "pee hat" I had leftover from my 24 hour pee test. (I think I blogged about the pee test, but I can't really remember.) If I didn't blog about it, here's the synopsis: the doctors ordered me to catch all of my pee for a 24 hour period so they could check it for protein and other schtuff. They gave me a "pee hat" which fits on the toilet and catches everything. Then I poured it into a big jug.

Looking in the pee hat, I was completely alarmed. The pee was reddish orange and clearly full of blood. (This hadn't been as apparent earlier in the day due to the dilution of the bloody pee in the toilet water.) I went and got Geekboy and told him that something bad was happening and I needed to get in touch with the doctor.

I called the doctor line and the doctor called me back. I explained what was going on and he suggested that I might have a urinary tract infection, but he wanted me to go to the hospital to be checked out so they would know for sure.

I told Geekboy to grab his computer because we were going for a ride. (He's much better off when he's got geeky entertainment.) I grabbed a big mug of water and we were out the door. I figured I should hydrate so I could pee when we got to the hospital.

At the medical complex where I'm being seen, they have a 24 hour pregnancy triage and assessment center. The nurses checked me in to an examining room and had me pee in a cup. It was pink - there was still obviously a decent amount of blood present, but it was nothing compared to what I'd discovered in the pee hat at home.

Then, while waiting to be seen in the patient room, I found that I had to pee every 5-10 minutes. I think it was a combination of being nervous and having consumed the giant mug of water on the way to the hospital. After a few more pees, the nurse arrived with a different cup for me to pee in. I produced the sample and it was as clear as tap water. For some reason, they decided to check for the presence of bacteria under a microscope on the clear pee sample (rather than the bloody one).

After about an hour, the doctor came in and told me that the sample was clean. She then conducted a quick pelvic exam (the first Geekboy had ever attended) and told me that my cervix looked a little tender and the q-tip swab she did produced a little bit of blood. She theorized that the blood in the urine was actually coming from my vaginal opening, rather than through my urethra. I questioned this theory a bit, but in the end, didn't want to get into a pointless argument with her. However, I'm 95% sure the blood was in my urine and not coming from somewhere else and mixing with the urine.

They sent us home. That evening, I had another slightly off-color pee (in the hat), but by morning, my pee was back to normal and the lower abdominal cramping was gone. I've been watching very carefully and I'm now on my third day of normal pee. I'm baffled by what happened, but I guess that if it's cleared up and the baby is fine, there's not much to worry about.

This is the type of thing where you begin to believe it's all in your head, but Geekboy has confirmed for me that it did, in fact, happen.

Blog Followers - Yay!

I haven't really made many efforts to publicize this blog yet as I've been distracted by my job, pregnancy, a basement renovation, figuring out whether to get married or not, the gestational diabetes, housekeeping, purchasing a new house, tenant turnover, and a whole host of other crazy stuff. However, it is on my list of things to do as it would be nice to know that there are folks out there in cyberspace reading (and hopefully learning from) my experiences. After a blogging hiatus of a few weeks, I was thrilled to sign on to see that I've got two blog followers. Yay! So now I've got impetus to keep up with the posts. Thanks blog followers! I'm glad you found your way here and I hope it's interesting to you. May many more followers soon follow your lead!

Morphing Lap Band Scars

I have five scars on my belly from the lap band surgery. Three are dots and two are more incision-type scars. One is about 3/4 of an inch long and the other is about 1 1/4 inches. They never really had a chance to fade after the surgery (I've been told this can take up to two years), but they used to be relatively flat and light pinkish.

As the pregnancy has progressed, I've noticed changes in the character of the scars. Especially in the last few weeks, they've grown much deeper in color and have also become much more raised/pronounced. In fact, one of the dot scars almost looks like a blister (but it's not infected or inflamed or anything).

I hadn't really noticed the morphing of the scars until one day when I looked in the mirror and I could see them THROUGH my shirt. It wasn't even a particularly tight shirt, but the scars caused the material to sit at a slightly different angle which caught the light. Weird. Since then, I've noticed that I can often see them through my shirts, but I doubt most people would notice. (Note: I'm not going to work in see-through shirts - it's the raised bumps I'm seeing under the fabric!)

I asked the doc about it and he said that weird things happen during pregnancy and a lot of them can be attributed to hormones.

The newly pronounced scars don't really bother me too much and geekboy doesn't seem the least bit bothered by them either - so, for the most part, I don't really care. But it seems like something that could be alarming or bothersome to scar-conscious individuals.

(I just tried taking a photo so you could see what I'm talking about, but it didn't work so well - sorry.)

Med Appointment

2 weeks ago, I had another medical appointment. I've been so bad about blogging that I can't even remember what happened. I'll try to remember and update this post. Consider this a placeholder.

Insulin in the Vein

The other night, I went to give myself my before-dinner insulin shot and noted that the prick was significantly more painful than usual. Nonetheless, I carried on and finished the injection. When I removed the needle, I noticed that a lot of blood came with it and the injection spot was very painful. There was also a hard bump where the insulin had gone in - it didn't seem to dissipate at all.

Somehow, I seem to have managed to hit a vein. I panicked a bit and got online to see what I could find out about injecting insulin into a vein. Fortunately, it's not that big of a deal and apparently it happens to everyone from time to time. The biggest concern is that one can have a sugar low from the insulin being absorbed too fast, but thankfully that didn't happen to me.

Now that it's been a few days, I've got a nasty looking purple bruise at the injection spot. Geekboy commented that it complements the purple shirt I've got on today!

The Novelty of Insulin is Gone

It's funny to read my last post about my first day on insulin. The novelty has worn off and although shooting myself three+ times a day is still not a big deal, it's become an annoyance remembering to do it. So far, I've only completely forgotten to give myself a shot once, but I've come close a few times. I'm also amassing an alarming number used syringes which I've been storing in a sealed container (as instructed).

I don't know if I've gotten cavalier with my eating or my sensitivity to the insulin is already diminishing, but the quantities I was instructed to use no longer seem to be quite doing the trick. My after dinner numbers are coming back high (pretty much consistently) and my morning numbers aren't great either (in fact, they've never been in the target range...ever). I have a follow-up appointment with the doc in a few days, so hopefully they'll be able to adjust my quantities to get me where I need to be.

With the lap band loosened, I no longer have any restriction so my food control all has to come from me. I've been eating a fair bit more than I need to be and the scale is starting to reflect it. I've also gotten lax about exercise. My goodness - I'm falling apart!

This coming week, I plan to rededicate myself to the "plan" to see if I can get things under control. I'm fairly confident that Bebe and I can get things straightened out.

First Day on Insulin

So - I'm almost through my first day on insulin and really it's not all that bad! I was fairly scared about getting the whole hang of injecting myself and about figuring out doses and whatnot - but it really hasn't been near the big deal I had made it out to be in my mind. With the exception of my waking blood glucose number which is still too high, all of my numbers over the day have been perfectly within range - which is great considering that I've been fairly "loose" with my eating and I haven't pursued any after-meal exercise all day.

I'm on a combination of two different types of insulin: long lasting and quick acting. In a nutshell, I get a shot of long-lasting before bed and in the morning. I take a shot of quick acting 30 minutes before meals. Because dinner is the only meal where my numbers have been giving me trouble, at this point, I only use quick acting then.

Tonight was my first pre-dinner shot. I filled the syringe and took it with me in the car on the way to the restaurant. Just before getting out of the car, I administered the dose as I figured it would take about 30 minutes to order and get our food. Before leaving for dinner, I did a pre-meal blood sugar test and my number was 84 (the goal is to be under 100). I was a bit concerned that if the food got delayed at the restaurant, the insulin could begin acting and give me a sugar low so I brought along a little Tupperware with dried apricots and almonds. (Remember the pre-unfill apricot of death episode?) I ate one apricot before the meal came and it got a wee bit stuck - but nothing like last time. Note to self: don't eat dried apricots. Ever. For any reason.

The sugar low never occurred and my reading one hour after dinner was 128 (the goal is to be under 140). Woo hoo! Insulin works!