Many apologies to all who might have been reading this blog or who might have accidentally stumbled upon it only to notice that I *suddenly* stopped posting. I can only imagine what y'all must have assumed. (We humans have the tendency to assume the worst - especially in weird risky-seeming situations.) Yes, I have a lap band. Yes, I had gestational diabetes. And things got even more exciting in the last month or so as my blood pressure started going up to fairly concerning levels.
BUT - despite it all, I managed to deliver (via C-section) a wonderful, healthy and happy baby boy who is the love of my life (and of Geekboy's).
It's now been 14 weeks since the baby was born and I've decided it's time to "get back on the wagon". A couple of weeks after his birth, quite shockingly, I was down to my pre-pregnancy weight. I've never lost 30lbs in 2 weeks before. That was an experience! However, since hitting that weight low, I started gaining and had put on a good 10-12 lbs. I think it was a combination of the free-for-all experience with the diabetes going away and getting off of insulin, no longer having to worry about the well-being of the baby, being unfilled, and not exercising at all due to baby demands.
How does one "get back on the wagon"? Well, I went in for a fill yesterday. And today I'm feeling it. Possibly a little too much. I'm going to try to give it a day or two to see if things settle down, but if not, I might be headed right back for a partial unfill. I had the nurse practitioner take me from 5ml to 6.75, where I had been prior to the pregnancy, figuring that it was a pretty good level before. Things might have changed. How do I know? Let's put it this way - I tried to eat ONE scrambled egg with a sprinkling of cheese for dinner. I got half of it down, spit up a quarter of it (along with a lot of slime) and am still feeling it an hour and a half later. Ugh.
It's Wednesday. I'm going to try to make it to Monday to see if things resolve themselves. Hopefully, I won't shrivel up or be too overly miserable in that time.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Follow up to Bloody Pee
I went to the doctor yesterday for my first visit since the second hospital episode with blood in my urine (hematuria). They checked all of the labs that had been run and everything appeared normal, so they weren't particularly concerned. While relieved that it's not something alarming to the doctors, I did feel a bit frustrated by the inconclusive nature of it all. They don't seem to think I need to do any follow-up at this juncture, but if it happens again, they do want me to go in for evaluation.
Port Ache
So far during the pregnancy, I've had no unusual port-related symptoms...until today. According to the doc's measurements, my "fundal height" (top of the uterus) is now three to four inches above my belly button. My port is located about six inches up from this from my belly button and two inches to the right.
I imagine that what's going on is my uterus is starting to push directly on my port or push on my guts (yes, that's a fancy medical term) that are then pushing on my port.
It doesn't really hurt - it's more of a dull ache, but it's enough to make me aware of my port's presence and location.
When I touch my port, it's a bit more tender than usual, but not super-sore.
It seems logical that this port ache is only going to intensify as the pregnancy proceeds.
I'm now officially in my third trimester...so not super long left to go!
I imagine that what's going on is my uterus is starting to push directly on my port or push on my guts (yes, that's a fancy medical term) that are then pushing on my port.
It doesn't really hurt - it's more of a dull ache, but it's enough to make me aware of my port's presence and location.
When I touch my port, it's a bit more tender than usual, but not super-sore.
It seems logical that this port ache is only going to intensify as the pregnancy proceeds.
I'm now officially in my third trimester...so not super long left to go!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Hip Pop
I've developed this weird thing where when I move in the night, my hips pop loudly. I feel the vibration in my pelvis, but it doesn't hurt at all...it's just kind of disconcerting.
Doc says it's perfectly normal and is a product of the relaxin hormone that is working to loosen up my muscles and joints in prep for baby's exit. Weird!
Doc says it's perfectly normal and is a product of the relaxin hormone that is working to loosen up my muscles and joints in prep for baby's exit. Weird!
Blood Part Deux - With Food Poisoning to Boot! (British Pun Intended.)
So, the blood in my urine thing happened again. I had been feeling kind of achy in my lower abdomen all day, but charted it up to the fact that I'm pregnant and didn't think much about it. However, in the evening when I got home, I again noticed blood in my urine. Around that time, I also noticed that I didn't seem to be passing anywhere near as much urine as I should have been considering the amount of liquid I had been drinking.
I called the doc who encouraged me to go in to the hospital, although they had done nothing useful for me on the previous visit. I told her I'd have dinner and then bring myself in. She seemed satisfied enough with that. She also suggested that I have them catheterize me so that we could find out once and for all if the blood was coming from my bladder(which I insisted it was) or if it was vaginal bleeding (which they were pretty convinced it was).
I went into the "pregnancy ER" and they remembered me from last time. I got all checked in and eventually they got around to doing the catheterization. I don't think I've ever been catheterized before. It wasn't super fun, but it wasn't too horribly awful, either. The verdict? Blood in my urine. I resisted the urge to say, "I told you so!"
They took blood samples and made me hang out hooked up to the fetal monitor for an eternity. I guess they wanted to get 20 minutes straight of baby's heartbeat and movements on record, but baby kept moving out of range. Hours later, after I asked what was going on, the nurse explained this 20 minute thing to me - so I took it into my own hands (literally) as I wanted to get out of there and go home (it was now well past midnight). Every time baby moved out of range, I'd chase him with the monitor until I got a good solid heartbeat. This involved some pretty weird contortions to keep the monitor reading - but it was totally worth it because I did finally get released from the hospital around 2:30am.
Exhausted, dehydrated (they would only give me ice chips) and famished, I headed home. Once home, I fried two eggs, ate them, climbed in bed, kissed GeekBoy, and fell fast asleep.
At 6am, I woke up feeling horribly nauseous and proceeded to go to the bathroom and have a dry heaving fit. That was followed by a nice round of diarrhea. I won't continue with the lovely details, but in a nutshell, my entire day was spent yacking and pooping. I called the doc and he didn't think that my bloody urine episode and the gastroenteritis were related. At first he wanted me to come into the hospital, but when I protested (as they'd done nothing useful on the past two torturous visits) he agreed that I could stay home as long as I was able to hold liquids down by afternoon/evening.
Thank heavens things settled down by then and I was able to drink some tea without losing it. After that point, I worked hard to rehydrate and I woke up the next morning feeling achy and battered, but much better off.
During the food poisoning day, I was a bit confused what to do about insulin and blood sugars since I was unable to keep anything down and I'd heard that blood sugars can skyrocket when one is sick. I decided to skip the insulin (and avoid the possibility of a low that I couldn't address) and keep a close eye on my sugars. Surprisingly, all day, they stayed just over 100 which seemed perfectly reasonable to me.
As a side note, I bought the eggs the day before from underneath a sign stating that the store's eggs had NOT been part of the big salmonella egg recall. So who knows?!?
I called the doc who encouraged me to go in to the hospital, although they had done nothing useful for me on the previous visit. I told her I'd have dinner and then bring myself in. She seemed satisfied enough with that. She also suggested that I have them catheterize me so that we could find out once and for all if the blood was coming from my bladder(which I insisted it was) or if it was vaginal bleeding (which they were pretty convinced it was).
I went into the "pregnancy ER" and they remembered me from last time. I got all checked in and eventually they got around to doing the catheterization. I don't think I've ever been catheterized before. It wasn't super fun, but it wasn't too horribly awful, either. The verdict? Blood in my urine. I resisted the urge to say, "I told you so!"
They took blood samples and made me hang out hooked up to the fetal monitor for an eternity. I guess they wanted to get 20 minutes straight of baby's heartbeat and movements on record, but baby kept moving out of range. Hours later, after I asked what was going on, the nurse explained this 20 minute thing to me - so I took it into my own hands (literally) as I wanted to get out of there and go home (it was now well past midnight). Every time baby moved out of range, I'd chase him with the monitor until I got a good solid heartbeat. This involved some pretty weird contortions to keep the monitor reading - but it was totally worth it because I did finally get released from the hospital around 2:30am.
Exhausted, dehydrated (they would only give me ice chips) and famished, I headed home. Once home, I fried two eggs, ate them, climbed in bed, kissed GeekBoy, and fell fast asleep.
At 6am, I woke up feeling horribly nauseous and proceeded to go to the bathroom and have a dry heaving fit. That was followed by a nice round of diarrhea. I won't continue with the lovely details, but in a nutshell, my entire day was spent yacking and pooping. I called the doc and he didn't think that my bloody urine episode and the gastroenteritis were related. At first he wanted me to come into the hospital, but when I protested (as they'd done nothing useful on the past two torturous visits) he agreed that I could stay home as long as I was able to hold liquids down by afternoon/evening.
Thank heavens things settled down by then and I was able to drink some tea without losing it. After that point, I worked hard to rehydrate and I woke up the next morning feeling achy and battered, but much better off.
During the food poisoning day, I was a bit confused what to do about insulin and blood sugars since I was unable to keep anything down and I'd heard that blood sugars can skyrocket when one is sick. I decided to skip the insulin (and avoid the possibility of a low that I couldn't address) and keep a close eye on my sugars. Surprisingly, all day, they stayed just over 100 which seemed perfectly reasonable to me.
As a side note, I bought the eggs the day before from underneath a sign stating that the store's eggs had NOT been part of the big salmonella egg recall. So who knows?!?
Saturday, August 21, 2010
It's called diabetes. Duh.
Went to the doc again last week for another checkup and follow-up ultrasound. Apparently, last time they didn't feel like they got an adequate look at the baby's heart due to his position so they wanted to scan again. Fine by me - I've got pretty good insurance coverage (thank heavens). Baby was still there doing his thing! His profile shot looked kind of weird to me (he had a bulbous looking nose) so I went online to look at what other 22 week ultrasounds look like. Can you say...exactly the same? It's weird how similar the scans are. In fact, I'm not sure I could tell the difference between some of them.
During the doctor part of the visit, the doc reviewed my blood sugar numbers from the past couple of weeks. My morning fasting numbers are still significantly higher than they should be despite a couple of increases in my nighttime insulin dosage and plenty of experimentation with my bedtime snack. Nothing (so far) seems to consistently work. I asked the doc if there are some people whose morning numbers are just always out of whack no matter what they do, thinking that I might fall into that category. He looked at me and said, "Yes." Feeling pleased that I wasn't the only one, he continued, "They're called diabetics."
Gee, doc. Thanks for the enlightenment.
During the doctor part of the visit, the doc reviewed my blood sugar numbers from the past couple of weeks. My morning fasting numbers are still significantly higher than they should be despite a couple of increases in my nighttime insulin dosage and plenty of experimentation with my bedtime snack. Nothing (so far) seems to consistently work. I asked the doc if there are some people whose morning numbers are just always out of whack no matter what they do, thinking that I might fall into that category. He looked at me and said, "Yes." Feeling pleased that I wasn't the only one, he continued, "They're called diabetics."
Gee, doc. Thanks for the enlightenment.
Hellooo Lap Band!
Since my partial unfill a while back, I've pretty much been acting like I don't have a lap band. I've been able to eat whatever I want, drink with meals, not chew my food particularly well, sip soda, and all of those other things one is not supposed to be doing with a lap band. In fact, I had kind of forgotten what it was like to have a filled band.
Tonight at dinner, my band decided to remind me that it's still there. Geekboy and I were eating chicken, barley, and salad. A few bites into the chicken, I got that familiar tightness that conveyed "you'd better stop now, or else...". I paused, commented to Geekboy that the band was back, and proceeded to go into a hiccup fit (a common lap band experience). I got up from the table, walked around a bit, and after a couple of minutes, I felt the chicken pass. Wow - it was quite a surprise to suddenly again be lap-band-y. I returned to my meal, taking small bites and chewing well and finished without incident. I wonder if this is the beginning of the band getting tighter from the pregnancy progressing? As long as I can still eat and drink well, that might not be such a bad thing as I've been putting on the poundage a little faster than desired (though I'm really only up 11 pounds from my low point now that I'm 24 weeks along). Originally, my goal had been to gain no more than 15 pounds during the entire pregnancy, but I'm not longer convinced that the pregnancy weight gain is entirely under my control.
Tonight at dinner, my band decided to remind me that it's still there. Geekboy and I were eating chicken, barley, and salad. A few bites into the chicken, I got that familiar tightness that conveyed "you'd better stop now, or else...". I paused, commented to Geekboy that the band was back, and proceeded to go into a hiccup fit (a common lap band experience). I got up from the table, walked around a bit, and after a couple of minutes, I felt the chicken pass. Wow - it was quite a surprise to suddenly again be lap-band-y. I returned to my meal, taking small bites and chewing well and finished without incident. I wonder if this is the beginning of the band getting tighter from the pregnancy progressing? As long as I can still eat and drink well, that might not be such a bad thing as I've been putting on the poundage a little faster than desired (though I'm really only up 11 pounds from my low point now that I'm 24 weeks along). Originally, my goal had been to gain no more than 15 pounds during the entire pregnancy, but I'm not longer convinced that the pregnancy weight gain is entirely under my control.
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