This has definitely been a test for me. It's a test in patience, calm and undeniable reality that some things are simply not in my control.
Today had reasonably good news. I'll start from the beginning as to not miss a beat.
I dropped Nola off at day home around 9, printed off my Christmas letters at Staples and met Kevin back at home for our 10:30 planned departure to Calgary. The roads were fair and clear so it was smooth sailing all the way.
I had intentions of getting there about one hour before my first scheduled appointment as I needed to get blood work done. There is a little lab on the main floor of the North Tower of the Foothills and my doctor was quite explicit last week that is must be done in Calgary.
I took a number and waited. When it was called, I obediently marched up to the counter and handed her my three requisitions and health card. Then she proceeded to explain I needed to give a urine sample. Oops, I had just gone before I came to the lab...I didn't have anything left to give... That's OK, I can do that a little later, after lunch perhaps. Then she asks me if anyone explained the other part of the urine testing to me...uh, nope. Oh God. Then she points to it.
The jug. Ooo, and it comes with a hat? No, but I do have the pleasure of filling this thing up over a 24 hour period so they can test stuff...what? I don't know. All I know is that the instructions are pretty strict and even if I miss one pee I have to start all over again, and it can't be the morning pee, or not the first morning pee...pee is pee...I thought!
Anyway, I explained to the nurse/lab tech/receptionist person that I don't live in Calgary and it's kind of silly for me to wait a whole other week just to cart it down from Red Deer. She suggested I go upstairs and ask Dr. Cooper (my new Obstetrician) what her intentions are and if I still need the test.
Kevin and I take the elevator up one floor and hang a right toward her office. There's a sign on the wall. It reads:
Dr. Cooper -->
Dr Brain -->
I stop and look at it and point at it for Kevin to see. I think it's funny because it's obviously a spelling error and should read 'Dr. Brian'. Whose last name would possibly be Brain??
Kevin kind of laughed and thought it was an inside joke. We walked down the hall to where Dr. Coopers station is and there was no one around but one doctor who appeared to be reviewing a file before entering a patients room. Across from Dr. Coopers station is another Doctors station. The plaque clearly read:
Dr. P. Brain
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.....BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Seriously?!?!?!?! Kevin and I burst out laughing and couldn't contain ourselves! For real?? Dr. P. Brain?? AWESOME.
The doctor in the hall looked at us, not angrily or disapprovingly but just...like we were pretty immature. HA!
Finally, a receptionist came back to Dr. Coopers station and I looked right at her and said, "I HAVE to ask!" She laughed and said it was true, the Doctors name is Phillipa and yes, they ALL make fun of her!
After a minute, it was on with an explanation of the 'pee jug' and I went downstairs and grabbed one with the instruction of dropping it off at a lab in Red Deer.
We went for lunch and then headed over to the Teaching Research & Wellness Center for the regular ultrasound. Now expecting a LONG wait, I had come prepared with all my Christmas cards thinking I would fill them out and get them ready. Murphy's Law. We didn't wait long at all and we were called in, had the ultrasound by a sonographer lickety split and was led to a little room to await the debrief with the Perinatologist, Dr. Pollard, and Pediatric Cardiologist, Dr. Fruitman.
Dr. Pollard came in first and I think I'm going to call him Dr. Grim from now on. I appreciate his efforts to be realistic but could go the rest of my life without hearing anyone refer to the possible outcome of my baby as "fetal demise". I officially hate that term. Funny too how he's the only man doctor I've dealt with through this. He said the heart rate is 56/60 which is exactly where we were last week. Slow and steady wins the race? Hope so!
After Dr. Grim left, in came the bright and wonderful Dr. Fruitman to answer all our questions and give us the positive boost. She's very in the moment and wants to deal with what we have as we have it. We'll react when we need to. I like it. We gave her all our questions, naturally, and then left feeling like I should be hugging her.
We promptly left her office and headed over to the Children's Hospital where we had an appointment to meet with a children's Rhematologist, Dr. Johnson. This amazingly wonderful Doctor was so warm and friendly and delved right into all the care and attention required for my "case". She asked all sorts of questions about my parents and brothers and their children, Kevin's parents brother and child, collecting all sorts of history--Kevin compared her to House with her investigative questioning.
She laughed and joked also, which is so nice because meetings like this can be way too serious. She also had a resident with her from Austrailia, Ben. When Dr. Johnson asked me what I did for work I told her I was a substitute teacher. She asked, "What grades?" I told her I was a middle school specialist and Kevin piped in saying, "yeah, now that they carry rocks and knives to school!" As perfect could be Ben replied in his Austrailian-Crocodile-Dundee-accent, "you just need a bigger knife."
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...AWESOME.
So we won't be seeing Dr. Johnson until after the baby is well into the world. As she explained to us, the baby will likely show symptoms of Lupus that may need monitoring and control. This doesn't mean the baby will have Lupus, just simply a reaction from being inside me. They will eventually fade and be gone. The heart problem will remain, but she will tend to the baby's aftercare as far as anything Lupus-y goes.
We counted 9 doctors on the list for my "team". I can't help but feel confident. Yes, I have bad days where I panic about what's happening inside of me and my inability to do anything. That truly is hard hard hard. And yes, I do realize we're not out of the woods and it's still possible to have "fetal demise", which would be positively devastating. But today was a good day. I will do my best to continue for another week with positive thoughts and when those run out, I'll use the positive thoughts from YOU.
We just need to stay the course. Steady as she goes.
Today had reasonably good news. I'll start from the beginning as to not miss a beat.
I dropped Nola off at day home around 9, printed off my Christmas letters at Staples and met Kevin back at home for our 10:30 planned departure to Calgary. The roads were fair and clear so it was smooth sailing all the way.
I had intentions of getting there about one hour before my first scheduled appointment as I needed to get blood work done. There is a little lab on the main floor of the North Tower of the Foothills and my doctor was quite explicit last week that is must be done in Calgary.
I took a number and waited. When it was called, I obediently marched up to the counter and handed her my three requisitions and health card. Then she proceeded to explain I needed to give a urine sample. Oops, I had just gone before I came to the lab...I didn't have anything left to give... That's OK, I can do that a little later, after lunch perhaps. Then she asks me if anyone explained the other part of the urine testing to me...uh, nope. Oh God. Then she points to it.
The jug. Ooo, and it comes with a hat? No, but I do have the pleasure of filling this thing up over a 24 hour period so they can test stuff...what? I don't know. All I know is that the instructions are pretty strict and even if I miss one pee I have to start all over again, and it can't be the morning pee, or not the first morning pee...pee is pee...I thought!
Anyway, I explained to the nurse/lab tech/receptionist person that I don't live in Calgary and it's kind of silly for me to wait a whole other week just to cart it down from Red Deer. She suggested I go upstairs and ask Dr. Cooper (my new Obstetrician) what her intentions are and if I still need the test.
Kevin and I take the elevator up one floor and hang a right toward her office. There's a sign on the wall. It reads:
Dr. Cooper -->
Dr Brain -->
I stop and look at it and point at it for Kevin to see. I think it's funny because it's obviously a spelling error and should read 'Dr. Brian'. Whose last name would possibly be Brain??
Kevin kind of laughed and thought it was an inside joke. We walked down the hall to where Dr. Coopers station is and there was no one around but one doctor who appeared to be reviewing a file before entering a patients room. Across from Dr. Coopers station is another Doctors station. The plaque clearly read:
Dr. P. Brain
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.....BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Seriously?!?!?!?! Kevin and I burst out laughing and couldn't contain ourselves! For real?? Dr. P. Brain?? AWESOME.
The doctor in the hall looked at us, not angrily or disapprovingly but just...like we were pretty immature. HA!
Finally, a receptionist came back to Dr. Coopers station and I looked right at her and said, "I HAVE to ask!" She laughed and said it was true, the Doctors name is Phillipa and yes, they ALL make fun of her!
After a minute, it was on with an explanation of the 'pee jug' and I went downstairs and grabbed one with the instruction of dropping it off at a lab in Red Deer.
We went for lunch and then headed over to the Teaching Research & Wellness Center for the regular ultrasound. Now expecting a LONG wait, I had come prepared with all my Christmas cards thinking I would fill them out and get them ready. Murphy's Law. We didn't wait long at all and we were called in, had the ultrasound by a sonographer lickety split and was led to a little room to await the debrief with the Perinatologist, Dr. Pollard, and Pediatric Cardiologist, Dr. Fruitman.
Dr. Pollard came in first and I think I'm going to call him Dr. Grim from now on. I appreciate his efforts to be realistic but could go the rest of my life without hearing anyone refer to the possible outcome of my baby as "fetal demise". I officially hate that term. Funny too how he's the only man doctor I've dealt with through this. He said the heart rate is 56/60 which is exactly where we were last week. Slow and steady wins the race? Hope so!
After Dr. Grim left, in came the bright and wonderful Dr. Fruitman to answer all our questions and give us the positive boost. She's very in the moment and wants to deal with what we have as we have it. We'll react when we need to. I like it. We gave her all our questions, naturally, and then left feeling like I should be hugging her.
We promptly left her office and headed over to the Children's Hospital where we had an appointment to meet with a children's Rhematologist, Dr. Johnson. This amazingly wonderful Doctor was so warm and friendly and delved right into all the care and attention required for my "case". She asked all sorts of questions about my parents and brothers and their children, Kevin's parents brother and child, collecting all sorts of history--Kevin compared her to House with her investigative questioning.
She laughed and joked also, which is so nice because meetings like this can be way too serious. She also had a resident with her from Austrailia, Ben. When Dr. Johnson asked me what I did for work I told her I was a substitute teacher. She asked, "What grades?" I told her I was a middle school specialist and Kevin piped in saying, "yeah, now that they carry rocks and knives to school!" As perfect could be Ben replied in his Austrailian-Crocodile-Dundee-accent, "you just need a bigger knife."
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...AWESOME.
So we won't be seeing Dr. Johnson until after the baby is well into the world. As she explained to us, the baby will likely show symptoms of Lupus that may need monitoring and control. This doesn't mean the baby will have Lupus, just simply a reaction from being inside me. They will eventually fade and be gone. The heart problem will remain, but she will tend to the baby's aftercare as far as anything Lupus-y goes.
We counted 9 doctors on the list for my "team". I can't help but feel confident. Yes, I have bad days where I panic about what's happening inside of me and my inability to do anything. That truly is hard hard hard. And yes, I do realize we're not out of the woods and it's still possible to have "fetal demise", which would be positively devastating. But today was a good day. I will do my best to continue for another week with positive thoughts and when those run out, I'll use the positive thoughts from YOU.
We just need to stay the course. Steady as she goes.
You are such a positive person, I love reading your posts. You for real put into perspective what truly matters in life, and do so with a little humour...haha "FUNNY"! Looking forward to the next post, until then happy thoughts :)
ReplyDeleteAngie
Your baby draws on your energy. You are doing a wonderful job. Look forward to seeing you.
ReplyDeleteCandace