Thursday, October 15, 2009

Finding a doctor and a little drama......


The day I discovered I was pregnant it was September 15th, testing positive twice. The next step was to verify the findings with a doctor, as I have no family doctor the task seemed a bit daunting. However a few months back in my futile search for a family doctor I was given a name and phone number to try. When I phoned this doctor she was very nice and explained to me that she only dealt in prenatal and deliveries but when I find myself pregnant one day to give her a call. I squirreled her number away in my file and the afternoon of the 15th pulled it out to give her a call.

*sigh of relief* The phone call took only 5 minutes and getting into see her was no problem, the only draw back I had to wait to fit my appointment in until the 22nd. Not a horrible wait on any other occasion. However when you have already told two potential new Grandma's you may be expecting the "so do you know for sure yet?" phone calls let you know your not the only one anxious for some damn news!. Note for next baby ~don't say freak in 'boo' until your cleared to go by a professional.

So I make it to my appointment to the doctors office the following Tuesday, I am ready for my ultrasound and to have my full physical exam and ready to have some clear confident news, especially when I know two Grandma's and Chris will be phoning for an update this afternoon. I get to the office and to my relief the doctor is a younger woman and she is very nice, she doesn't rush anything and allows me a chance to ask any questions I may have. To my disappointment however she needs to send me out for blood work to the hospital before she can determine anything...so I leave with a lab form, but no further ahead in the information category.

I make my way up to the hospital where I wait for my tests to begin, within about 45 minutes I'm already calling a cab home having left behind six vials of blood and two cups of urine. I cant wait for Chris to get home, as so far I have had to figure all this stuff out for myself and just keep him updated via phone. However during a phone call to Chris the following day, the dogs begin to go berserk by the door. I hang up with him and go see what the commotion is all about and there is Chris waiting on the back steps after a 5 hour drive home early a few days to see me. It was an awesome surprise!!!.

The next day I'm back at work and notice a bit of pink blood when I use the washroom. I have a miniature panic attack, only an hour and a half until I can get home and figure this all out. When I get home I do an online search and most of the websites say a small amount of bleeding isn't bad as long as its not accompanied by cramps or back pain. Well I'm not sure if I had experienced any pain that was more that just the pain of a full days shift after four weeks off work. So I try to let it go but as I go to use the washroom, there it is again a small amount of pink. I phone the hospital line to ask a nurse her opinion, She tells me its most likely nothing as the bleeding sounds so scant to her but she suggested I schedule an appointment with my doctor within the next 48 hours to be sure.

Well I'm working full time from this point this week and I wont have time to see a doctor so Chris and I head up to the hospital emergency. We wait around for about 20 minutes until we are escorted into a small private room, we wait alone in the room together for about an hour to an hour and a half before a doctor comes in to see us. Now I'm waiting in a hospital gown to have a check up and get some answers just hoping to be put at ease so I can get a good nights sleep about the matter. What do I get?, the doctor comes in and explains she would rather not give me my physical to avoid disturbing anything down there. She then goes on to tell me as I'm only 6 weeks there is a pretty good chance I'm going to miscarry and not to worry if I do as it shouldn't effect future pregnancies or my fertility.

As soon as the doctor leaves I start to cry, the nurse walks in and sees me looking very upset and lets me know they are just going to take a few blood samples from me to try to figure out if my hgc levels have dropped. When she asks whats wrong I tell her and I think she must have gone out and given the doctor shit for her crappy bedside manner. About ten minutes later she (the doctor) came in again and gave me the speech she should have given me in the first place about how allot of women experience bleeding and it could be nothing but just to keep an eye on things.

We got home really late that night and I still had to be at work the next morning. As if someone divine had stepped in (thank-you mother goddess) about ten minutes after I woke up I received a phone call. When I answered the phone it was my Boss's wife, she was calling to say that she thought I had looked pretty tired the night before at the end of my shift and if I wanted she had arranged to have another girl come in for me if I wanted to take the day easy. I told her a bit about the night before (as I told my boss and his wife I was expecting right away so they would understand why I wasn't lifting all the heavy objects anymore) and took her up on her offer.

My day off I took it easy with my feet up and I had no more signs of strange bleeding. I also decided I wasn't going to worry about miscarrying to the point where I treat it as an inevitability like I had the night before, when the E.R doctor made me feel helpless and drained. I decided I was going to love my baby whether or not I only had it growing in me for a few more days or as a lifelong responsibility.

The following day at work I phoned my doctors office and they gave me the final results, yes I was indeed pregnant and could see them the following Tuesday for my first check-up. When next Tuesday rolled around my doctor phoned the Hospital for my ER results and she said the HGC levels came back normal and not to worry, I had my last physical exam results (four weeks ago from my family doctor in Vancouver) faxed to my new doctor to avoid aggravating my body with a full pap smear, just as an added precaution. The Doctor then gave me my Due date May 11th (a Taurus baby) and I will have to see her again in another two weeks (after we do our prenatal screening next Monday).

As of right now I am ten weeks pregnant (two and a half away from starting my second trimester) and according to "your pregnancy week by week" my baby is the size of a small plum right now. Next post I will add a pic of my current baby bump.....which is getting noticeable...or it could be gas and my imagination!!.

2 comments:

i am the diva said...

Taureans are awesome!! hold off for one more day and me and the baby can be birthday twinsies!! May 12 is a great day to be born! :D

i'm so glad everything's okay, i started getting nervous while reading, and thinking of how long you've been trying - i wanted to bitch slap that moronic doctor for saying such a horrible thing....

find yourself a doula or midwife asap, dear friend!! doctors are fucksticks when it comes to human relations.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, unfortunatley I live waaay to remote for a midwife...they only legalised it out here about 2 years ago but they are dragging their asses on making them accessable to everyone.
I hate the hospital!!!

At least the doctor I found is really nice and she has also said once her patients reach the 8 month mark she gives them her full schedule so they know whether she will be around or not for deliveries.