Pleurisy?

Now, I'm no doctor but I do know how to work my way through some of my medical terminology books, web MD, and GOOGLE. I don't think this is my gallbladder. 4 doctors think it's my gallbladder, but I don't. I don't know if they think I'm faking pain or have a low pain tolerance or some crap like that but.... the symptoms of gallbladder do not coincide with what I'm experiencing. I think pleurisy fits. The last time I went into the doctor with this same kind of pain (only more mild) at about 25 weeks they prescribed my codeine. He said it was the inflamed cartilage (I twisted wrong when putting on my seatbelt) but he didn't think that was the only thing. He had mentioned pleurisy which is another inflammation of the lining of the lungs and ribcage that's usually cuased by a viral infection and pregnant women have a higher chance of contracting.

I really think that's what this is. Not only that but now I'm starting to produce more phlegm; a symptom of me not being able to take deep breaths and so it's all building up. About once an hour I try to take 4 deep breaths in a row just because I don't want to end up with pneumonia or something because of this. I think I might go back into the doctor or urgent care and see somebody there. Hopefully they'll be able to prescribe me more pain meds because at least that knocks the pain level down to half and makes reclining at least semi-tolerable so I can get a couple hours of rest in. Otherwise I don't know what I'm going to do. The midwife I have an appointment with on Tuesday is the one that's convinced I merely "strained" something when I got my blowdryer...... WHAT-ever. I don't trust her to make any good calls about this. Midwives special in pregnancy and pregnancy related things, anyways. She's not certified to make any other medical calls.

Well, that's all for now. Me and baby are just chilling. At least HE'S awake to keep me company! Sam, Michael, and my mom are all asleep. I'm jealous. They all went to sleep before me and they're all still sleeping. I want to get an airhorn and wake them up or something. I'm bored.

Owwwie

7.02 a.m. Probably got 2 1/2 hours of "sleep". Much better than nothing. It was challenging but basically heavenly while it lasted. Pain has actually gotten worse. It now hurts to swallow and drink. I am hesitant to take a painkiller. I only have 6 left and who knows how long this will go on or if it's going to get worse. Whatever is irritated on the right side has gotten more swollen. It feels like there is "water" or something around a couple of my ribs. Whereas I can feel bone on the left side, no problemo; I have to poke through squishy, sore tissue to get to the rib on the right side. I have no idea what's causing it. I hope they figure it out soon, though.

37 Weeks Full Term

Full term. Yay! Means I could have him ANY day now. Which I am hoping will be sooner instead of later. Still no luck sleeping. Laying down agitates whatever it is that's causing all of these problems (presumably the gallbladder) and makes me unable to take in any breaths. So, fun fun. It's 3 in the morning and I'm still awake just plugging away taking small lil breaths. No laughing! Or burping. Betcha never thought burping would be painful! hahaha.... haaa (that's the only way I can laugh) =) But yup. Just getting through everything. All I keep thinking about is that in a week or 2 weeks I'll have my cute little baby to hold and it'll all be worth it. Nighttime is when he moves around the most now and really presses down on my pelvis. Oh, and I know this is gross and probably way more information than you want, but I started spotting today (well technically yesterday). I noticed it. It was past the 24 hours since my pelvic exam though, which can sometimes cause the bleeding, so I think it was a genuine sign of cervix dilating! After you notice bleeding labor usually begins within the week. Hopefully this means I won't have to be induced and I'll just go into labor on my own! Alrighty. Well I'm going back to watching House and relaxing here on the couch. Hopefully I'll nod off for at least an hour.

My hospital ordeal...

Before I even start: I just typed up this whole thing. Then my computer froze & it all got erased. I was on the last paragraph & now I am starting all over. F***. And I am actually finishing it now at 3.40 in the afternoon because I couldn't get it done this morning!



Yesterday, well technically 2 days ago now because it's already Friday morning, I woke up and I had this stabbing pain on my right rib underneath my boob area. I figured I'd just slept wrong or something and got over it. It didn't get better the whole day so I took some Tylenol for it and a hot shower, which seemed to help. I figured I'd just be able to sleep it off and wake up and be fine. Wrong. I woke up yesterday and the pain was so much worse than the day before. I couldn't take in a deep breath without it feeling like somebody was stabbing my lung. Still, I figured I could just ignore it and get on with the day until it got to the point where I could no longer sit or lay down. You know that little inhalation breath you take before you sneeze? Yeah, I had to stifle 3 sneezes because I couldn't catch that deep of a breath. So of course I surf the internet for rib pain during pregnancy. The best I came up with was slight rib separation, baby's foot stuck, gallbladder problems, or just "pregnancy pains". Eh. That's probably what it was; pregnancy pains. So I tried the heating pad. Nada. Frozen corn used as an ice pack.... still nothing. Eventually I ended up calling the Marshfield Clinic Midwives (my pregnancy care providers) to see what they thought I should do. When they finally got ahold of this dum-dum (it took her 12 minutes to answer her pager and even the receptionist was annoyed) she didn't tell me any breaking news. Had I taken a warm shower? (check) Tylenol? (check) Sleep? (impossible) or how about an ice pack or a warm compress? (check, check!) Obviously nothing had worked for me and that's why I was calling. She asked if I remember doing anything that could've set it off..... nope. Nothing at all? Well, I did bend over to get my blowdryer, but that's about it. I said that.... mostly as a joke but apparantly to her that was the lightbulb! It MUST have been the darn blowdryer and now I had a muscle strain. Ding, ding, ding NOT! Yeahhhh.... must've been my 1/2 pound blowdryer that caused this, right? Considering I woke up with the pain. Sure. Whatever. It was useless continuing to talk to her so we just got off the phone and I just agree with her. Doesn't help that she talked at speed of snail.... Well, just to humor one of her suggestions I tried taking another hot shower for 20 min. Guess what didn't help? The hot shower?!? No way.



Next I skipped a step and just called the Sacred Heart ER and they told me to go ahead and come on in. Easier said than done. The car ride was hell. It hurt so bad to sit there I was in tears. Thank God Sam was driving. I just wanted to scream. Inhaling literally just hurt so bad it was taking my breath away. After what seemed like forever we finally get to the hospital. Check in & that takes 15 min. Then of course because I'm pregnant they send me up to the 3rd floor: Labor&Delivery, even though this had nothing to do with labor and delivery. They put the baby on the monitor and he was great, which was a relief to me. He was healthy and kicking and moving. They also picked up my contractions which were irregular. 11 minutes, 6 minutes, 14 minutes, 4 minutes, and 5 minutes apart. I also got to have the super fun VAGINA exam where she jams her fingers into your cervix to see if you're dilated. That's bad enough alone but add that to laying down in excuciating pain and I could've kicked her in the face. I wasn't dilating at all, which was good. But they couldn't do anything for me up there so they had to send me back down to the ER. Hm. Go figure. 2 hours later.

Ok. So now it's midnight. Checking in again took another 15 min. It was alright though because I got to stand at the front desk vs. sitting in the waiting room and that felt alot better. Sam was dozing off. I felt bad, he was so tired! Finally we got called back. They wanted to run some bloodwork on me to see if it was my gallbladder. Pregnancy can affect how your gallbladder works and gallbladder inflammation and stones runs in my family anyways. Ugh. I hate hospitals so much. We were put in a room. It only took 45 min. for the lab tech to draw my blood. I was in so much pain sitting there but I didn't want to take painkillers yet in case they had to do an ultrasound. I wanted to be able to tell them where it hurt. Well, they decided they could try this one shot that was supposed to help with the GI tract/gallbladder. I had to get the shot in the top of my butt.... ow. It burned alot. Not only that, but it didn't help. 2 oclock the doctor came in with the results of my labs. Turns out a couple of the enzymes associated with the gallbladder were elevated so they were going to go ahead and do the ultrasound. 2.30 a.m. the woman from ultrasound came to get me. Sam was zonked out. She just wheeled me and the whole bed to the room. I wanted to scream. It hurt so bad to breathe and then I had to lay down for the procedure and that just about put me through the roof. She had to hold the ultrasound transducer on the spot that was sore and I wanted to shove it down her throat. Omg.... I seriously was just laying there crying.... it sucked. =( Then I was supposed to lay on my left side but.... yeah. That wasn't happening. I half screamed and then I just couldn't breathe at all because it hurt so bad I was gasping for air. It's just the worst feeling. So she took me back to the room.

Next came another hour long wait. The procedure was inconclusive because they couldn't really get a good view of my gallbladder. I was unable to take deep breaths (obviously!) so really it was kind of pointless. The doctor came in to talk to me. She thinks that it's probably still the best bet that it's the gallbladder. Pregnancy causes gallbladder stuff anyways & that makes sense. It just means that basically there's nothing they can do for me. Which is just so frustrating beyond belief. All those doctors and all that time in the hospital and basically they just chalk it up to "pregnancy pains" and unable to do anything for it. Sucks. The only thing that will clear it up is delivery. Ugh. So not much longer. They tried giving me some Tylenol-3 for the pain which is really just strong Tylenol with a little bit of Codeine, but that's it. I can't even take over the counter ibuprofen. Basically I'm just S.O.L. So that was it. The only thing they gave me were 8 prescription Tylenols. EIGHT. How many are in a dose? 2. How many uses is that? 4. how many days will that cover at the MOST? 2. Great. Good thing it only hurts when I sit, lie down, and what's the other one? Oh yeah!! BREATHE! ugh... Then we went home. The car ride home sucked even worse than the one there. I was in tears the entire time and it's just soooo frustrating because I want to know what's wrong and I just want it to get better. All I wanted to do was sleep.

Got home. Tried taking another shower / bath. No luck. The baby was moving around so much, the most he's ever moved before. Every time he moved he pushed on my pelvis and my thighs cramped up. Maybe this whole hard time breathing thing is just my body getting ready for labor, which I don't think will be too far away. I tried sitting up & eventually found a good enough position where it wasn't excruciating. 6.30 a.m. & I caught a couple winks. Finally. I just can't take any deep breaths. Shallow is the way to go. As long as I don't raise my voice or talk loudly it doesn't agitate anything, either. So, looks like that's what I'll be doing. However they were talking about early induction for medical reasons. I just want to know what's going on before I go into labor otherwise I have no idea how that's going to work. If I can't breathe, there's going to be no way I can deal with contractions or push. Whenever I have a contraction it irritates the rib area and that doesn't feel very pleasant. If this is still acting up by the time I go into labor I'm forgetting the waterbirth. I'm just going to take the nicer, more pain-free way and get the demerol until the epidural. I'm overall just kind of frustrated and exhausted with the whole thing. I want it to be over, or at least feel better. Christopher is a little fish in there, too. That's not helping. He moves my whole belly around and consequently pushes on the sore spot. But it's ok. He's the only one I'll let push on it and get away with it =) Well. My brother and my mom are coming up tomorrow. That'll be nice. I think they'll take my mind off of stuff and mom's going to help me with a couple of things around the apartment hopefully. So, I'll just be kind of taking it really easy for the time being. Nothing exciting. No funny movies because laughing is off limits. Maybe I'll get to catch some sleep eventually when I just crash!

Acupressure Points

So, I'm back. I have my red raspberry leaf tea (which is supposed to soften the cervix and tone the uterus and get it ready for labor! in case you were wondering...) and am reading up on natural labor induction methods. I was reading through the list a couple minutes ago and there are a few teas you can try etc, etc and castor oil, which doesn't sound like fun because that gives you diarrhea and then I get to acupressure. I've heard about this, like women going in to have a pedicure if they're having prelabor symptoms and then they'll start going into labor afterwards. Supposedely, there are points on your body that correspond to your reproductive organs and pregnancy. Ok, so here's a little background info; the other night, after I was done taking my bath, I noticed there was a point on the bottom inner sole of my foot that hurt when I massaged it. (I like massaging peppermint foot oil and cream into my feet before bed. It's my fav!) Anyways. I noticed it when I was about 4 months pregnant, but the other night it was just reeeally bad, and sore. Well, I thought it was a blood blister or something until I realized it was in the exact same spot on my other foot. I figured it was just swelling or something pressing on my muscles. Alright. So here I am reading acupressure points on the body that correspond with pregnancy and the most common ones are the webbing between the thumb and pointer finger, 4 finger-lengths above the ankle bone on the calf, and the most uncommon one that not all women experience? The bottom of the foot on the inner sole! I couldn't believe it. Then I was thinking back and remembered that after I massaged my foot that night I did have some pretty intense Braxton Hicks contractions. Well, being the curious person that I am, I just had to try it out again. I started massaging the bottom of my foot right where the sore spot was, and guess what? Braxton Hick's contraction within 30 seconds and it was really strong!! Crazy huh? I think now that I tested that out I'm probably going to leave the foot massages out of my routine for at least a week.
=) But I just had to share. I thought it was pretty nifty.

* White * Out *

SNOWING!?! Again.... I can't believe it. Today is (and I quote) "The worst traveling day this season." So much for that walk today. I was going to go at 1.30 when Sam told me that. I'm really glad I listened otherwise I could've been out there in the blizzard trudging along. haha. Looks like I'll be walking the apartment hallways again. Just an interesting side note... only 12% of women have their water break before labor, contrary to what the movies make is seem like. The only connection that scientists have found to the environment and why some women break their water is barometric pressure. When there is a storm; women break their water! Crazy huh? I'm glad I'm not further along otherwise today could've been the day! I should check out what the weather looks like for the next couple of weeks. =) Sam called into work and we're going to download a movie to watch today. We were going to go to the video store and rent one, but the sideways snow and white out had us reconsidering that thought. That's about it for today. Up until this week, sure I was pregnant, but it didn't really bother me much. But THIS week, boy do I feel pregnant. I literally have to maneuver around just to get out of a seated position and waddle around. It's crazy. It definitely takes a toll on you. I'm really just wore out. But I'm excited because I know there's only a couple weeks left of this! Yay. Oh, and the cutest thing? For Valentine's Day I got Sam a coffee mug & this little stuffed puppy to fit inside it. Well, our kitty pretty much adopted him. She will pick him up in her mouth and she carries him all over. She has her own chair in the living room and blanket and she'll literally give him a bath and cuddle with him in there. It's so cute. So we found another little stuffed bear to give her and she treats them like her kittens. It's so cute! <3>

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36 weeks + 5 days

Leg Cramps

Scratch the walk; guess who didn't make it out the main doors of the apartment? Yup. Me. I took a nap and then Sam left for work at 3.30 so I was going to go for a walk then. My inner thighs had been cramping up but I thought that once I got out of bed they'd be better. Nope. The only thing that happened was I got such an intense wave of pressure in my pelvis that I ran to the bathroom otherwise I am pretty sure I would've peed my pants. My thighs haven't really stopped cramping up yet, they do it once every 10 minutes or so or whenever he moves around. Standing and walking is really uncomfortable. It feels like I have a bowling ball between my legs and I'm walking around with it there. It's one of the strangest things and probably the most awkward that I've ever felt! My waddling factor definitely just went up a few degrees.

I'm assuming this just means the baby's moving into an even more uncomfortable position lower down. Stretching and yoga are supposed to help with muscle tenseness and cramping and I do yoga nearly every day (whenever Sam works because I refuse to do yoga when he's here! haha). So not getting enough stretches in isn't the problem. Geez, wouldn't that be crazy if I went into labor tomorrow or something!? Well, I don't want to jinx anything. I still have to get a few things yet and move my room around.

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36 weeks + 4 days

Spring's in the air!

I am absolutely loving the weather outside. It's beautiful!! Woke up at 9.23 this morning and guess what? I had an appointment at 9.30! I literally jumped out of bed, threw some gel in my hair and sprayed it, put a little bit of cover-up on, and walked out the door at 9.30 and got to the appointment by 9.37 a.m. Yay me! haha. Picked out some hand mits but Sam and I have to go to Target or somewhere and get him some little newborn and little baby socks. I'm going to go for a walk soon in this amazing weather =) Put on my tennies and go, go, GO! My inner thighs have been cramping up really bad, though. I'm thinking that's a good sign, means labor will be coming soon! Yay. Not yay for the labor but yay that we'll have the baby.

36 week appointment

Had another doctor appointment today. As I was getting ready to leave I asked Sam if he was coming and we got into an argument & stuff and I thought he was just trying to get out of it again so I basically stormed out all upset and went to the appointment by myself. Meanwhile last night I was stressed out because the apartment was messy and I've been so exhausted lately that I haven't been able to get all of the things done that I used to do and I was just freaking out and had a big attack and anyways. So I'm kind of cutting ahead but when I got back home, he had vacuumed the apartment, cleaned the bathroom, done the dishes, straightened everything up, put the garbage away, tidied the living room, moved the chairs, lit candles & incense, organized the kitchen, and hung up a picture. I was sooo shocked!! It was the best. Ok. Back to the appointment. So I get there and find out that I'm 20 min early. Perfect. Add that onto my already great morning. Finally get called back. I gained 2 pounds since the last appointment. They said that's fine because I haven't gained any weight for a month and a half and most of it's going to the baby anyways. Met with a different midwife. She didn't seem very for epidurals....... she was all about the natural birth stuff and the "labor pain is good pain" regimen. Yeah.... well, good pain or not, it's still pain. So then she callously introduced epidurals on the labor sheet and I wasn't about to even ask her her feelings on them because I already knew from the stingy tone in her voice. Don't get me wrong, she was very, very nice. Just one of the midwives that's about the ALL NATURAL way. Hopefully she's not there the night I deliver. haha. Hm.... they also did a Group B strep test.... the one I mentioned before where they take a va-jay-jay swab. FUN. ....

His head is waaaay down low. Which is what's been causing my thigh cramping and pelvic pain. I knew I felt him drop because I've been able to eat more these days. My uterine height is 39 cm. Which is crazy. That means he grew alot in the past 2 weeks. The entire pregnancy I've been measuring right on with my weeks. Uterine height is how large your uterus is and they measure it in centimeters with a tape measure. At 20 weeks your uterus should be in line with your bellybutton. So if you're 17 weeks the uterus should be 3 cm below the bellybutton and if you're 30 weeks it should be 10 cm (or fingertips) above the bellybutton. 2 cm above or below how far along you are in weeks is normal. For example at the last appointment I was 34 1/2 cm and 34 weeks, which meant I was right on. Now, I'm 39 cm and 36 weeks, meaning he grew.... ALOT. And also that he's slightly larger for his age which means.... HE'S COMING EARLY!! Just like I expected. I'm thinking within the next 2 weeks. So that was pretty crazy. I was shocked when she told me how much he'd grown. So much for a nice little baby to deliver.... =) His heartbeat was 141 which is perfect. So he's a happy, healthy little man! He's also very long..... even though his head is already engaged in the pelvis he's still able to kick me up in the ribs.... long legs! He didn't get that from me....

36 weeks + 2 days

So I've been looking up natural induction techniques on the internet that you can start trying at 37 weeks (which I will be this coming Saturday) and I'm really thinking about doing some! I'm going to talk to the midwife tomorrow at my appointment and see what she thinks. They're doing my Group B strep test tomorrow. Half of all women have this bacteria "down there" which isn't harmful or anything, it's completely normal, but if you do have it you need antibiotics when you go into labor because it can make the baby sick. So, not really a big deal either way. They're also doing the pelvic exam (......can't wait......) to check effacement (how thin the cervix is), dilation (if it's opening up at all) and his pelvic station (where he's sitting above or below certain points on my hips). So, that shall be exciting! I always love pelvic exams..... But if everything looks good tomorrow as in he's sitting right and I'm at least 40% effaced I think I'm going to start trying some of these methods and hope that they'll bring labor on maybe a week or a week and a half sooner! I wish it was warmer outside. I've been really energetic and I want to go for walks but even though it's sunny and gorgeous it's only about 10 degrees right now. Boo. Walking is supposed to be really good for getting the baby positioned and helping him drop even further. Not too much longer left to go! So exciting.

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