Eh...

We went to our OB this past Wednesday. Keep in mind we actually have 4 OBs. It is four women who work in the same practice, and any one of them could deliver me (now that we know we will be delivering here). Because of this, we see any random one of the four at our appointments. Well this time we met one of the OBs we had not met before. She was SUPER nice and spent a ton of time just getting to know us and our situation.

I had gotten a little over excited about asking her when we could induce, since we now know we will be in Macon for the delivery. And naturally, that excitement was shot down. She said she had not received any notification that we would need an induction. She still hadn't received the cardiologist report though, and had not received a number of test results and reports from the perinatologist. She seemed a little angry at that, and she promised us she would get all of those missing pieces together for us. Being part of the medical community, I definitely understand that when too many doctors get involved, communication tends to break down. That is not an excuse...it's just what happens. As a patient you have to be an advocate for your own health care and be vocal about making the doctors pull all of the pieces together.

ANYWAY, according to her, she didn't think we needed to induce unless it was the expressed desire of the cardiologist or perinatologist. I hate that, but only because it essentially ensures that we will be in the Atlanta hospital over Christmas since we won't be able to have him early to avoid that scenario. She said we would wait on reports after our next cardiologist and perinatologist appointments to decide on induction. She also said that after our next regular appointment (at 32 weeks), we would be coming in once a week for non-stress tests. This is something they do with all high risk pregnancies. It is apparently just a 20-30 minute monitoring of the heart rate and movement of the baby. So, starting October 29, we will be in some doctors office at LEAST once a week...should help make the end of the pregnancy go by pretty quick!

Quick story about working while pregnant... I'm starting to show pretty bad now. I got a new patient this week who is a truly spoiled and rude old lady. She has some spinal cord damage and can't stand up or walk by herself. I was helping her move from her wheelchair to a mat table for therapy. She stood up nice and calm, but when I asked her to take a step she started to lose her balance. I was already holding on to her, but I asked her to hold on to my arms (just to steady herself and make her feel like she was more stable). She completely freaked out and started yelling "I can't I can't, I'll hurt your baby!!" Needless to say, she panicked and essentially allowed her knees to buckle so she landed back in her wheelchair...giving my back a good pull and most certainly hurting me much more than if she had just grabbed my arms like I had asked! I was fine, but it gave me some sad insight into how patients are going to view me and trust me as this baby starts stickin' out a little more!

~Kathy