10 Weeks

I'm officially 1/4 of the way there....nearing the sought-after end of the first trimester.

This week was a rough one. There were the normal reasons, of course, like being crazy hungry but not wanting any food known to man, and nausea when I picked the wrong food or waited too long to pick something. (Poor Scott. This has been a challenge for him. Halfway to a restaurant, I'll decide that where we're going isn't going to work, but I don't know where will work. Lots of fun as I start feeling sick because I'm getting hungry and he's panicking because he doesn't know where to go or what to do.) New this week: sinus problems. Netty Pot to the rescue! (Ashley - I hope you're happy.)

Aside from that stuff, though, when I tried to think of a way to summarize the week, this was the best I could do:
I realize this requires some explanation, so an explanation I shall provide.

First of all, that's my wrist with my accessories of the week. The tan thing in the middle is a band that's for my nausea. It has a magnet that presses into a pressure point on my wrist and thereby reduces the symptoms of nausea. Mom's acupuncturist gave them to me, and while they don't work 100%, they do work well enough for me to continue wearing them despite their goofy appearance.

The white band to the left is a hospital band. Last Sunday night when I laid down to go to sleep I couldn't breathe. Could not. It felt as though my throat was closing up - I had to cough just to breathe. Sitting up helped very little, but I drank some hot tea that eventually helped some and I was able to get about 2 hours of sleep (in a recliner). As soon as I woke up Monday morning, though, it started again and Scott took me to the emergency room. They couldn't do much there - no chest X-rays or anything like that - because of the baby, but they did an EKG, which looked normal, and took lots and lots of my blood, which didn't show any signs of blood clots or anything like that. They gave me a breathing treatment and an inhaler and sent me home. My obstetrician (the best in the WORLD) came and checked on me, and wanted me to follow up in a couple of days and just let him know how I was doing. I used the inhaler 3 times Monday but haven't had to use it since then.

On Tuesday, I felt pretty good, except for this somewhat worrisome nagging ache I'd had for several days. My doctor told me it was probably something normal, based on my description of it, so I wasn't all that worried. I was aware of it, but not scared.

Then on Wednesday, I figured that I needed to get checked out. The ache was getting worse, and I was having strong symptoms of.....a urinary tract infection. I've had them before, so I knew what I was looking at, and called the doctor's office and told them what was going on. I went and had some lab work done to confirm my suspicions and was told they'd let me know. I didn't hear anything on Thursday but was getting increasingly uncomfortable. On Friday morning I was in agony and called the doctor as soon as the office opened. I told the nurse that my back was hurting - in my kidney area - and the UTI symptoms were worse. Based on that, she told me to come in and see the doctor on call because my doctor was out of town at a funeral.

Let me say here that I do not like the other doctor. Let me quote her: "Oops. Made you bleed. Sorry!" Yeah.

She gave me some antibiotics and something for my discomfort and sent me home. An hour after I got home, the pain got bad enough, all of a sudden, that I was close to calling an ambulance. I called Scott instead, though, bawling, and told him something had to be done. I have never felt pain that intense. It was so scary.

He came and took me back to the emergency room. (Hence the second hospital band, on the right in the above picture.) Again, because of the baby, they couldn't do all the tests they normally would. Scott and I had a feeling that it was a kidney stone. The doctor (the same one who saw me Monday) told me that they'd do the same thing for a kidney stone and a UTI for a pregnant woman. They did give me some vicodin, though, for the pain. (I was assured by several doctors that everything they were doing and giving me was safe for me and the baby.)

Me likey da vikey.

After one dose the pain evaporated as quickly as it came, and now I'm just fighting the UTI. No fun, for sure, but at least I can move. Baby steps.

There's my week in a nutshell. Fingers crossed for a better week this week.