Sunday, October 26, 2008

Oops...

After my lovely weekend in St. Louis, I had my 61/2 month check-up on Monday morning the 21st. It was a regular little visit, it just happened to start with my glucose test. For those of you unfamiliar, I had to drink a "sugar drink" and head back to the lab in an hour to have my blood drawn in order to test my blood sugar to make sure the little one and I don't have gestational diabetes. The doctor visit went great, the little one's heartbeat was perfect! I will never get tired of hearing that little heartbeat, I look forward to each visit for that alone. The old cankles are still a little swollen, but nothing to worry about. After the visit I really didn't think much of the glucose screening, knowing if there was a problem with it I would hear from the doctor.

Well, Tuesday afternoon rolls around and sure enough...a call from the doctor. I have failed my glucose screening and I am anemic. So, it was back in to the lab on Friday morning for me to undergo the three hour glucose screening test. I was a little upset, but after reading some information knew that it wasn't the end of the world to fail the test (I had only done so by a small margin) and most of the time everything was fine. Unfortunately the three hour screening required some fasting on my part...anyone who has seen me in oh the last 2 months knows that I like to eat these days. I did my fasting, got to the lab at 7:15am on Friday morning knowing I was in for another "sugar drink" and my blood drawn on the hour for the next three hours. I was quite the fixture in the waiting room...THE HUGE PREGNANT WOMAN. Not hard to miss me these days :) So four hours and four sticks later I was on my way home to head up to the mountains with Bj. The drive is lovely, and just as we are about to get to Vail I notice I have missed a call from the doctor (the reception is not to great on the drive up). I call to listen to my message and figure the results aren't good. I spend the next little bit trying to get a hold of the doctor who left the message (my doctor wasn't there). I finally get a hold of the phone nurse who goes "Let me pull you up...Hmmm...LONG PAUSE, LONG PAUSE...I am going to have to have the doctor call you back and talk to you, there is a long note here." I managed to squeak out (terrified at this point) "Can you please tell me how bad it is?" Her answer is "Well, you have failed the first two hours and there is a long note here, the doctor will call you back. " After assuring me the doctor would call back, I called my mom and burst into tears. Uncontrollable tears, how could I have done this to myself and the baby? She calms me down, Bj calms me down and we wait for the doctor to call back.

About an hour later another doctor calls back (she is very nice, she helped me when I lost my ankles) and goes "Hi Ellen, I have been doing some detective work because I hear you got some bad news..." Apparently because I don't at all look pregnant some lovely technician in the lab processed my results AS SOMEONE NOT PREGNANT. My results were just fine and in the words of the doctor "Don't worry we don't have to have you switch doctors and you don't have Gestational Diabetes". I mean...I spent four hours in the lab talking with everyone about how hungry the pregnant lady was, I am not quite sure how you look at my name and click the "not pregnant" box. I don't know what I would have done had I have been given the news that I needed to change doctors and had a horrible case of gestational diabetes. The doc apologized and said she was really sorry I burst into tears. I was just relieved that everything was okay. I shared the happy news with everyone and we were all relieved...just a little miffed as to how you confuse my large round self for someone not pregnant! Needless to say the experience really upset me. You do everything in your power to make sure you keep your baby safe during pregnancy and I felt like I had failed. I am relieved my results were just a silly mix-up and all I need is to take some extra iron for the anemia.

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