So in all our time we had yet to actually sit down with the perinatologist. And after our ultrasound we had a few more minutes to wait. Apparently Dr. S has a happening business, and an unfortunate tendency to leave his door cracked. Not so great for patient confidentiality, and we overheard several sessions while we waited out turn. I'll admit the last one was not so good and I was a little emotional by the time we went in...but hey when have I not been emotional lately! The doctor went through our ultrasound pictures, and showed us a few things he found. He started by saying the only reason he was telling us is because its a free country. He said if it were the other side of the ocean he wouldn't be telling us, and then he laughed. I think it maybe was a cultural thing? He was Indian. Basically he found one thing on each baby that was unusual and only important because it was a marker for a genetic issue, but normally there are a whole host of issues which neither of the babies have so he isn't worried. I wasn't super thrilled but D did a good job of calming me down. The third thing on his list was cervical length.
We were down to 2.2cm. The doctor said not to panic, but it wasn't good news. He wanted us to do some things. First was total pelvic rest (aka no hanky panky), next was to wear a 'belly bra' his words. Nurse gave us a picture, it's a fun harness type pregnancy cradle, to help relieve pressure on my cervix. Third was to get some more testing, to check for infections that may be causing pre-term labor. And fifth (nope, you didn't miss it, there was no fourth!) was to 'take it easy' It wasn't bed rest but I was just supposed to be smart.
Sidenote: He actually said, no more 3 hour shopping trips, make your husband do it. Sadly, it was the day before my annual MLK girls trip to the outlet malls for baby clothes, and I had a whole boys wardrobe to buy. After explaining it to the doctor he did say that I could go if I went around in a wheelchair the whole time. Which I did, and my amazing friends were super kind pushing me around and opening doors all day. We had a fabulous time! I can't wait to do it again next year!
So back to the fun. I went back to exam room for some more fun examining...while we were waiting the nurse gave us info on the maternity belt he wanted us to pick up on our way out of the hospital as well as information on pre-eclampsia. Since we were told to be concerned about pre term labor, we questioned why so the nurse gave us that handout. She went to verify, then came back with a handout for preterm labor. Somehow I think the communication in that office is not the greatest!
By this time I was starving so D and I stopped for our traditional lunch in the cafeteria, then we swung by the mom and me store to pick up the prenatal cradle. Turns out, despite what the doctor told us, they don't carry the shoulder harness style there. She told us to go to a medical supply place around the corner. So off we went. At the medical supply place they said it was over a hundred bucks but normally covered by my insurance if I had a prescription. So we called to get a prescription. After convincing the nurse that our insurance would indeed cover it if they would fax us a prescription, we found out the doc was at lunch. So we got to spend some quality time at the med supply store. By the time we got it all squared away it turns out they don't carry it either. They have the same one as the hospital. I think this is when D decided to call it a day and we went home at 2:30pm...from our 8:15 appointment.
I went to bed, I'm exhausted just thinking about this long day. And my lovely husband tried calling the 800 number on the flyer the doctor gave us. It was disconnected. So he went to the website. Turns out the company was bought out by a different company. So he called them and got the names of two local places that carry them. He called them, both of them said they didn't carry the product. So we finally gave up and ordered it on Amazon, got it 2 days later. I love Amazon.
No comments:
Post a Comment