Home - Not at Work

I should be at work right now. I woke up this morning, got up and brushed my teeth. Though I'd made the giant stride to get out of bed, my body wasn't feeling up the challenge of starting the morning routine. I took my clean teeth back to bed and gave myself another hour plus to counter the fatigue that was so tightly wound into my muscles.

I woke up (this time without an alarm) and had to talk myself up. Though my body was relieved to have the extra time in bed, my rhinitis was rearing its ugly head and congestion was pressing in on me. I got up and made tea.

I'm supposed to take my iron supplement before eating, twice a day. It is a liquid, so it's not transportable for consumption pre-lunch. So, I need to take it at breakfast and dinner. That's not so easy-to-do. My stomach wants nothing but toast first thing in the morning. I started to grab for the bottle of iron in my vigilance to consume the nutrients I (and baby) need. As my hand touched the glass I could feel the bile in the back of my throat. Oh no. I'm not putting that down my throat right now. Hell no.

So, I've had toast and tea - as I do every day now.

I got an email back from my doctor telling me that the decongestant that I was interested in taking is now OTC. That's good news. But she strongly advised me to come in for an appointment to ensure that I don't have an upper respiratory infection. JEEZ. On the one hand, if I do have an upper respiratory infection - THAT SUCKS. On the other hand, at least it won't last the duration of my pregnancy like rhinitis could. So, now I'm on the fence. Do I go into the epicenter of illness to be evaluated, especially knowing that they might not do anything but prescribe rest and decongestants? Or do I wait-it-out, take OTC meds and see how I fare?

Though I often err on the side of self care rather than western medical opinions, I think in this case, an evaluation might be a good move. I've had these symptoms for nearly two weeks now. And they aren't getting better. Meanwhile, I'm feeling wiped out, as you do when you have slime pushing out of you through major orifices. (Grouse.)

RE: genetic testing that I mentioned yesterday. After posting my blog entry I found a forum on CVS by women who had the procedure. Though about half the women said that it was fine, or that it was only uncomfortable during the procedure, there were as many who said that if they would have known how much it was going to hurt that they never would have gone through it. One woman advised women to take 3 - 4 days bed rest (instead of the 24 hours that the doctors advise) because she only took the 24 hours and she was still bleeding 4 weeks later. She said that her pregnancy had been easy and uneventful prior to CVS and that the bleeding started immediately after and hadn't stopped. She'd had to go back to the doctors for evaluation because the medics were afraid that the bleeding might be an indication of a problem with her baby. Fortunately, her kid was fine.

So, I shared this with D and told him flatly that I'm not doing this procedure. I don't think that my baby has a genetic problem. And if it does, it would likely miscarry naturally before the amnio that is tentatively set on January 3. I feel better knowing that we've made this decision. And though I would like confirmation that everything is good and right with my baby, I am not willing to risk my health or the health of mini-me to get those results. We're fine. I'll just keep eating right and resting and walking and loving my husband and our baby and I believe that everything will be beautiful for all of us.