11w+0d: General Update + Cardiologist Visit
Have I mentioned I'm tired? The fatigue has lifted a lot, but I'm still not able to keep up to my normal pace pre-pregnancy. When I do a lot of things at one time, I'm just exhausted. Because of this, I've had to make a few changes to things.
House Cleaner
At the beginning of the year I had started the Dave Ramsey plan. Part of my cutting costs plan was to cut out my house cleaner, who came every 2 weeks. I have to say, I did REALLY good with keeping the house clean for a little while. But once I started back on fertility medications in June/July, things started to go down-hill. Then when I started my FET cycle in August/September -- it got worse. Then the fatigue once I was pregnant... can I say - things got worse!!
I was keeping up with doing laundry, but not folding. I was good at putting things away, but not doing any deep cleaning. The house just got out of control and it was very stressful for me. A dirty house just makes me all out of sorts, like I can't relax. I just didn't have the energy to do anything about it. I finally bit the bullet and hired my cleaning lady back. She came last week and my house is CLEAN and lovely and smells so good! I am so happy that I decided to hire her back and she'll be coming every 2 weeks from now on. I'll just have to find another part of my budget to shave off of to make up the difference.
Diabetes Log
Part of my diabetes management is that I have to maintain a food log and glucose levels. I check my blood sugars 6x's a day: fasting/before breakfast, after breakfast, before lunch, after lunch, before dinner, after dinner. I have to admit... it is so hard to keep a log and to remember to check my glucose levels. I haven't been the best at it. Like when I'm busy at work and have a lot of meetings or if I'm out running errands, I don't "forget" - I just don't have the time to always check. It's frustrating I'm trying to get better at it and be more consistent. I'm finding the weekends are harder vs. the work week, since my schedule is more sporadic. I'm trying not to think about logging my foods through the whole pregnancy because it feels overwhelming. I don't make good food choices a lot of times, because of my busy schedule -- and I don't really know what the solution to that is. I have created a Google Sheets doc to track my food/glucose intake, which is a lot easier than keeping it on paper -- that's helped.
Cardiologist Visit
As part of my MFM "to-do's" I scheduled an appointment with the Cardiologist to have an EKG and an echo cardiogram done. This was in part due to my diabetes, which can impact the heart. In pregnancy, your heart works harder because you're pumping more blood. So, my MFM wanted me to get this looked at, just to make sure everything was OK.
I'll start off by saying... that I didn't like the Cardiologist. It was hard getting scheduled. The office seems run-down a bit. His staff came across unprofessional and lazy. And I didn't like the way he communicated with me.
First, I had the EKG done -- everything looked good on it. Then, I was supposed to have the echo cardiogram. They had to get approval through my insurance, which took 2 people to call to finally get it authorized. Why? Who knows. But I was sitting there waiting while the first person said it wasn't approved, then the second person called and got it approved. Humph. Time suck.
When I finally met with the doctor, the first thing he talks about is my weight. He didn't read my chart or the notes from the referral - he just talked about my weight. "I think your diabetes is due to you being overweight and if you lost weight, you wouldn't have diabetes." Well, that's nice and kinda a "duh" thing to say. But he didn't read my chart and didn't realize I was pregnant. Do you tell a pregnant woman to lose weight? Then, he went into the whole, "Do you have high blood pressure issues? High cholesterol?" No and no. Then he goes into the whole - let me try to scare the sh!t out of you approach. He says, "Well, you might not have it now - but you will get it as you get older." Like it's inevitable. Nice. He then asked, "have you ever tired to lose weight?" Umm, yes doctor I have. Then I was on fertility treatments for two years and gained it all back. Which, you would know if you read my chart.
Anyways, the Cardiologist was fascinated that I was single and got pregnant through a donor. He said, "Wow, I've heard of women doing this I just never met anyone that's done it." Then he went on to quote a study about it and actually seemed to like me better once he heard this. Well, OK then.
He finally decided to read my chart after that. He then told me that I shouldn't be on Metormin because it causes birth defects... I'm like WTF. My MFM, my RE, and my OB all know I'm on Metformin and no one has ever said that to me or told me stop. Not ONE. He went on and on and on about how I shouldn't be on it for the first trimester and he's shocked my MFM actually increased my dose.
At this point... I could've freaked out. Hello, paranoid pregnant lady worried over this pregnancy. But after the conversation we had on the other stuff, I just figure he has no clue what he's talking about - where Maternal Fetal Medicine is concerned. He might be a genius with hearts, but he obviously is behind things where pregnancy is concerned. He also answered his phone 2x's during his consult with me... Odd.
Then, he checked my heart rate and he said everything looks good. But then countered with some scary a$$ sh!t that "could" possibly happen to me during the pregnancy because of the diabetes and being overweight. Like, really scary stuff. Like WTH.
Then I had the echo cardiogram done, which I don't know the results since the Cardiologist had an emergency and needed to go to the hospital. Seeing my heart on the ultrasound was kind of cool!
Anyways. It was a bad experience. I hate the scare tactics from doctors and worse case scenarios. Scare tactics with a pregnant woman is even worse because my hormones are all crazy and I'm paranoid as heck. Most of the stuff he was talking about wouldn't just pop up out of nowhere anyways. That stuff would be gradual and I'm being so closely monitored, I'm sure my MFM would catch anything and make the appropriate adjustments to my care. What an a$$
Ok, this entry is a bit longer than I thought it would be! Didn't realize how annoyed I was at the cardiologist visit until I wrote it all down. So, I'll end this entry here. Some exciting stuff coming up next week -- the NT scan and the NIPT!! Can't wait.
Next Steps:
House Cleaner
At the beginning of the year I had started the Dave Ramsey plan. Part of my cutting costs plan was to cut out my house cleaner, who came every 2 weeks. I have to say, I did REALLY good with keeping the house clean for a little while. But once I started back on fertility medications in June/July, things started to go down-hill. Then when I started my FET cycle in August/September -- it got worse. Then the fatigue once I was pregnant... can I say - things got worse!!
I was keeping up with doing laundry, but not folding. I was good at putting things away, but not doing any deep cleaning. The house just got out of control and it was very stressful for me. A dirty house just makes me all out of sorts, like I can't relax. I just didn't have the energy to do anything about it. I finally bit the bullet and hired my cleaning lady back. She came last week and my house is CLEAN and lovely and smells so good! I am so happy that I decided to hire her back and she'll be coming every 2 weeks from now on. I'll just have to find another part of my budget to shave off of to make up the difference.
Diabetes Log
Part of my diabetes management is that I have to maintain a food log and glucose levels. I check my blood sugars 6x's a day: fasting/before breakfast, after breakfast, before lunch, after lunch, before dinner, after dinner. I have to admit... it is so hard to keep a log and to remember to check my glucose levels. I haven't been the best at it. Like when I'm busy at work and have a lot of meetings or if I'm out running errands, I don't "forget" - I just don't have the time to always check. It's frustrating I'm trying to get better at it and be more consistent. I'm finding the weekends are harder vs. the work week, since my schedule is more sporadic. I'm trying not to think about logging my foods through the whole pregnancy because it feels overwhelming. I don't make good food choices a lot of times, because of my busy schedule -- and I don't really know what the solution to that is. I have created a Google Sheets doc to track my food/glucose intake, which is a lot easier than keeping it on paper -- that's helped.
Cardiologist Visit
As part of my MFM "to-do's" I scheduled an appointment with the Cardiologist to have an EKG and an echo cardiogram done. This was in part due to my diabetes, which can impact the heart. In pregnancy, your heart works harder because you're pumping more blood. So, my MFM wanted me to get this looked at, just to make sure everything was OK.
I'll start off by saying... that I didn't like the Cardiologist. It was hard getting scheduled. The office seems run-down a bit. His staff came across unprofessional and lazy. And I didn't like the way he communicated with me.
First, I had the EKG done -- everything looked good on it. Then, I was supposed to have the echo cardiogram. They had to get approval through my insurance, which took 2 people to call to finally get it authorized. Why? Who knows. But I was sitting there waiting while the first person said it wasn't approved, then the second person called and got it approved. Humph. Time suck.
When I finally met with the doctor, the first thing he talks about is my weight. He didn't read my chart or the notes from the referral - he just talked about my weight. "I think your diabetes is due to you being overweight and if you lost weight, you wouldn't have diabetes." Well, that's nice and kinda a "duh" thing to say. But he didn't read my chart and didn't realize I was pregnant. Do you tell a pregnant woman to lose weight? Then, he went into the whole, "Do you have high blood pressure issues? High cholesterol?" No and no. Then he goes into the whole - let me try to scare the sh!t out of you approach. He says, "Well, you might not have it now - but you will get it as you get older." Like it's inevitable. Nice. He then asked, "have you ever tired to lose weight?" Umm, yes doctor I have. Then I was on fertility treatments for two years and gained it all back. Which, you would know if you read my chart.
Anyways, the Cardiologist was fascinated that I was single and got pregnant through a donor. He said, "Wow, I've heard of women doing this I just never met anyone that's done it." Then he went on to quote a study about it and actually seemed to like me better once he heard this. Well, OK then.
He finally decided to read my chart after that. He then told me that I shouldn't be on Metormin because it causes birth defects... I'm like WTF. My MFM, my RE, and my OB all know I'm on Metformin and no one has ever said that to me or told me stop. Not ONE. He went on and on and on about how I shouldn't be on it for the first trimester and he's shocked my MFM actually increased my dose.
At this point... I could've freaked out. Hello, paranoid pregnant lady worried over this pregnancy. But after the conversation we had on the other stuff, I just figure he has no clue what he's talking about - where Maternal Fetal Medicine is concerned. He might be a genius with hearts, but he obviously is behind things where pregnancy is concerned. He also answered his phone 2x's during his consult with me... Odd.
Then, he checked my heart rate and he said everything looks good. But then countered with some scary a$$ sh!t that "could" possibly happen to me during the pregnancy because of the diabetes and being overweight. Like, really scary stuff. Like WTH.
Then I had the echo cardiogram done, which I don't know the results since the Cardiologist had an emergency and needed to go to the hospital. Seeing my heart on the ultrasound was kind of cool!
Anyways. It was a bad experience. I hate the scare tactics from doctors and worse case scenarios. Scare tactics with a pregnant woman is even worse because my hormones are all crazy and I'm paranoid as heck. Most of the stuff he was talking about wouldn't just pop up out of nowhere anyways. That stuff would be gradual and I'm being so closely monitored, I'm sure my MFM would catch anything and make the appropriate adjustments to my care. What an a$$
Ok, this entry is a bit longer than I thought it would be! Didn't realize how annoyed I was at the cardiologist visit until I wrote it all down. So, I'll end this entry here. Some exciting stuff coming up next week -- the NT scan and the NIPT!! Can't wait.
Next Steps:
- 11/22/16: NT Scan and NIPT
- 12/1/16: Annual eye exam
- 12/2/16: OB Visit
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