Another day, another doctors appointment

I think I was having a pretty good day until I went to see my buddy Dr. Carter.

The appointment started okay. I sat in the waiting room for about 15 minutes reading my Vanity Fair, they called me back and I kindly left a sample for them in the bathroom. I got weighed (what fun) and went back to the room for the exam. That's when things started going downhill.


My first mistake was asking my doctor's assistant how much weight I had gained. Five pounds is not a lot, especially at this point in a twin pregnancy, but I was enough to make me worry. I also suffer from something called "white coat syndrome" which means that I tend to experience a lot of anxiety at the doctor's office. So they take my blood pressure which is higher than it should be. So now my blood pressure is high and I'm not happy with my weight gain. And I am negotiating with the nurse to take my blood pressure again at the end of the appointment. And did I also mention that I am now in the middle of one hell of a hot flash?? When I arrived at the appointment I looked all fresh and cute. I even had lipstick on! But by the time the OB cruised in I was a hot, sweaty, disgusting, pregnant mess. It was NOT pretty. Trust me.

And of course he wants to touch me. George Clooney could have walked in naked, wearing NOTHING but a stethoscope and I would have told him to get the fuck away from me. That's how nasty I felt.

Now I am hot, sweaty, disgusting, pregnant, and embarrassed because I cannot for the life of me cool down.

At this point they had me lay down on my left side to see if my blood pressure would go down. I did as I was told and tried to relax, but ended up using my beloved Vanity Fair as a fan because I was still sweating. Guess what! My blood pressure was still high. Big shock there. . .

Now it's off to the ultrasound room. At these appointments my OB looks just long enough to make sure there are two babies and two heartbeats. Except I now have to go to the bathroom because someone decided to rest her head on my bladder. However, when I try to excuse myself to the bathroom I am asked to wait because with this particular machine you get a better picture with a full bladder. Great. I hoist my sweaty, disgusting, pregnant and embarrassed mess of a self onto the table, pray to the gods above that I don't wet myself, and we find out that the girls are there, active, and head down. Yeah for small miracles.

Then Dr. Carter tells me that I need to go for another anatomy scan at the perinatologist (not a big deal), and oh by the way, between now and the end of the pregnancy I need to go to the hospital twice a week for fetal non-stress tests. Which really isn't a big deal, but it threw me for a loop because I wasn't expecting to have to do this at the hospital (my old OB did them at the office) nor twice a week. So we called over to the hospital and I go for my first one at 5:15 next Monday. Guess I will now be spend some time over at the hospital. I know I will sound like a big princess but I am pregnant with twins, it's bloody hot, and I can't walk more than five steps without feeling like I have to go to the bathroom and parking at the hospital is a joke. THANK GOD they have free valet.

And of course, because the appointment is now over, my body temperature decided to regulate itself to something resembling normal. Better late than never.

And that my friends was my afternoon in a nutshell.