rant
So, my ultimate goal with this pregnancy is to have a nice, natural home birth. My first birth was a drug-free, mostly intervention free hospital birth. I just feel like I keep getting railroaded at every turn. I've did meet a midwife a couple of weeks ago, and I really like her, but I've yet to follow up with her. I feel like it's hard to get out from under this doctor-oriented system. Every time I go in I have another test, and every test leads to more potential complications and more testing.
I went to my first OB appointment at about 7 weeks, and was pretty convinced that I never, ever wanted to go back to that office. I really disliked the doctor, the staff, the atmosphere--everything. Plus, my insurance sucks and very little was covered.
But then, about 2 weeks ago I started getting severe leg cramps in my right leg. I got leg cramps pretty frequently with my first daughter but they would come and go relatively quickly and normally only happened during the middle of the night. The new ones, however, lasted for an hour or more, decreasing in intensity as time went on. They happened during the middle of the day and they hit an average of three times a day. I left work early two days because they were so painful. Heat helped alleviate the pain as did putting my feet up. Because I was worried about the possibility of a blood clot I went to the OB I had seen previously and she referred me to get an ultrasound of my leg to check. (She herself didn't do much, or ask many questions, just squeezed my leg and sent me off to the hospital. She seemed pretty sore that I hadn't been back since my 7 week appointment, but that's another story.) Anyway, no clots. The leg pains went away after about a half a week of getting them pretty consistently. On my part, I changed my diet to include more potassium-rich foods and tried to spend more time off my feet while at work. No one could ever answer why I got the pains (or why I don't get them anymore) so I attribute it to either a lack of potassium, too much time standing, the way the baby was positioned, or possibly some combination of the three.
Then, last Monday I went in for the anatomy ultrasound. First thing I find out is that the doctor I saw the previous two times had dropped me, and I had a new doctor I had never met before. The ultrasound seemed to go well, and tech/nurse said that everything looked good. It looks as though we are having another girl! They did seem to have some trouble finding the heartbeat because the baby was moving around so much, but they told me it was 154 bpm which I know is pretty normal. So they send me back into the waiting room until the doctor can talk to me again. When I get called back in I am told my baby has a possible arrhythmia, which is totally confusing to me because moments earlier I was told that everything looked normal. The doctor doesn't tell me much (like WHY they think the baby has an arrhythmia) and refers me for a fetal echo. I actually got a glance at the chart and what the tech had written, and it literally just said "? questionable arrhythmia". Long story short, I went in for the fetal echo this morning, just to feel safe. The cardiologist found nothing wrong, and said the heart rate was good, and that the valves, chambers, etc. looked to be healthy and growing normally. He did say that he noticed when he pressed with the ultrasound wand (please excuse my lack of technical speak) the baby's heart rate dropped a little, but that that happens a lot in healthy babies. Which reminded me that when they did the ultrasound in the doctor's office the tech was pressing REALLY HARD. Like it hurt when she was moving the wand around. I'm not sure, obviously, but my intuition tells me that in doing that she caused the heart rate to drop and rather than attribute it to her techniques, called it an arrhythmia. The cardiologist wants me to follow up in late October, and then once again when the baby is born...
The doctor's office wants me to follow up in September for the 1-hr Glucose Tolerance Test...
I am not the kind of person who says no easily. And my mindset up to this point has been that it's better to be safe than sorry. But I am honestly sick of all this testing that seems to yield nothing but more issues and more testing, especially when I feel that everything is fine. I know that feelings aren't everything of course! but I also really don't want to go in for the GTT when I have no history and no symptoms... and I know that that test is notorious for producing false positives. Plus I REALLY don't want to go back to that office. As to whether or not I should follow up with the fetal echo, I'm not sure.
I sent the midwife another email and plan to call her tomorrow. I guess I know what I want, I just don't know the best way to get there. *sigh*
ETA I am 24 weeks
I went to my first OB appointment at about 7 weeks, and was pretty convinced that I never, ever wanted to go back to that office. I really disliked the doctor, the staff, the atmosphere--everything. Plus, my insurance sucks and very little was covered.
But then, about 2 weeks ago I started getting severe leg cramps in my right leg. I got leg cramps pretty frequently with my first daughter but they would come and go relatively quickly and normally only happened during the middle of the night. The new ones, however, lasted for an hour or more, decreasing in intensity as time went on. They happened during the middle of the day and they hit an average of three times a day. I left work early two days because they were so painful. Heat helped alleviate the pain as did putting my feet up. Because I was worried about the possibility of a blood clot I went to the OB I had seen previously and she referred me to get an ultrasound of my leg to check. (She herself didn't do much, or ask many questions, just squeezed my leg and sent me off to the hospital. She seemed pretty sore that I hadn't been back since my 7 week appointment, but that's another story.) Anyway, no clots. The leg pains went away after about a half a week of getting them pretty consistently. On my part, I changed my diet to include more potassium-rich foods and tried to spend more time off my feet while at work. No one could ever answer why I got the pains (or why I don't get them anymore) so I attribute it to either a lack of potassium, too much time standing, the way the baby was positioned, or possibly some combination of the three.
Then, last Monday I went in for the anatomy ultrasound. First thing I find out is that the doctor I saw the previous two times had dropped me, and I had a new doctor I had never met before. The ultrasound seemed to go well, and tech/nurse said that everything looked good. It looks as though we are having another girl! They did seem to have some trouble finding the heartbeat because the baby was moving around so much, but they told me it was 154 bpm which I know is pretty normal. So they send me back into the waiting room until the doctor can talk to me again. When I get called back in I am told my baby has a possible arrhythmia, which is totally confusing to me because moments earlier I was told that everything looked normal. The doctor doesn't tell me much (like WHY they think the baby has an arrhythmia) and refers me for a fetal echo. I actually got a glance at the chart and what the tech had written, and it literally just said "? questionable arrhythmia". Long story short, I went in for the fetal echo this morning, just to feel safe. The cardiologist found nothing wrong, and said the heart rate was good, and that the valves, chambers, etc. looked to be healthy and growing normally. He did say that he noticed when he pressed with the ultrasound wand (please excuse my lack of technical speak) the baby's heart rate dropped a little, but that that happens a lot in healthy babies. Which reminded me that when they did the ultrasound in the doctor's office the tech was pressing REALLY HARD. Like it hurt when she was moving the wand around. I'm not sure, obviously, but my intuition tells me that in doing that she caused the heart rate to drop and rather than attribute it to her techniques, called it an arrhythmia. The cardiologist wants me to follow up in late October, and then once again when the baby is born...
The doctor's office wants me to follow up in September for the 1-hr Glucose Tolerance Test...
I am not the kind of person who says no easily. And my mindset up to this point has been that it's better to be safe than sorry. But I am honestly sick of all this testing that seems to yield nothing but more issues and more testing, especially when I feel that everything is fine. I know that feelings aren't everything of course! but I also really don't want to go in for the GTT when I have no history and no symptoms... and I know that that test is notorious for producing false positives. Plus I REALLY don't want to go back to that office. As to whether or not I should follow up with the fetal echo, I'm not sure.
I sent the midwife another email and plan to call her tomorrow. I guess I know what I want, I just don't know the best way to get there. *sigh*
ETA I am 24 weeks