Tuesday, September 9, 2008

First appointment with new doc

So I had my first appointment with the new doc today. I have to say I (& hubby went with me, he is in agreement) that I really like her & the whole staff.

It was a pretty uneventful visit. They took my height, weight, blood pressure, & did a pap smear (the first time hubby's gotten to see what that's all about, LOL).

She is VERY thorough, though, & I REALLY like that. She is sending me to a high risk OB/gyn doc because of my age. And she is sending me to my primary to get referred to a cardiologist because of my heart problem. I am very, very pleased about both of these decisions.

We also discussed the fact that I didn't find out I was pregnant until I was 5 weeks along & I had been using retin-A all that time. Now no doc who has ever prescribed it to me has warned me about using it during pregnancy & when I look it up in my nursing drug books there are no risks listed in using it in pregnancy. I stopped using it as soon as I found out I was pregnant just to be safe though. And the nurse practioner I saw at the other doc's office was freaking out when I told her I had used it, but when I asked her what the risk was she wouldn't tell me, she just said I needed to discuss it with the doc. So I went home & did a lot of searching on the internet & I still can't find anything definitive on it. One website did say that it is often confused with accutane (which is VERY dangerous in pregnancy) because retin-A is "tretinoin" & accutane is "iso-tretinoin" so they look very similar, but they are not. And this new doc asked me if I had used oral or topical retin-A...........retin-A is ONLY topical, but accutane is oral......so I still think this might be a case of confusing these drugs..........although I would expect people who specialize in this field to be more clear on stuff like that. Anyways, I had to really push this doc to tell me what the risk is & she finally said it sometimes causes facial deformities..........so I'm a little concerned to say the least, but all we can really do is pray. So I am asking for everyone reading this to also please keep our baby in prayer for this issue.

And of course they hadn't received any records from the other doc's office. Everyone was rolling their eyes & grumbling about having to deal with them. When I asked the doc if she had received it yet she very politely said 'no, not yet, but that office does usually take a long time to send us stuff, so hopefully we'll have it by your next visit'.

So for now I go back to her on Oct 2nd & I see the high risk OB/gyn on Oct 7th & I still need to schedule an appt with my primary to get a referral to a cardiologist.

As for my stomach it's off & on. Some days are worse than others. No actual vomitting, but LOTS of nausea & LOTS of horrendous headaches (they do seem to be migraines). And some occasional dizziness which the doc thinks is probably related to my heart murmur. My biggest issue is actually my nose. I seem to have a dog nose right now, I can smell absolutely EVERYTHING. Perfumes & air fresheners are the absolute worst for me, but it's all pretty bad.

So I actually found out I was pregnant in my 5th week (I'd say I had been having weird symptoms for about 2-3 weeks at that point) & in the 6th week I read the baby was the size of a lentil, so I was leaving a lentil on hubbys pillow every day. In the 7th week I read it was the size of a blueberry, so I left a blueberry (in saran wrap so it wouldn't stain the sheets!) on hubby's pillow each day (I had a package of dried blueberries in the house so I just used one of those). And tomorrow I'm entering my 8th week & I read it's now the size of a large raspberry, so I went to Henry's & bought a container of raspberries (saran wrapped it of course) & am now leaving a raspberry on hubby's pillow for this week. It's silly I know, but I have to admit that actually seeing the three of them side by side really gives an amazing perspective on how fast the baby is growing. I am a very visual learner (& so is hubby) so to actually see them as opposed to just reading about it is really amazing to us. By the way I personally HATE raspberries & no one else in my house is fond of them so if anyone wants the rest of the container of them please just let us know. I hate to see them go to waste, but I felt guilty to just take one out & walk away in the store, so I actually bought the whole thing.

I guess that's all I have to report for now............

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