health – Living with Dianabetes

Story time!

It’s Monday, July 24, 2023 and maternity leave is set to start in less than two weeks. I am excited as I have started to wrap things up at work and I am looking ahead to focusing on organizing the baby’s nursery, washing the rest of the baby clothes that are 0-3 months, setting up toys, putting away baby clothes that are 3 months and up, etc.

I get ready for work as usual (I start work at 9 am and I am working from home) and go to use the restroom and notice some clear liquid on my underwear. I don’t think much of it and just notice it and then start work. About 2 hours pass and I need to use the restroom and notice some more clear liquid again. I then google it and per google, it could be watery discharge which is normal. I decide to keep working. It’s now lunchtime, 12:30 pm, and I use the restroom again and more clear liquid. I decide to let my husband know and how it’s been showing up since this morning and he suggested I call the nurse advice line just to be cautious. [He later told me he knew what it meant but didn’t want to worry me].

I call the nurse advice line and speak with the nurse and she goes, “It’s probably nothing but if you’d like, you can go to the hospital just to make sure.” I let her know the hospital where I am supposed to delivery is about a 30 minute drive and she said it wasn’t anything emergent and I should be fine to go to my designated hospital. I thank her and tell my husband what she said and he replies, “I think we should go.” I give a little push back and he continues to lightly insist so I give in and say, “Okay fine, we’ll go. I’ll let my job know that I will be out for the rest of the day.”

I teams message my medical assistant and clinic manager and I start packing up. For whatever reason, I decide to take my hospital bag with me which had been packed a week ago. It also happened to be the baptism of my goddaughter so I remember telling my husband, “after the hospital, we can go straight to the baptism.” I take the gifts that I had bought and put them in a bag.

As we are getting in the car to leave, my husband casually says, “I think we should go to Pomona Valley Hospital, it’s closer.” I reply back that the nurse said it was fine and that we can go to Queen of the Valley. He makes a slight scowl and starts the car. As we were on the freeway, I said, “Okay, fine, let’s go to Pomona Valley.”

We head to Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center and I check in at the OB floor as earlier instructed. They then triage me and place me in a small room. I am texting my husband every step of the way as they had him wait in the OB waiting room. I decide to not text my parents and sister just yet as I was convinced it was nothing and we’d be leaving shortly. Mind you, my parents were in Mexico visiting family.

I am attended by a resident and I let her know whats been happening and what the nurse said when I called the nurse advice line. She says okay and tells me it’s probably nothing. I then see her talking to who I assume is the attending and then she comes back shortly after and says they’re going to do a pelvic exam.

They do the pelvic exam and the cotton swab they take out is black. I look at the resident and ask what it meant (I don’t remember feeling concerned). The nurse then said it means a rupture of my membranes. I don’t fully capture what that means and I ask if I can leave soon. The nurse says no and leaves. She then comes back and I ask again how much longer until I can leave and she goes, “you’re not leaving anytime soon.” I ask if I will be capable of returning to work tomorrow and then she stops and looks at me and says, “You can’t go home. You need to stay until you deliver.”

My son’s estimated due date is September 7, 2023.

To be continued….

(Continuing my high-risk pregnancy story)

Wow, time flies!

I have been WANTING to write a blog post since the last time I wrote one more than two years ago but I always made an excuse or something would come up.

I give props to the social media influencers who have kids and continue to post about their life and do what they were doing before having a kid. That is commitment at its finest. As much as I wanted to share my story, I either didn’t make the time or didn’t have the time.

So here we are 🙂 More than two years later. My son (who is turning 2 this month!!!) is watching Cars 3 while I write this blog post.

So much has happened since the last time I wrote a blog post and I’ve thought about catching everyone up and writing about the rest of my pregnancy and my birth story and everything after and life updates and diabetes updates but then I don’t want to start and take forever to finish. But then I think it would be important as maybe people would relate and not feel alone or isolated. Okay, now I am just rambling.

In the last post I wrote, I shared my experience of meeting with a MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist/doctor) who made me feel unseen and unheard. Luckily, I never spoke with them again and was always scheduled with someone else. I eventually requested an office closer to where I lived and met with the MFMs at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center (while still making sure I didn’t meet with the first MFM as I became aware that MFM also traveled to the Pomona clinic). Anyway, the MFMs I worked with for the rest of my pregnancy were amazing and meticulous and patient and I was beyond grateful for them.

As my pregnancy progressed, I would see the MFMs a lot more often. I went from seeing them every two weeks to every week, which I loved as I got an ultrasound each time and saw my baby and heard his heartbeat.

One of the most anxiety-producing appointments was needing to do a fetal echocardiogram, which is a specialized ultrasound used during pregnancy to assess the baby’s heart structure, especially in high-risk pregnancies. I felt anxious as I was scared that something would be wrong. I thought something would be wrong as in a prior appointment, I heard the MFM say that the blood flow appeared slower than normal and they would need to further assess. I had to wait a whole week between those two appointments and I couldn’t help but think negatively and prepare myself to hear that something was wrong with my baby’s heart. I was hoping for the best but prepared for the worst and it was hard to challenge those thoughts. My husband and family kept reassuring me everything was okay, normal, fine, etc. but I couldn’t shake the negative thoughts.

Luckily, everything was okay and my baby’s heart was functioning normally. I let out a big sigh of relief when the doctor told me everything was okay and normal. And yes, a MFM did the fetal echocardiogram, not an ultrasound tech.

During the pregnancy, I had stubborn highs and my insulin resistance increased and I needed a lot of background insulin (I continued using my insulin pump throughout my entire pregnancy). It definitely took a lot of work to keep my A1C under 6.5 during my pregnancy and I was stressed with every high and every minute I was high. But I did it 🙂 and looking back, I am so dang proud of myself.

Whenever I get another chance to write another blog post, I will share my birth story.

Thank you all for reading!

Tag: health

My Birth Story – Part I

Hello again!