faboo mama

That’s right. Read it and weep…I’m at the halfway point. Only 20 more weeks to go. If you think that sounds long, try being me. The one carrying the evergrowing spawn. The one who wants to fall down dead asleep at 1:04pm, yet lays wide awake at 4:38am. 20 more weeks of butt-expanding, breath-reducing, craving-inducing pregnancy.

What. Fun.

I kid. I am pretty stoked over this. The first 20 weeks seem to drag on, mostly because of nausea with nothing to show for it. Now, my belly is pregnant and I’m not so nauseous any more. Sure, my back kills me and sleeping is getting more difficult, but now I get to go shopping for baby stuff.

I’m still working on our registries (Target and Babies R Us) since we seem to need all new stuff. When we bought Ilia’s stuff we thought for sure it would last long enough for a new baby. Then my best friend had a baby (then another!) and I gave her most of Ilia’s old stuff, including clothes since she had a boy. Ilia’s crib, strollers and bouncy seat are broken and most of the clothes we still have are for a girl. On top of all this, we tossed a lot of stuff that just seemed too gross to save; bottles, pacifiers, diapers, etc…In a couple of weeks, we’ll probably start packing to move, so I’ll have a clearer pictures on what we have and what we don’t and that will be reflected in the registries.

I don’t remember if I mentioned it (I’m on Vicodin right now), but on Thurs. morning around 6am I woke with the more horrible pain on my right side. It’s down low, in the pelvic area. I spent all day Thurs. on the sofa or in the bed, popping Extra Strength Tylenol, drinking lots of water and crying. Friday morning, I said “Screw this. I’m going to the ER.” What a mistake that was.

We don’t have day care or anyone to watch Ilia, so Adrian took Ilia too work with him. That sucked because I would have loved for him to be there with me, but I know that he had to get this stuff done. At least they didn’t have to sit around for hours with nothing to do.

Adrian dropped me off at the ER at 11:57am. I didn’t leave the hospital until 7:48pm. That’s almost 8 hours and it probably will costs me close to $5K. First off, let me say that Cedars really disappointed me yesterday. Here I am, 18 weeks pregnant with horrid pain on my right side. They said it was busy and that they go in order of pain. But I everyone who was in the waiting room when I got there and those that arrived within the first hour of my being there all got seen before me. I sat there for 2 hours, the last spent in tears because the pain of sitting there was killing me. No one would give me medication and I told one of the volunteers that I was just going to go home if no one could help me. For some reason, the fact that I was pregnant was not shared with anyone. When I told the volunteer I was pregnant, she was shocked I had sat there for 2 hours. I could barely stand and walking made me want to pass out. I was in tears and bawling like a baby.

I called Dr. Carter’s office around 2pm and the nurse told me to stay a bit longer. When I had called them around 9am, they had told me that when I got to the hospital to go straight to Labor and Delivery. I would have, but the first volunteer said, “Oh you’re only 14 weeks, it’s not that serious. Have a seat.” I want to sue that bitch. I told her I was 18 weeks and that my doctor’s office told me to go the L&D, she just blew me off. Ugh. She apparently didn’t tell anyone else that I was pregnant. Anyway, around 2:30pm, my name was finally called and they wheeled me into the ER. The pain was so unbearable, and I hobbled into the gown and into the bed. The nurse came in and was shocked when I told her I was pregnant. She asked me how long I waited and I told her and she was just amazed that no one bothered to get in sooner or at least up to L&D where they had beds available. Whatever.

She did her nurse thing, and let me listen to the baby’s heartbeat (176 bpm!). Then Dr. Hackett came in and poked at me. That HURT! Everyone kept asking me the same set of questions to rule out appendicitis. I just wanted them to stop touching me. She ordered me an ultrasound (CH-ching!) on that side. So there goes another 45 min. wait. During that time, I was hooked up to an IV (CH-ching!) of sodium something or other that made my mouth feel like I was sucking on Band-Aids.

I finally got wheeled to radiology and after another 20 min. wait, I was scanned. OUCH!!! I got to see my right ovary and matching cyst. That’s right. Remember the cyst that Dr. Gupta was so sure had disappeared, even though she NEVER bothered to check? That cyst is STILL there–all 3 cm of it. (I’m so glad I dumped her as an OB.) It’s piggybacking on my ovary. I wish I had a picture of it, but they don’t do pics there. It’s like those random double M&Ms you get sometimes. Where the candy shell has stuck 2 peanuts together.

After that scan, I took a nap for about 45 min. and they finally wheeled me back to my room. There, I met Dr. Han and Dr. someone else(CH-ching!). They did an ultrasound on the baby. (Ch-ching!) I got to finally see my baby!!! That’s so great and I was sooooooooooooo upset that Adrian wasn’t there to see him/her. I saw the baby’s heartbeat and his/her little legs and hands. Dr. Han showed me the profile, but I couldn’t see much. It didn’t look anything like Ilia’s ultrasound profile, but I realized that the first time I saw Ilia’s profile I was about 22 weeks along. I have no idea what was the purpose of scanning the baby. I guess just to see if the kid was doing fine, I guess. I was so out of it at this point that asking questions was hard…I could barely understand the answers they were giving me.

They left after asking me a bunch more questions and I got to rest a bit. Then the nurse came back and gave me morphine for the pain (CH-ching!). That was around 5 I guess. At this point, it was just a waiting game. We were waiting for the report from Radiology and for the pain to subside. At this point they couldn’t tell me if they were going to keep me overnight or not. I was hoping not.

Keep in mind all this time, I hadn’t been in touch with my husband. I kept meaning to call him, but between pain and sleep I couldn’t do much. Around 6:30pm, I asked the nurse if I could call him. She said I could right after she took my blood pressure. Right then, the phone rang. It was Adrian! How funny is that? So he was mad for me not calling (rightfully so, but serves him right doing the same thing), but he was still in the City of Industry, so it wasn’t like he was going to rush over and pick me up.

At this point, I was getting antsy. I hate being in the hospital and it seems like the last hour just drags by. There was still no report, I was cold, hungry and had to pee. I just wanted to go home. I also wanted a Double-Double, Animal style from In-N-Out. Finally, after an eternity, the report came down and I was able to go. I was already dressed by this point, so I limped on out of the ER. Just as I was walking out the door, I guess Adrian was parking the car on the other side. So I just had to wait for him to come back to the ER. Talk about timing.

I’m still in pain. Last night was horrible–my sleep was interrupted over again by the pain. Now, I’ve taken a Vicodin (which explains the rambling of this post) and I’m waiting for a burger to be delivered. After that, I’m going to bed….

On Thurs. Dr. Carter’s office called me to tell me that my appt. for the ultrasound is set for next Friday. (Yes, they did it themselves, instead of making me do it!) Then 2 min. later Dr. Gupta called me and asked me if I was moving out of the area or something. I told her that I wasn’t, that I was just unhappy. She actually acted like this was a shock. What part of, “I’m not happy with my treatment here.” was unclear? She asked what was the matter and it was my turn to be shocked. I said, “Oh, just all the things I’ve been complaining about. I guess if you spent more than 3 min. with me during an “exam” you’d have heard all of them. Where do I start?” Then I paused and wound up: “First of all, I didn’t appreciate the way you treated my husband child, or should I say lack thereof? You’re rude to me, and that’s unacceptable. I don’t think I should have to wait for 45 minutes to an hour to been seen for 3 minutes, then have my questions and concerns be blown off. I didn’t appreciate your little diagnosis of me without checking first. Your office staff is ineffecient, and you still haven’t addressed the rash I have all over my body. Add to the list, I’ve made these complaints LOUDLY to your staff and to you and now you’re acting surprised that I’ve decided to be serviced elsewhere (yes, I use the work ‘elsewhere’ in everyday talk–sue me.).” She just said, nastily, “Okay, okay.” Then she hung up the phone.

DH just laughed and said, “Man, she’s got nerve calling up like that. She had NO idea who she was talking to, huh?” When I told him how she sounded over the phone, he just laughed some more. He told me that he thought I was going to melt the phone, I sounded that pissed off. I didn’t think I came off that mad, but he said I did. Oh well.

Oooh! I got a muscles update! Remember the picture? Well, my phone saved it for me! See! I only know the car is a Honda, I have no idea what make that is, so if anyone can help me that would be great. I just noticed that I didn’t catch the guy in the pic. When he saw me slow down with the camera, I guess he got back into the car.

I had forgotten to mention the “hit and run” we were in on Tuesday. I was driving up Crescent Heights Ave. (Blvd.???) and was in the right lane, just north of Wilshire Blvd. That lane had a bunch of cars parked in it, so I needed to merge into the left lane. So I put my blinker on and since traffic in that lane was piling up behind me, I moved forward. NOT over. In my sideview, I saw this purple SUV move from the left lane to my lane, so I stopped moving about 3.5 feet behind a parked car. This asshat’s car hit my sideview from his front end all the back to the rear.

“Nice going asswipe”, I thought. This fuckwad was like a foot into my lane, but still in the left lane too and decided he was going to be a bitch. He jumped out of his car, all muscley and obviously sexually frustrated, and started yelling at me. At ME!!! Now anyone who knows me, knows that I would usually have gotten into this guy’s face. Sadly, my husband has a calming effect on me, the kid was in the car and quite frankly, it wasn’t worth it. There was no fucking damage to either car. Muscles started in, “What the fuck? I want your driver’s license and insurance information, right now!”

“Get the fuck back in your car. You’re in my lane, asshole. Didn’t you see my blinker on? Besides I wasn’t even moving!”

“What the fuck were you doing? I’m going to turn up there!” (Obviously, being psychic I knew what this turd was going to do 30 feet up. I just sat behind the parked car to piss him off. Yeah. That’s it.)

“Dude, you’re in my lane. My blinker is on and I wasn’t even moving when you hit me.”

Muscles decided to see if his precious purple paint job is messed up. It wasn’t. “I want your driver’s license and insurance NOW!” This was where he turned as purple as the car, and the giggles started to take over.

Laughing, “Fine, but I want your info, too. I don’t understand this, my blinker was on.” (BTW, I kept mentioning that my blinker was on because even though he was now in my lane, his wasn’t and never was.)

Muscles stormed to the driver’s side of his car. Meanwhile, I was searching for my cellphone that has a camera on it. Dammit! Where was that phone?!?!?

Muscles, got out of his car wielding…a paper and pencil…gasp! He wrote down my license plate number. I wondered why he didn’t pursue the driver’s license/insurance thing? “Oh well,” I thought. “I can write his info down too.” So wrote down his license plate too (he had disabled tags so it started with DP, then the rest was V1780–this is important.). Keep in mind during this whole time, I’m giggling with tears in my eyes. It was just too stupid for words.

In the whiniest voice a man over 50 (maybe 60) could possibly use, Muscles said, “You’re greedy. Just greedy!” Then he ran back to his car and sped off.

Me and the mister had a great laugh and I put the car in 1st and went on my way. As I was laughing I caught sight of my mobile. I turned down the same way as Muscles and he did something odd. When he saw me, he turned into the driveway for the 99 Cent Only store, then got out of his car. BFD, I snapped a picture and went on my way.

Want to know how pregnant I am? I forgot to save the picture after I took it. D’oh! I don’t know if I’m supposed to report this accident or what. The last time I didn’t report an accident (once again, not my fault), my license was suspended. What does the state of California require me to do in this situation? I’ve been searching on the DMVs website, but nada so far.

Today, I met Dr. Conwell Carter. The nicest OB I’ve met since Dr. Weiss. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, I have a new OB. Dr. Carter’s office, first off is very nice. Not so ghetto like Dr. Gupta’s office. Unfortunately, parking is a bitch since the office is located on Sunset Blvd. at the boundary of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. The parking in the building is $2.00 for every 20 minutes. Ouch! So we parked at a metered space down the street. Big whoop.

Anyway, his nurse was very nice and took down vital information. Then I got to meet the Dr. before he gave me a checkup. This is his standard procedure, which I loved because he got to know me before checking out my cooter. So we talked for 10 - 15 minutes, then I went back into the room. (I’m blanking here…what are the rooms called that you get your checkups in?) Anyway, he was cordial and interacted with my husband and child, so that was much better than Dr. Gupta.

Both the Dr. and nurse were surprised that Dr. Gupta wasn’t more concerned about my previous miscarriages and such. At least I know I wasn’t freaking out for nothing. I got weighed again and their scale said I’m 240 so I even like their scale better. At the end of my appt. Dr. Carter spent more time explaining how everything is going to work, how I should watch my weight gain, and gave details about my next appt. (Aug. 3rd). So, he spent more than twice as much time with me today than Dr. Gupta did in my 3 visits to her office. How sad is that?

Bonus: Dr. Carter’s staff is 10 times nicer and a hell of a lot smarter than Dr. Gupta’s minions. They were very helpful and answered my questions too, without any stonewalling. I’m so very happy.

I had an OB appt. on Tuesday. It’s official I fucking hate my OB. This bitch walked into the room, didn’t even say ‘hi’. Adrian said hello to her and she ignored him. Then as she was trying to find the baby’s heartbeat it got worse. She kept asking me to pull my pants down further, which I tried to but they kept riding back up. Then she got pissy and said, “You’re not exactly the smallest girl, so you need to pull your pants down.” What. The. Fuck??? What does my size have to do with my pants? And if I wanted to have insults like that hurled at me, I’d visit my mother-in-law. After fucking around with her 15 year old Doppler, she finally found the heartbeat for a few seconds. I had all that goo on my belly, and she had given 1 (one) paper towel. She then proceeded to use that one paper towel to clean her hands and didn’t even bother to get me another. I had to get it myself later. I’m not even going to get into the whole due date thing I had with the nurse. Dr. Praveen Gupta has seen me in her office for the last fucking time.
As far as the appt. goes, they never tell you anything at that office, even when you ask point blank. It’s frustrating to get blown off like that every freakin’ time. I do know that I gained more weight (shocker there) so according to their scale i’m 247 lbs. Yikes! I’m not even halfway through this thing. They took blood for my AFP screening and I should get the results in 2 weeks. Dr. Gupta wanted me to get an ultrasound, but the place she told me to call still hasn’t returned my phone calls from the last few days to set an appt. BTW, I don’t know why she wants me to get an ultrasound. I asked her why, since her office is so adamant about waiting to week 20, no fucking response. She walked away, muttering. Nice bedside manner, Doc. I miss Dr. Weiss and his office so much, it’s not even funny.

I still want to deliver at Cedars and I called up their physician referral hotline and got the name of another OB. I have an appt. today to meet him and get a check up. Wish me luck!