My travel week

I was hoping to make it my entire pregnancy without having to travel, but no such luck. My boss (who is in Texas) is having a face to face staff meeting for all of her direct reports. Since the re-organization a few months ago, many of those people are new and people I have never met. While it is a pain, it will be good. My old boss is back reporting to my new boss so I will get to see him again. I will get to meet the woman I talked into “sharing” my job with (that 2 – 3 person job that I said no thanks to). And, I will get to meet a lot of other new people as well. So, the dog walker is lined up and all the instructions are written out and I am off. I don’t have my work computer set up to post to my blog so this will be a journal type entry with one big post and the end. Of course, if I would have set up my blog eons ago like Katrina told me how to do after I asked, I could email entries up, but….alas….it is another thing not done.
I have done my homework and am prepared, as is my nature. I have found 2 local hospitals that have L3 NICU’s, just in case something goes awry on the trip. But, I am sure all will go fine.

Monday
Monday was a busy day as I tried to get everything done that needed to before I left. I did manage to make time to call Dr. P’s office to find out if my 1 hour glucose tests were in. I was told that they were sitting on Dr. P’s desk and she would call me, probably Tuesday or Thursday (she doesn’t work in the office on Wednesdays) to discuss. I told the nurse that I was hoping to get the results today since I was gong to be out of town for the rest of the week. Then, went on to mention that I felt so awful after the test that I knew that they weren’t great. She paused and said, well…if you don’t mind me giving you the results…And, I piped in with…no, I would appreciate it. She said, it did come back high and I would be given a lab slip to do the 3 hour test. I thanked her and told her that I figured that would be true. I asked her details about the 3 hour test and asked if I could just skip it. She explained that the 3 hour test is a fasting one and they take a “baseline” blood draw before you drink a different, but similar drink to the 1 hour test. They take blood draws after 1, 2, and 3 hours. She said that some people start to process the insulin at the 2 or 3 hour mark when there body isn’t able to at the 1 hour mark. You need to have “normal” readings on 2 of the 3 blood draws to pass. Otherwise, you are considered to have Gestational Diabetes. We agreed that since I didn’t start feeling better until 8 or 9 hours after the 1 hour test, I likely wouldn’t do so well on this test. She put a note on my chart to have Dr. P call me back on Friday so I can get the official results and ask my questions, such as how much does this increase my chance/risk of needing a planned c-section and/or a large baby and can diet and exercise control that or not. My exercise level is already good with walking the dogs and I had always planned to add a bit of swimming in to the routine once the weather got warmer and the pool heated up. We will see.

Tuesday
I am usually a fairly calm, easy going individual. Very rarely do I get upset or worked up. I had a major blow up this morning before I left for my trip. I got a call from my vets office saying they needed to cancel Lucky’s Friday morning chemo treatment because there would not be a dr. available, but they could reschedule me for earlier in the week. I told the lady that I was very upset by this and could NOT do an appointment earlier in the week because I was out of town. I went on to explain that I SPECIFICALLY asked about this a month ago and had this appointment set 3 weeks ago since they only do chemo treatments on Friday morning and they were hard to get. If they were not going to be able to accommodate this, I was going to shift Lucky’s treatment by 1 day each week so that she didn’t have to be delayed by almost a full week because of my trip. I was told that it would be “no problem”. She just repeated that she was sorry, but that a dr. would not be available, but she could give me a Thursday appointment. At this point, I was yelling and crying and told her that a THURSDAY appointment would not work because I would not be in town. The bottom line is that her next appointment is next Tuesday, a whole week away, 5 days after when she originally should have her treatment and there is not a damn thing I can do about it, but complain….which I will do again when I go in on Tuesday. The way I figure it is the dr. just realized that it was a holiday weekend and wanted to make it a 4 day at the last minute which is not the “emergency” that the receptionist mentioned. I know this is not the end of the world and that it probably will not make a major difference in her treatment, but I am still so upset and pissed about it I am getting all worked up and teary eyed all over again on the plane. Okay, I need to think calm, peaceful thought.

On another note and switching topics before I start balling on the airplane, I am feeling less panicked and worried about the upcoming L&D event (93 days left, but whose counting). I am almost finished with Ina May’s book. The second half was much more…more…I don’t know the word…soothing or informative don’t really express it. Let’s just say that, I am feeling calmer and better about the pending event. I especially liked the Chapter on Sphincter Law. I can’t do the chapter justice so, if interested, you will just have to read it, but…here are “The Basics of Sphincter Law”.

1) Excretory, cervical, and vaginal sphincters function best in an atmosphere of intimacy and privacy.
2) These sphincters cannot be opened at will and do not respond well to commands (such as “Push!” or “Relax!”).
3) When a person’s sphincter is I the process of opening, it may suddenly close down if that person becomes upset, frightened, humiliated, or self-conscious.
4) The state of relaxation of the mouth and jaw is directly correlated to the ability of the cervix, the vagina, and the anus to open to full capacity.

It amuses me to no end to realize that I have actually been preparing for this labor event from the beginning of my pregnancy without even knowing it. How so you ask? My dirty little secret is that I have been urinating all over hiking trails in the Santa Monica Mountains since the beginning or my pregnancy. Yep, I just drop my drawers when the pressure gets too much, which is at least once if not twice, each morning. I have never been the pee in public type of person (haven’t ever pee’d in a bed pan for example due to stage fright). I haven’t been “caught” by another hiker yet and often have to hold my dogs away while pee’ing so they don’t put their head in the urine stream (usually, this is just Lucky because Shadow is taking advantage of the opportunity to rest) while also trying to “relax” enough to “go” before another hiker comes up. Some trails are busier than others so the risk of this happening is a bit greater. I was rationalizing this by feeling good that I wasn’t de-hydrating myself. Now, I can add that I am only preparing my sphincter’s to relax in more stressful and public situations. Who knew?

Thursday
I’m tired and swollen!! But, all is well and I am glad I went. It was a jammed few days with no time to self. As suspected, the research, directions, and planning to local hospitals and L3 NICU’s was not needed and all was fine. I knew I was in trouble when I noticed the schedule showed NO (as in zero/zilch) breaks or lunch on the 2 day schedule. However, everyone was very accommodating to the pregnant lady! My biggest bonehead move of the trip was scheduling an 8 am meeting with my local team members when I saw the 8 – 9 am block empty. I should have realized since breakfast was listed from 7:30 – 8 am that my boss was going to use this time to kick off the session. LOL. She was very accommodating and started the meeting 30 min. late, just for me. Then, I was late getting back because I got turned around. I could have sworn I took the same elevator bank down as I did up, but it took me a few minutes to turn myself back around. I am very happy that I will be home soon and can’t wait to see my doggies.

Friday
I’m back and still tired after a good, full night sleep and happy to be home. Dogs are walked, I am showered, and sitting at desk ready to work and it is still only 8:20 am. Okay, so, I am sitting at desk, but not so motivated to work. I feel like a nap already. The dogs found a new trail today and being the easy going adventurous dog owner I am, I let them. I am amazed that with hiking as many years as I have been we can still find new places to go. I think this one may be a good late pregnancy one because it looked relatively flat and shaded. I guess I should go check voicemail now since I didn't check it once while I was gone.