Let me ask you a hypothetical question. If you are stressed out or worked up or worried and someone tells you "Hey calm down"...does this actually calm you down? Okay let's apply this to my life recently. First let's establish that once again my doctor's appointment yesterday landed me at the hospital for yet another blood pressure monitoring and non-stress test. If you remember about 2 weeks ago I was at the hospital for exactly the same thing. Okay so pretend you are me yesterday going to your doctor's appointment knowing they would be taking your blood pressure, knowing that if it was high they would freak out and probably do something crazy like send me to the hospital again. So there I am driving to the appointment freaking out telling myself to be calm, think about the baby, think about Olivia's face, be calm, have a low blood pressure. As I exit the freeway and the light turns green I start out into the intersection and some old man is barrelling towards me in his Toyota Landcrusier..."Is he going to stop, OMG he is going to hit me, OMG how do I brace myself, he is going to hit me right in the baby"...he, by some grace of God, realizes he is running a red light and stops just in time to not hit me. So I am all shaken up and flustered and get to the doctor's office knowing full well I am going to have a blood pressure reading through the roof. I get into the exam room and the physician assistant person tells me "Oh the doctor is going to do a pelvic exam, so after we take your blood pressure and weigh you go ahead and change into the gown"....this does nothing to help my already frazzled nerves, a pelvic exam? Urghhhhhh really? Gross. She takes my blood pressure and as can be expected 140/102....AWESOME. "I'm really nervous right now" I tell her. She says "oh well that's pretty high, let's check your weight and then we will do another reading". As expected it came down a little, but not much 139/100. The doctor comes in a bit later and asks me "So with your first child did you experience high blood pressure towards the end of your pregnancy".
So I can see where this is going. You see I have what they call "White Coat Hypertension". Which is just a dumb way of saying I don't like doctors and doctors offices, I hate having my blood pressure taken it grosses me out to feel my arm pulsating and I freak out, thus raising my blood pressure. With Olivia the doctors were always trying to find something wrong, put me through tons of blood tests, urine tests, 24 hour collection of my urine tests convinced they would find some other problem besides my nerves for my high blood pressure readings, they never did find anything. They eventually had me taking my blood pressure at home where my readings were always totally normal. For some odd reason my blood pressure up until 2 weeks ago with this doctor were normal, I think it might have something to do with the fact that they take the blood pressure the old fashioned way instead of with one of those machines that makes you feel like a cobra is sucking the life out of your arm. Also since Mitch's surgery he has had to monitor his blood pressure at home and I have been taking mine as well just out of curiosity and again, always normal and actually lower than it has ever been. Maybe I have just become more calm about the whole thing...or so I thought until 2 weeks ago. I mean I used to freak out about my blood being drawn but after all the blood tests I had done with my "high blood pressure" with Olivia's pregnancy it doesn't really faze me anymore.
So after like the fastest pelvic exam in history, which btw was just fine with me, the doctor says "Well it may be nerves but this close to the end of your pregnancy we worry when the blood pressure rises and we don't want to take any chances. You are gonna hate me, but I am sending you to the hospital". GRRRRRRREAT!!!! Urghhhhhhhhh oh and of course he adds "and if the blood pressure stays high...you may be having a baby today". So I head home to get Mitchell and figure out a place to send Olivia for a few hours and we head to the hospital. Where once again I am strapped up to the monitors for a non stress test and they take my blood pressure every 10 minutes for like 2 hours and once again everything is fine. I mean it was kinda nice to be Olivia free for a few hours and get to watch TV since we don't have cable...and I got a pretty good chicken caesar salad out of the deal. But now what? I know myself very well...I know this blood pressure thing is going to stress me out and therefore cause it to be high every time I enter that exam room! And since I am officially 9 months pregnant I will be going to the doctor once a week. Are they gonna send me to the hospital every time? I mean honestly if I am gonna have to go through all this hullabaloo every time...why not just induce me already!!!!
But not until after my baby shower and my mother gets home from visiting Idaho...and not on September 11th....for obvious reasons!
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