Ever since my last post, I've had an appointment with my GP, several phone calls to midwives, an ultrasound scan, appointment with a consultant obstetrician, prescriptions issued and my first booking appointment with my midwife. It's been busy time, sorry that I've not blogged!
First up was the appointment with the GP, which was relatively uneventful. He wanted to see my homozygous Factor V Leiden lab results from Finland, but seemed to misplace them almost immediately and I had to resend them the scanned paperwork after calling a doctor about a discharge I didn't know what to make of it. That phone call seemed to nudge some other paperwork through, and I was later contacted by the midwife, who contacted the hospital, who wanted all sorts of paperwork to prove I'm eligible for NHS treatment, and after sorting that out, finally got a scan date, a consultant date and a midwife appointment. Before anything more important happened, I had to go and collect my Bounty pack which also included the 30-page A4-sized Pregnancy Notes-booklet, meant to be filled by me, the midwives and doctors that see me. In comparison to what expectant mothers are given in Finland, this seems excessive and somewhat questionable in data protection sense, as the leaflet has my NHS number, phone number, home address, health details...
So, what has been found?
Despite what I was first told by a group of midwives, I did eventually have an early scan on NHS. The due date was shifted by a day, and now it's 30th of July. I had a consultants appointment on the Tuesday after, just before Christmas, and as predicted, I was put on Fragmin, a 7500IU low molecular weight heparin injected subcutaneously, as prophylaxis against blood clots, and a baby dose of aspirin. I'll have extra ultrasound scans in the later pregnancy, I'll have a glucose test to check if I've got gestational diabetes, and some visits at the hospital.
So far I've had a week of injections and my stomach feels and looks like a pin cushion. I've not yet found the rhythm of doing it nonchalantly - I hesitate and flinch every time I need to inject. This happy activity will continue more or less until September.
We told the immediate family about the forthcoming family occasion on Christmas Day. Lots of tears were shed. We even have some video from the moment, but not publishing that quite yet :-D We asked everyone to keep the news to themselves for a few weeks more, until the second ultrasound scan. My Christmas meals included beetroot and blue cheese bake, gravlax I cured myself after freezing the fresh salmon for four days, turkey, IKEA ham, roast potates, hard cheeses and trifle. I did longingly look at everyone eating heaps of chicken liver pate, but didn't partake past a teaspoonful to try the recipe.
We had to return from the inlaws for the booking appointment with the midwife on Tuesday. It was fairly uneventful as well. Three tubes of blood were drawn, some of the booklet filled and forms filed in. I also requested a sharps box for my used needles. I do wonder why it has been so difficult to get one, hasn't yet dawned on me.
I've not had much nausea and absolutely no throwing up yet. However, in the past few weeks my appetite seems to have increased several folds, as I get hungry almost immediately after a meal. This makes trying to keep my weight where it is a bit difficult...
Anyway, that's it for now. Hopefully my fatigue and hunger pangs allow me to write again, maybe a little bit sooner.
