Waiting in the clinic is a familiar pass-time for expectant parents … ultrasounds, blood tests and a variety of examinations are all part of the routine.

It’s been such A comforting experience to glean just how fortunate we Canadians are from a medical point of view. Medicare is without a doubt one of the most important systems we benefit from in this country and each passing week makes us more and more aware of that fact.

Our clinic is a busy one but with good reason as Liz is lucky to have some of the best doctors in the city looking after her and our beautiful little girl.

As I write this we just witnessed our doctor rushing in late from delivering a baby and having induced 3 or more expectant mothers before heading back to the clinic to clear the waiting room in record time.

Today was good news for the most part with minor blood work to follow … but I have to say it’s all very impressive to witness how everything works. Granted there are certainly many overworked and underpaid professionals in the system, as there are in most places, but for my part I must admit that we are certainly very lucky.

During our first unexpected visit to the local birthing center, we had an opportunity to watch our well-intentioned and very polite nurse try unsuccessfully to find Cassidy’s heart beat … which was understandably VERY disconcerting!

The machine she was using seemed to be pretty hi-tech looking, vaguely resembling a desktop pc laying on it’s side with buttons that made really cute noises when she pushed them and a lot suspicious digital noise coming out of a chintzy sounding speaker located somewhere within the confines of this obviously expensive box.

… but no heartbeat, we could hear Liz’s just fine of course, and even though the nurse pushed buttons and scanned frantically with her little jelly laden scope, no success.

The nurse then calmly but swiftly let out a short exasperated moan and left the room assuring us that she would be right back. The next couple minutes went by painfully slow as Liz and I tried desperately to smile and make small talk while we both secretly debated the possibility that maybe there was no heartbeat to be found and we were on the brink of a very serious emotional and medical crisis.

With the 2 long minutes elapsed, in walked our nurse with a somewhat satisfied look on her face and proudly bearing a small beaten up old wooden box with an ancient looking scope attached by a thin, worn wire. Approximately 5 seconds after plugging it in and laying it unceremoniously on the big, expensive, useless box, our nurse wielded the faithful old device and quickly found with certainty, a faint but incredibly beautiful sound … Cassidy’s heart was beating clear and true, and with the cutest thump-ump you ever possibly heard.

New fangled nothing, give me old school anyday.

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Some people might tell you, if you have an itch, you better scratch it … that’s all well and good if the itch goes away, but my poor Liz is not so fortunate.

It seems that a small percentage of pregnant women have the misfortune of having itchy feet and hands sometime in their 3rd trimester … well, like clockwork, Liz has been given the official itchy welcome wagon prize and evenings slowly bring the onset of almost unbearable tingling in her extremities.

The good doctors did some blood work to be sure that things were normal, and thankfully we were completely relieved to learn that her liver is fine and there seems to be no immediate worry, however scratching an itch that won’t go away makes for a few helpless moments, despite both our best efforts to ease the discomfort.

The cortisone cream prescription is sadly not very effective, and we’ve learned through our own research that a hot shower is the WORST thing you can do. We picked up some colloidal oatmeal bath and that seemed to help, although I personally think the candles were almost as soothing. The itching picks up the pace just around 11pm and sloooowly subsides sometime around 2am, and I’m helpless to do anything but watch, which truly sucks.

Moisturizing lotion as main ingredient for a solid foot rub seems to help too but I think the best antidote to your partner’s unwilling participation in the ‘Ivy League’ is to just be patient and treat her amazing.

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Saying that pregnancy reveals many mysterious aches and pains to the mother who must endure them would be somewhat of an understatement, and being a supportive husband & partner can only do so much when your mate is in serious pain.

Emotional fluctuations are not always due to being pregnant, especially when symptoms like upper abdominal pain, fits of unexpected nausea, vomiting, an unexpected bloating sensation over and above what feels ‘normal’ for a pregnant woman, and all of this almost always following the consumption of fatty or spicy foods … likely culprit … the gall bladder.

Burping and gassiness are completely normal for an otherwise elegant lady during preganancy but they can also be precursors to more violent expulsions when the symptoms mentioned above are present.

The birthing unit at our local hospital has a very helpful hotline, and even when they are swamped, they’ve been able to offer support and calming advice whenever we’ve been unsure about what course of action to take. When Liz called to report her symptoms, they suggested that there was likely an issue with her gall bladder and to come in at the first sign of any serious pain.

… and that’s exactly what we plan to do, along with a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables to help avoid overworking the gall bladder in any way so we can try to reduce the risk of any additional attacks; they often happen at night and it’s not the least bit fun to witness let alone endure.

A much higher production of estrogen during pregnancy seems to contribute to the gall bladder becoming sluggish and ultimately producing nasty gall stones. We’re not 100% sure but we both suspect there may be some of them in the equation causing her all this dicomfort; thankfully though cholecystectomies to remove the bladder are no longer very invasive and if we end up going that route, the risks are not very high for her of for Cassidy … we’ll see how things go, more to come.

Note:
Here is a Helpful Article about gall bladder problems during preganancy over at SheKnows.com
… and a link to the Article on Cholecystectomies posted at Wikipedia.