Merry Christmas from my dying computer

Yeah, my computer is on its last legs. Well, the hard-drive is, anyway. I'm actually a little amazed that it's even on at the moment, because at one point this afternoon, that looked doubtful. Since we were already talking about upgrading, it looks as though some new laptops are on the cards as Graeme, being a boy, can't possibly get me a new computer without getting one himself (though, to be fair, his is older than mine). All that said, this computer may go to sleep tonight and never wake up, which won't bother me too much now that I've made sure I have a backup of everything. But it will mean that I'll have to steal time on Graeme's computer if I want to be online and since he's on holidays, that may not happen too often.

So, I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and I'll see ya when I see ya, with a report of our first ever Christmas without family...

Read More......

The Results Are In...

OK, so I had my little visit to Medical Obstetrics today and got the results from all my tests.
My blood pressure is fine. The 24 hour annoyance was worth it.
The ultrasound was clear, except the tiny kidney stone and an even tinier cyst, that she said will only be an issue if my body decides to pass the stone.
I don't have any of the crazy diseases they tested me for. My liver function has improved, but is still not in the clear, so I did have to have another blood test to check it again. If all is well with this one, I get to go back to just being on the normal antenatal routine - yay!

In other news, I am officially not working at the moment. With morning sickness and my lack of energy and all, I haven't actually done any work since we got back from Australia (yeah, 2 months ago) but it was still causing me unnecessary stress worrying about my lack of income, as well as having to deal with making myself unavailable and handle/dodge phone calls from recruitment consultants trying to get me to do work. So with Graeme's support I made the decision to officially take a break, with no pressure on when I have to go back (if at all). I have already been more productive - I might even get my Christmas cards sent out today, although since most of them are headed to Australia, I'm probably already too late... oh well.

Read More......

A week of hospital visits

OK, as a girl who grew up in Australia, that title is even a little scary to me, so just a reminder that basically all my care is being provided through the hospital, well, technically hospitals, since the women's/maternity one is a separate entity to the main hospital. Anyway, as I said in my last post, last week I made 2 visits to the ECG department to collect and then return the blood pressure monitor. Then on Thursday I returned to the Ante Natal Clinic to find out what was up. Turns out some of my initial blood tests had come back with less than desirable results, especially in regards to my liver - nothing major was discovered, but it was enough that I needed to get a heap more blood tests. The doctor assured me that it was probably all related to the pregnancy, but that didn't stop me having to fill another 10 or so vials of blood. Today I got to go to the Imaging department of the main hospital to get an Ultrasound on my upper abdomen. The technician said that my liver and everything else looked fine, the only thing she found was a tiny kidney stone in my right kidney which she said wasn't a cause for any concern.

Friday next week, I get to go to the Medical Obstetric Unit and meet with my hospital doctor and go through the results of all of those tests. I am hopeful (I want to say confident, but that wouldn't be entirely true) that everything will be fine and I can go back to being a regular patient that doesn't need to go in again until 20ish weeks.

Other than that, my week was spent recovering from the trip - turns out it took a lot out of me energy-wise. I have started putting some photos up on my flickr, but there aren't many there yet and they are from the last few days, since I ended up doing it in reverse chronological order. I know I still owe a write-up on the trip, it is still coming, just bear with me.

If you want something interesting to read, go over and check out my sister's blog - she has just arrived in Canada to work in a ski resort and is actually updating pretty regularly (and now you'll have to keep it up, ok Beth? :D) She even went to the first Spice Girls concert...

Read More......

Stupid Blood Pressure

As I write this, I am anticipating the moment when I have to stop typing and move my left arm so that my blood pressure can be read as accurately as possible. Today I had the pleasure of going to the hospital and getting a blood pressure monitoring device (for which I can't remember the proper name and can't be bothered looking up) attached to my upper arm. It's like a regular blood pressure arm band, but attached to a little box that hangs in a case around my neck and records my blood pressure regularly. Meaning every 20 minutes (30 minutes in the evening and hourly over night) the thing makes a loud beep before blowing itself up and slowly releasing the pressure. It squeezes very tight and takes a lot longer than the doctor does to release the pressure. I just hope they get enough accurate readings that they don't have to do the whole thing over again, as the nurse today said could be the case...
I have to take it back tomorrow. Also tomorrow I have to ring a different part of the hospital and ask why exactly they want me to get more blood tests and whether I can move the appointment (I came home to a letter and a phone message saying I needed to come and get them, but without any specific information about why, which is quite annoying/stressful/worrying news for someone who is quite good at imagining the worst).

Anyway, I know you're probably all more looking forward to photos and info from our trip than boring rants about the state of my health, but I have to write this stuff down as it's happening - I've already written (most of) our travel journal, I just have to go through and type some of it up. Hopefully tomorrow, ok?

Read More......

Back, but exhausted

We're back from our trip to Italy and Austria. We had a great time but are both really tired - 12 days with contiki means early mornings, late nights and lots of stuff going on every day, but it was worth it.

I wish I could say more, but nothing is coming out of my brain the way it should. There should be plenty of updating over the next week or so, on our website and flickr as well as here. I think it might be time for bed.....

Read More......

Sorry... but I bring news

I'm sorry - I promised an update and I haven't done one. Really though, there hasn't been much to tell until today. I have pretty much spent every weekday at home, we've done a couple of weekends away (see our website) which have been good but made me even more buggered for the days that followed. I haven't worked because when you are throwing up at least once pretty much every day and feeling tired and nauseous the rest of the time, supply teaching seems like the most unappealing thing in the entire world.

Today though, we went for our first visit to the Ante-Natal Clinic and got to see our baby for the first time (no pictures though, because it really wasn't that exciting to look at, especially as a still photo - I promise I'll get one when we go for a later scan). If you want to read the play-by-play of that (and I know some of you do, which is why I'm going to write it) then read on. Otherwise, know that we have some serious travelling to do over the next couple of weeks, so there won't be any updates happening, and feel free to ignore the rest.




This is probably way more detailed than I would usually bother with, but I know a couple of you are keen to know about differences between having a baby in Australia and having one in England. Having not experienced the former, I'll tell you all about the latter and you can make your own comparisons, ok?

So as soon as we got home from Australia, I rang and made an appointment with my GP. A few days later I went in and saw her (weird thing about the whole GP thing - under the NHS you have to be registered with a specific GP, but the one we're registered with is actually 2 doctors, you just see whichever of them is working that day, basically) and told her I was pregnant. She just took my word for it and started filling out paperwork, one of the most important elements of which was the hospital I wanted to receive my care through.

A week or so later I got a letter from the hospital with a date and time for my first appointment. Graeme ummed and aahhed about coming with me, mainly because they warned it could take over 3 hours for the appointment and he wasn't sure he wanted to take time off work, also because we weren't really sure if it would be worth his time. In the end he decided he'd come and disappear if it all seemed like he shouldn't be there and it turned out most of the other women who were there for the same first appointment dealy had their partners there too. So we got there quite early, due mainly to the fact that we had left more time than necessary to get there via the two buses (parking at the hospital is pretty much not an option) since we had to do so in peak hour. We sat in the waiting room, something that became quite a theme for the day :)

First up we had a consultation with a midwife. It started with a weigh-in (not as high as I thought, in fact I think the morning sickness has made me lose some weight [I know that's not good - I really am trying to eat well]) and then she went through like a 20 page booklet, which was contained in my already massive patient file, asking questions, filling in answers - my medical history, family medical history, my pregnancy so far. She also tested a urine sample for proteins and took my blood pressure. Two things arose that had to be further followed up. My blood pressure was slightly high and had also been so when I'd seen the doctor 5 weeks ago - not like worryingly high, but just sitting slightly above normal, apparently (not that I really "get" the whole blood pressure measuring thing, I guess I should do some reading and sort that). Also, the fact that I told her about mum's blood clots last year and that I couldn't remember what cause, if any, they'd found for them, made her decide to add a visit with the doctor into my schedule for the day.

Next up (well, after sitting in a waiting room again) came the worst and best bit of the day - the ultrasound. First thing that was weird was that I expected it to be really cold and it was actually warm - like bordering on too warm. The next couple of minutes totally sucked - she couldn't see anything. She started asking questions like "Did you confirm this pregnancy with a blood test or urine test?", "How long ago was that?", "You definitely haven't had any bleeding?". I was right on the edge of a freak-out when she found it - apparently my bladder wasn't very full and my uterus was tipped back quite far, or something. In fact it was so bad that she couldn't get a decent look at it, even though she was pushing into my belly HARD. At that point she suggested an internal ultrasound, which at first sounded kind of scary, but was really no big deal. We saw and heard the heartbeat, confirmed there is indeed one baby with one head and two arms and two legs. It definitely made it all very real and was quite a relief after that moment of thinking something was really wrong. At this point, an adjustment was made to my due date based on the size of the baby, so it's now June 2, which puts me at like 10 weeks, 4 days instead of 11 weeks, 2 days (sorry Sharon - I think the thing I sent you was WAY off because I stupidly relied on a calculator rather than my own brain). I really feel like they'll adjust it back a bit when I go for my next scan, since I know my dates are right, but that won't be for awhile and anyway, I'd rather have a later due date than an early one because it'll be longer before they start pressuring for induction and stuff if the baby's overdue. We made an appointment for the next scan and then continued on with the step-by-step that the midwife laid out for us.

So next we went back to reception and handed over the big patient folder we were lugging around, because we had to see the doctor. [The next step for everyone else at this point was to join the queue for the blood testing, but we got the extra step thrown in] The doctor was great and the awesome thing is that she's my assigned hospital doctor, so anytime I need to see one when I'm there, it'll be the same woman. Also, I had an appointment in a couple of weeks at the Obstetric Medical Unit set up by my GP because of the whole blood pressure thing and this doctor also works there, so she was able to do what that appointment would've been anyway. We chatted about the fact that I've never had anyone say something bad about my blood pressure before and she explained a bunch of options and possible scenarios. Crazy thing is when she took my blood pressure herself, it was perfectly normal, so she decided the best course of action would be to get this 24 hour blood pressure monitoring thing that you wear over a normal day and it regularly records your blood pressure, to help work out why/how/when it's changing. She also ordered a couple extra blood tests to be done because of the clotting thing - thanks Mum.

While we went and joined the queue for the blood testing (this one was a take a number one, like at the deli counter in a supermarket) the doctor sorted out a form for the monitoring request. By this time we were pretty sick of sitting in waiting rooms/areas so Graeme went and got a drink while I waited. When my number was called, I got the privilege of filling up 5 vials of blood for various tests (could've been more if I'd chosen to have the one that tests for risk of Downs Syndrome). Of course, as I left, there was basically no wait…

Back to reception (not that far, everything was close together) to drop off my folder and make my next midwife appointment (which they make for the same day as the scan) and I was done. Well, I would've been, if I didn't have to find my way around the main hospital to find the ECG department and sort out a date to get this 24hour monitoring thing. That's not happening until we get back from Italy in a couple of weeks, though.

So yeah, a nice long description of my day for those of you who were interested. Apologies to anyone who got suckered into reading this because it appeared on your blog reader or something - I did warn you. Questions, comments, comparisons, USEFUL suggestions welcome :)

Read More......

quick note

(cut and paste direct from the comment I left on Sharon's blog because I lack the energy or imagination to do anything more)

Sorry I'm not providing any interesting reading - we're still on the slowest dial-up I've used since the mid-90s, which is only worth paying for in the evenings and I quickly tire of it. Plus, I've been hit by morning sickness pretty bad - good in that it supposedly means my body is doing all the things it's supposed to, bad in that I've spent the majority of time since we moved either asleep or curled up on the couch in a daze.

Broadband's supposed to be connected by the weekend and I'll make an effort to update when it does.

Read More......

Have Been, Am and Will Be

Have Been:

To and from Australia. Went to a birthday party, a couple of beautiful weddings, a wildlife park (with some of the international wedding guests) and some favourite shopping centres. Had dinners and lunches with lots of different friends, some of whom we hadn't seen in ages. Got to meet my sister's boyfriend. Had an awesome going back (as opposed to away) party on the Saturday before we left. Took a LOT of photos.

Getting cool mail, even when I was 10,000 miles from my usual postal address. See here for pictures (too lazy to take my own). Thanks Leonie.

Feeling nauseous. Morning sickness without the vomiting (yet), but lasting a big chunk of the day. Could also be tied in to jet lag and the flu that Graeme bought home on his first day of commuting on the Underground again. Oh yeah, I guess I should tell those of you who only interact with me on the internet that I am pregnant, especially because this is where all my friends and family from back home are expecting updates. Sorry it wasn't a more exciting/dramatic post :D

Going to the doctor. My official due date is May 27. All we did was fill out paperwork (typical England). I had to pick which hospital I wanted to have the baby already. The same place will provide all my antenatal care and stuff. My first choice is local, the care is provided by a team of midwives, and it was recommended by the girl upstairs who had her little boy while we were away. I'll find out if I actually got my first choice soon and then I'll do a more detailed post for those who are interested.


Am:

Right in the middle of moving house (literally - we're having a break to eat lunch and watch the Australia V England Rugby World Cup game). The place is a mess, but it is much easier to move when you don't have to take the furniture.

Excited about the new house. It's even better than I remember - light, spacious, much better suited to our living style - and our landlords are great.


Will Be:

Without proper internet for who knows how long. We currently have cable, but the new place isn't in the cabled region, so we're going to have to get DSL or something and that will take a couple of weeks, apparently. We will probably have some basic dial-up, but I won't be online much because I'm cheap.

Finally sorting through my photos from Australia. Hopefully the lack of internet will make my time more productive. I will post here if I manage to upload some of them.

Planning a trip to Italy, we think. It's one of the places we really want to go sans-kid, especially because we're pretty sure we're going to do a contiki tour, so we gotta go soon.

Sorting myself out to get some days teaching - it'll probably be horrible, but I need to make some money.

Enjoying the autumn colours.

Read More......