Michelle's Pregnancy Journal - Page 17
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July 24, 2002     22w2d
Least Fun Thing So Far: Sciatica Attacks!
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    Well, I have truly learned the joy of sciatica.  I had experienced very minor sciatic pain prior to being pregnant, and I have had it a bit more frequently since I got pregnant, but I had my first major attack Monday night.  Wowser!  If you have never experienced this, be thankful.  My sciatic nerve had been bothering me a little bit all day, but by bedtime, it developed into a full-fledged attack.  It started with pain bad enough that I needed Nate's help to limp into the bedroom.  But about 20 minutes later, it was so bad that I couldn't sit or stand at all - the only comfortable position for  me was lying on my back.  Not shockingly, I soon found myself needing to go to the bathroom.  Of course, when you can't get up and you can't walk and you don't have a catheter, this is, too put it mildly, problematic.  In the end, I had to crawl to the bathroom.  I'd heard of sciatic attacks that bad, but never thought I'd be lucky enough to experience one.  And of course, once I got to the outer edge of the bathroom, I couldn't crawl any further because the hard linoleum hurt my knees so much.  So I sat their and sobbed out of pain and frustration for about a minute, until I decided that I was going to have to make it to the toilet somehow and crying wasn't really going to help.  I decided to brave the pain and stand up.  Much to my surprise, I found I could suddenly walk again.  For some reason, getting on your hands and knees is one of the only ways to relieve sciatic pain.  That little crawling stint gave me just about enough to time to go to the bathroom.  The pain had already returned, although not quite full force, by the time it was time to walk back to the bedroom.  As the night went on, I learned that if I just pushed through the pain, it would get tolerable.  It seems that our instinct to move slowly when in pain sometimes backfires.  Apparently, it is just a handful of angles that REALLY cause pain during a sciatic attack, but when you go slowly, you stay at the bad angles longer, making it seem worse.  If you just push quickly through it, you soon find a position that feels at least slightly less like there is a knife in your back.  I guess you learn something new everyday.  Of course, that's one lesson I could have lived a happy life without ever learning. :)  In the meantime, I've been using the massage pad that Stathie's mom so kindly lent me quite often, and it seems to have warded off further attacks.  I count that thing as one of God's minor miracles!
     On a happy note, the baby's activity is really picking up, especially at night.  I feel Duckie moving quite a bit now.  The little kicks are so funny.  They often make me giggle because they kind of tickle. :)  It's those moments when I feel him/her move that make all the sciatica attacks in the world worthwhile.
     I have my next doctor's appointment on Friday.  I'm going to beg again for an ultrasound.  Considering my blood sugar numbers have not much improved this week, I think they might relent.  Of course, I'll probably end up on insulin too.  Ugh.  Everything in this world is a trade off, isn't it?
     Oh, and one last note.  I've updated my belly pics page with a new picture.  I think the biggest change is my hair (which I dyed last weekend), not my belly!  Oh well, based on the ligament pain I was having Monday, there's a good chance I'm due for a growth spurt and the next picture will be more dramatic.
July 28, 2002     22w6d
Lots of Good News
    Well, it's certainly been an eventful few days!  Friday, Nate and I drove to Indianapolis for him to receive an award for his coverage of our school corporation's budget cuts that was given to him by the state chapter of the NEA.  It was really quite an honor.  The banquet itself was not terribly exciting, but we got free dinner and a free hotel room out of it. :)  Saturday, before we headed home, we did a bit of shopping.  Our hotel was right in the heart of a very nice area of Indy, so we hit a Gymboree store, as well as Babies R Us.  Gymboree is now my new favorite store!  Unfortunately, I'd have to break the bank to buy much from there, but those were hands down the cutest children's clothes I've ever seen, especially for boys.  I don't see nearly as many super-cute boys' clothes as super-cute girls' clothes.
     My doctor's appointment also left us with quite a bit of good news.  First, I've actually LOST four pounds since my last visit, so I'm down about 5 pounds from my starting weight.  Since I was so heavy to begin with, this actually isn't a problem as long as the baby is growing fine.  Which brings me to my next point - we get an ultrasound on Tuesday!!  I didn't even have to ask...the doctor I met with (we'll call him Dr. M)  brought it up himself.  It actually has nothing to do with my weight loss, though.  In fact, the funny thing is, Dr. M decided to order it based on the notes of the doctor  who said I didn't need one at my last visit (we'll call him Dr. L).  Dr. L ordered my last ultrasound at 15 weeks when there was concern that I might have a cyst.  Dr. L then told me at my last visit in late June that because of the 15 week ultrasound, I wouldn't need another until 30 weeks.  Apparently, however, Dr. L noted in my chart after my 15 week ultrasound that I should have another one in about 2 months.  Dr. M read that note, and since it has now been about 2 months since my last ultrasound, he ordered another!  I'm not sure if he misread Dr. L's note or if Dr. L was just having a bad day at my last visit or what, but I really don't care.  We're getting our ultrasound!!  I didn't stop smiling for hours after we left. :)  So this Tuesday at 12:45, we'll be having an ultrasound and hopefully finding out what sex our little Duckie is.
     The other fun news is that I had my first stranger ask me when the baby is due!  (Well, there might have been one other a couple of week's ago - a nurse at Nate's retinal specialist's office - but I think I might have told her at a prior visit that I was pregnant.)  It was right after Mass this morning.  We were heading out to our car, when a lady who had been sitting behind us tapped me on the shoulder and asked me when the baby is due.  I was so excited!  It's so nice to think that I'm actually beginning to look pregnant. :)
     Well, that's all the baby news I have.   However, I also wanted to let everyone know that I have opened a Yahoo! Photos account and put all my Ireland pictures up there (as well as a few other photos).  The address is photos.yahoo.com/irishmonk.  The nice thing about Yahoo! Photos is that if you see a photo you really like, you can order a print of it, and it's actually quite inexpensive.  That probably isn't too useful of a feature now because I don't think we have too many photos up that any of you would really want, but once the baby is born, there might be some.  I chose to go this route both for the ordering option, and also for the fact that I realized laying out all my photos on this site would a) be too time consuming, and b) take up too much of my allotted space here at Geocities.  The only drawback is that I can't caption my images on Yahoo! Photos, but I have sorted them into albums that will make most of them pretty self-explanatory.  Unfortunately, the names of the pictures are, for the most part, pretty useless - I had labeled them with identifying numbers when I originally uploaded them, assuming that they would be going here and I could caption them.  Of course you are welcome to e-mail me if you have any questions about what any of the photos are...sorry I'm not a better website hostess. :)
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