When It's Not A Diabetes Scare

It’s still November, it’s still Diabetes awareness month and my plan for doing the daily instagram challenge failed miserably! Mainly because….I’ve been stressing the last week and worried. But I think all the prayers I asked for helped. This time, not diabetes related....

A week ago yesterday I had my 4 week appointment with my high risk OB and it wasn’t a good appointment. It started out normal, baby’s heart beat was good, I measured good, BGs good, talked to him about the water weight I believed I was developing that was causing my feet and calves to swell so that a few pair of shoes don’t fit already and a couple pair of boots I cannot zip up my calves. He wasn’t concerned with that…at first. When I first got there the nurse took my blood pressure and it was slightly elevated, more than what they would like. I told them about the stress of traffic on my way there and he said he would have my BP checked again to make sure it had come down and that it was only the traffic stress. (A sheet of drywall was on the highway I thought I was going to collide with then not even 10 minutes later a huge rock hit my windshield and cause me to actually scream out loud.)  We had started to talk about the NSTs that start in a few weeks and then my CDE came in and he asked for her to take my BP while we talked. She took it and interrupted with that my BP had not come down at all but stayed the same. It was still 149/something. That stopped the doctor in his tracks causing him to grab my file and ask if we had talked about exactly how much weight I’ve gained. I said no, but I wasn’t thrilled with the number I saw on the scale. When he looked and saw that I’ve gained 32lbs already he got serious. He examined me from head to toe, no I don’t look like I’m gaining a lot of fat, he could see it being water weight. I didn’t really look swollen, but with the higher BP and rapid weight gain he wanted to check these out. He told me to purchase a blood pressure cuff and start checking 3 times a day and write those numbers down. Then he had a jug sent home with me for me to do a 24 hour urine collection on Sunday that I had to take right to a lab first thing Monday morning to have tested along with getting blood work. This is pretty standard for all T1D pregos, I’d forgotten about that but wasn’t worried that he was having it done since it’s standard, but was worried that it would show an issue since he seemed to think I’m retaining so much water. He started talking about house arrest, how long I would actually continue to work and preeclampsia. I started to freak out. He had me schedule an appointment to come back and see him this morning so we could talk about the outcome of the tests and BP testing and talk about how much longer I would work. So for the past week I’ve taken my BP 3 times a day, Sunday did the urine collection and Monday bright and early took it to the lab for analyzing and got blood drawn. Today was the appointment to find out how things are looking and I swear, doctor’s like to freak their patience out to get reactions for entertainment purposes. It turns out that he never communicated to me that I should only worry about my BP if it reached 150 or over. Yes it said on the paper work in small print that if I reached 150 to call my doctor or go to the ER right away, so I thought that was worst case. Today he swore he told me that 150 or above was what he was looking for so my BP is perfectly fine, that the 130s and 140s that I seemed to hang out in was fine, he wasn’t worried about those. My urine and blood work came back perfect. No kidney issues and no signs of preeclampsia developing. When I asked about the weight gain he wasn’t worried about that either, although as you can imagine I’m not happy about it. I haven’t gained in the past week, good, and he said yes I’m probably swelling and retaining some water, but that’s normal and he even said I still look like all belly, I don’t look like I’m gaining too much. He wants to monitor that, but we went over my diet and what I typically eat and he doesn’t see that I’m over doing it. Which I am thankful for because even though I feel like my appetite has kicked into full gear and some days all I want to do is eat I do believe I do pretty well at restraining myself from eating everything possible. I was getting nervous that he was going to tell me to cut back or something. No, I’m not under eating either. He is also chalking it up to my DI which causes water retention and the T1 since I do have to take in unwanted calories (like in the middle of the night or after I’ve stuffed myself from a big meal and maybe over did it on the carb/insulin estimating) to correct low blood sugars. So no bed rest, or house arrest as he originally put it. He wants to start seeing me every two weeks already!!! How did this time fly by so quickly??? He did tell me that I can’t do anymore full days of running errands, house cleaning, laundry, dishes, cooking and then going out to dinner with friends. That was how my Saturday was and I knew I was pushing it but it all really needed to be done and at the end of the evening when I got home my feet, ankles, calves and knees where all swollen. When I told him all that he said no more of that. Since the swelling went away after resting he wasn’t worried but to no longer push myself so much, that could eventually cause a problem. So lots of rest, do chores for a bit then rest/nap. Run errands, come home and rest. Cook/bake, then rest. He said as long as I let myself rest I can do things, but not so much at a time anymore. Doctor’s orders, guess I gotta follow them.