Yesterday was a day of hospitals.
I got to the Royal Women's at 8:45 with Seamus in tow and we were shocked to be seen straight away! A midwife called Nova took us into a small room where she took my blood pressure, weighed me and asked a million questions, most of which I knew the answers to, some of which I got flustered at but Seamus knew the answers to, so that was fine. We then waited over an hour (that's more like the public health system we all know andlove know) for the obstetrician, who was a lovely Englishwoman called Susan who took us through more questions and gave me advice on who to see (she is referring me to Social Work and Psych because my history of depression predisposes me to post-natal depression) also took my blood pressure, felt my tummy and discussed but did not look at my nipples.
I also got a show bag! It's called a Bounty Bag and is given out by the hospital, it contained samples and pamphlets and that sort of thing, apparently I get another one next visit. I went downstairs and signed up for childbirth classes at the info centre and we were done.
By the time we finished up it was 11:15am and Seamus was well and truly due back at school, so we walked up Flemington road for a bit then he went to Uni High and I walked to the Royal Children's Hospital to get something to eat (food in the Women's massively expensive, same at the Royal Melbourne around the corner, the kids hospital has a MacDonalds were I knew I could sit for a while.) I ate my pretend food and then wandered slowly back to the Royal Melbourne (we're so lucky to have the three major hospitals so close to each other) via a park where I sat and went through my showbag to string things out.
I arrived at the Royal Melbourne at 12:45 for a 1pm appointment and again was shocked when I was seen straight away (beginning to think yesterday was a charmed day) at the Respiratory Lab. There are apparently issues with being pregnant and suffering from severe asthma, I've already had to stop taking my regular preventer because it's unsafe for Sprocket, and the safe version is no where near as affective, so they're running some tests and looking at ways to control my asthma better and watching to make sure I am not in the 1/3 of women whose asthma gets significantly worse in pregnancy (please cross fingers for me!)
So the nice lab guys made me breathe through a tube, hold my breath, breath quick, breath slow, do the respiratory hokey-pokey and turn about, then I was allowed some Ventilon which made the whole world a nicer place, then I had to do all the tests again and I showed a 24% improvement, so we know Ventilon is good for me (it's just bad that I use as much of it as I do.) They also did a skin allergy test which showed to my delight that while I'm very allergic to dust (Seamus has promised to give the house a turning out when he's on break) I'm not allergic to dogs and cats, at least not enough to show up on this test. This makes me very very happy.
I finished up at the Melbourne hours earlier than I thought I would, so walked to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vivienne_aster's nearby flat and we went to Errol st for some food and beverages. It was great to catch up and great to look in the Errol st op-shop which had some really great baby clothes in bright colours, definitely going back there when they've replenished their stock. That reminds me, I really want to get to Brunswick Savers to look at their baby stuff, as I think there might be donations from funky parents there too.
Eventually I bad Kate adieu and walked back up Flemington road to the ultrasound place opposite the hospitals where I met Seamus again we got to see Sprocket! Sprocket was almost dancing around, not staying still for an instant, which was charming for us but annoying for the radiographer who wanted to get specific shots and every time he got the camera in place Sprocket moved. Finally Sprocket got in a position that was absolutely no good at all and promptly fell asleep. I really hope this isn't indicative of Sprocket's future compliance. It took about an hour and a half for the dude to get all the shots he needed, and I got poked and prodded and rolled a lot in trying to get Sprocket into a better position, which, combined with the drive home through rush hour traffic, meant that when I got home I headed straight for the loo and lost my lunch :-( Oh well, Seamus went and got me a yummy dinner to compensate.
All of that combined meant I slept really well last night, I managed to sleep six hours straight which is good for me at the moment, and then get another three hours after I'd gotten up and eaten breakfast. This means that I'm nice and rested today and actually not feeling to sick, so looking forward to picking Seamus up from school and driving up to the mountains with him for a weekend away to celebrate our first wedding anniversary, which is today :-)
In summary: big day, but all important things that needed doing, Sprocket is fine and I've been married a year, hurrah!
I got to the Royal Women's at 8:45 with Seamus in tow and we were shocked to be seen straight away! A midwife called Nova took us into a small room where she took my blood pressure, weighed me and asked a million questions, most of which I knew the answers to, some of which I got flustered at but Seamus knew the answers to, so that was fine. We then waited over an hour (that's more like the public health system we all know and
I also got a show bag! It's called a Bounty Bag and is given out by the hospital, it contained samples and pamphlets and that sort of thing, apparently I get another one next visit. I went downstairs and signed up for childbirth classes at the info centre and we were done.
By the time we finished up it was 11:15am and Seamus was well and truly due back at school, so we walked up Flemington road for a bit then he went to Uni High and I walked to the Royal Children's Hospital to get something to eat (food in the Women's massively expensive, same at the Royal Melbourne around the corner, the kids hospital has a MacDonalds were I knew I could sit for a while.) I ate my pretend food and then wandered slowly back to the Royal Melbourne (we're so lucky to have the three major hospitals so close to each other) via a park where I sat and went through my showbag to string things out.
I arrived at the Royal Melbourne at 12:45 for a 1pm appointment and again was shocked when I was seen straight away (beginning to think yesterday was a charmed day) at the Respiratory Lab. There are apparently issues with being pregnant and suffering from severe asthma, I've already had to stop taking my regular preventer because it's unsafe for Sprocket, and the safe version is no where near as affective, so they're running some tests and looking at ways to control my asthma better and watching to make sure I am not in the 1/3 of women whose asthma gets significantly worse in pregnancy (please cross fingers for me!)
So the nice lab guys made me breathe through a tube, hold my breath, breath quick, breath slow, do the respiratory hokey-pokey and turn about, then I was allowed some Ventilon which made the whole world a nicer place, then I had to do all the tests again and I showed a 24% improvement, so we know Ventilon is good for me (it's just bad that I use as much of it as I do.) They also did a skin allergy test which showed to my delight that while I'm very allergic to dust (Seamus has promised to give the house a turning out when he's on break) I'm not allergic to dogs and cats, at least not enough to show up on this test. This makes me very very happy.
I finished up at the Melbourne hours earlier than I thought I would, so walked to
vivienne_aster's nearby flat and we went to Errol st for some food and beverages. It was great to catch up and great to look in the Errol st op-shop which had some really great baby clothes in bright colours, definitely going back there when they've replenished their stock. That reminds me, I really want to get to Brunswick Savers to look at their baby stuff, as I think there might be donations from funky parents there too.Eventually I bad Kate adieu and walked back up Flemington road to the ultrasound place opposite the hospitals where I met Seamus again we got to see Sprocket! Sprocket was almost dancing around, not staying still for an instant, which was charming for us but annoying for the radiographer who wanted to get specific shots and every time he got the camera in place Sprocket moved. Finally Sprocket got in a position that was absolutely no good at all and promptly fell asleep. I really hope this isn't indicative of Sprocket's future compliance. It took about an hour and a half for the dude to get all the shots he needed, and I got poked and prodded and rolled a lot in trying to get Sprocket into a better position, which, combined with the drive home through rush hour traffic, meant that when I got home I headed straight for the loo and lost my lunch :-( Oh well, Seamus went and got me a yummy dinner to compensate.
All of that combined meant I slept really well last night, I managed to sleep six hours straight which is good for me at the moment, and then get another three hours after I'd gotten up and eaten breakfast. This means that I'm nice and rested today and actually not feeling to sick, so looking forward to picking Seamus up from school and driving up to the mountains with him for a weekend away to celebrate our first wedding anniversary, which is today :-)
In summary: big day, but all important things that needed doing, Sprocket is fine and I've been married a year, hurrah!
