Monday, July 03, 2006

I met Dracula....and he took my blood....

Last Saturday was easily the worst day of my pregnancy so far. I was scheduled to take the glucose test + blood test at the hospital. So as to have an accurate result I was told to abstain from food and drink from 10pm the previous night. My appointment was at 8.30am but due to our late night watching the World Cup soccer match, we only left the house at 8.30am. That was the start of my disaster day.

My first encounter at the lab involved a simple urine test and a general screening blood test. They took a whole syringe-full of blood from me (and I'm talking about the big fat syringe not the teeny weeny one!) They had a hard time finding my vein and when the nurse asked me which hand is blood extracted from me in the past, I was stumped for a minute and realised I have never given away my blood before!!! You could say I was a blood test virgin!! hee hee Lucky I am not the squemish type.

I was also given a bottle of orange flavoured dextrose beverage to drink in 5 mins. I find it amusing that the nurse actually asked me if I wanted it in room temperature or chilled. I almost answered neither!!! I was filled with great trepidation about the ominous looking bottle but the taste was similiar to an F&N Orange drink with perhaps 40% more sugar content. I was told again and again not to move about while I wait out the two hours before my next blood & urine test was scheduled and not to eat or drink either. But I made my way to my doctor's clinic anyway since it was way more comfy there than the crowded waiting area of the lab.

Meanwhile, I saw my doc for my monthly checkup. I asked her about the discomfort I felt. (refer to earlier entry) Due to the position of the discomfort, the doc thinks its ligament pain instead of the baby. She says I should be able to feel the baby proper in a few weeks time. As usual during scaning the baby is fast asleep and thus not moving much again. (He/She is really taking Hubby's sleeping hobby seriously.) The doc tried to see the gender of the baby but He/She was in a cross legged position. We're not particularly hoping for either gender so we were not overtly disappointed. We'll try again next month.

We brought Umi along for our appointment. Umi was super excited about the visit. She so wanted to see her grandchild on the screen and she got her wish. We wanted to bring both grandmas actually since we knew the doctor was going to try see the gender but my MIL had other plans instead.


The second blood test was even longer than the first. We spend quite some time trying to locate my vein at various positions and finally found one visible (after lots of slapping) at the bank of my left palm. This time was slightly more painful than the first and by this time I was already quite faint from no food for more than 12 hours. I felt even more faint when the nurse took out about 5 vials and asked me to check that all were labelled correctly. They sure took a lot of blood from me!!! As soon as my misery was over (or so I thought) we went to the cafe and I wolfed down a plate of Nasi Lemak. Barely 15 mins later, all of the nasi lemak came out in droves as I "merlion-ed" everything out. Hubby quickly made a pit stop at Burger King, (my absolute favourite restaurant since I got pregnant)and got me a Whopper. Never have I relished a whopper the way I did that day. For the remainder of the day I continued feeling weak and listless. Of course hubby tried to persuade me to rest at home after my ordeal but no way was I going to give up my long awaited shopping trip.

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