Things Are Never Easy, But They Seem To Work Out...

Every time I get the dumb idea to go and think that things are settling down and going right for a change, BAM, something has to go and mess it up. Alright, I know that may sound extreme, but that's just how it feels sometimes.

I thought things were finally smoothing out, and we would have a good ending to this complicated pregnancy, but yesterdays doctor's appointment threw a wrench into that plan. Some of you know that I was having some issues with the "female" doctor that I was seeing. Enough issues, in fact, that I was considering switching doctors. Well, as of the first week in May, that decision was taken out of my hands. I received a letter in the mail from the hospital stating that my doctor was leaving to return to a career in the Army, and that all of her patients could switch to one of two doctors: a "male" OB/GYN or a "female" Family Practitioner. My first instinct was to go with the "female", but due to all the problems we've had, they consider me high-risk, and she doesn't take high risk. Therefore, I had no choice but to switch to the "male" OB/GYN. It wasn't that I had a problem with him being a "male", I was just really uncomfortable in that situation with a "male". I continued to see my "female" doctor until May 19th (she wanted to see me for another 2 weeks), but I called in and said that I would prefer to go ahead and switch to him. That put me seeing him for the first time at 32 weeks instead of the original 35-36 that it would have been had I stayed with her until she left. So, long story short, after meeting him, I really like him. He just has this way about him, that even though you're not comfortable with the situation, he just really puts you at ease and you're able to relax.

That being said, yesterday didn't go so well. We are 34-1/2 weeks, and when they checked my blood pressure it was 148/100. He decided that was really too high, and wrote me a script for high blood pressure medicine (lebetalol) {100mg - 2x a day}. He said he will give it a week to kick-in and work, and then he will see me next Thursday. He is hoping that it will do its job and lower it down, but if not he is talking about putting me off work and on bed-rest.

That had me worried at first, because I had requested/arranged to take 8 weeks off after having the baby, and I was afraid that if he put me off early that it would cut into the time that I had previously requested. However, I just got off the phone with the head of our human resource department, and I feel much better after talking with her. I told her that I "could possibly" be put off work early, and wanted to know what my options were should that have to happen. As it turns out, she said if that happens we are fine & covered no matter what (and it won't cut into my requested time, they will just extend it out). She said that if it stays under 12 weeks time total, I'm covered under FMLA & short-term disability and that if it should go over 12 weeks that my long-term disability would kick in and cover the rest. (I've always carried both short & long term disability, but have never used either of them, so I wasn't sure how they worked).

Now I feel much better, so much in fact, that I'm fine with whatever happens. If I have to be off, then that's what we'll do. The pay won't be as good as what I generally bring home, but something is better than nothing!!!

Just had to get that out, thanks for reading!