Hello Everyone!!
Sorry it has taken me so long to post again. I went to the Dermatologist on Wednesday. He thought I had a combination of a bacterial rash and an allergic reaction to my prenatal. He recommended that I contact my OB and talk about changing my prenatal (the bacterial rash would go away on its own with the medication that I already had in me). So that afternoon that is what I did. I left a message on the nurses station and she called me back asking me to come in the next day to see my actual OB. She also recommended that I take Benadryl since if it is an allergy then Benadryl should help. Also I wasn’t to take my prenatal that night.
So the next day I go to the doctor. The Benadryl is still very much in my system and I can’t seem to sleep enough. I was glad Tony was with me because it was very hard to focus on what the doctor was telling me, I was that tired! He says that he too is unsure of the rash on my legs but since it appears to be going away he wasn’t going to worry about it. He thinks that the rash that is on my hands and feet is PUPPS and recommends that I don’t stop my prenatal. However he did say that all prenatals are about the same so if I wanted to go back to the one I was on for over a year (I stopped because it was strong on my stomach when recovering from morning sickness) then I could.
So after a stop at Burger King for lunch, Tony takes me home. I sleep almost straight through from 2:30 PM to 5:30AM the next morning. Needless to say I don’t get any vitamin in me that day. The next day I am still trying to recover from the Benadryl and try to stay up as much as possible. Not an easy task for me! I feel that the Benadryl is finally out of my system by Saturday. To which I tell Tony to NEVER give me that stuff again!!!
My doctor did give me suggestions on how to put on some more weight. I had been concerned about this since everytime I go on their scales it says that I have not gained that much. I know that this a problem most people dream of having but it is a real problem for me since eating has never been one of my favorite tasks. So now I am taking Ensure Plus twice a day (if I don’t have another really high calorie snack) plus my meals. Between the two of them I should be doing well. We will have to see the next time I go to the doctor (July 6th).
Now that it is Monday, I can say that my rash is almost gone. I do have some on my hands and feet but that is about it. Both of these rashes I feel are the ones I had on my legs. My hands feel funny and the dexterity in them is limited. Even opening bottles of water or my Ensure can be painful for me. I hope it goes away soon since I feel that they are useless unless I can do basic tasks with them. The rash on my feet is mildly bothersome. I have had soo much trouble with my feet over the years that I really don’t notice it too much.
As far as the children are concerned, Emily is moved into a position that I feel her almost all the time. She is right under my right side ribs. She likes to kick and play with them often especially when I am sitting up. Tony has even felt her a few times. The boys are now in positions where they don’t kick my interals that much. I do feel them some but not like I used to. I have noticed that while all the children are kicking I only really feel them if they kick something inside me, or if I happen to have my hand in the right spot when they are kicking. I imagine this will change as time goes on though.
Oh I should point out some other things that the doctor said on Thursday. He said that my cervix is fine for this stage in my pregnancy. I mentioned that I was concerned after a friend of mine had problems when carrying twins at about this stage in her pregnancy because she found out she had an incompetent cervix. He said that I can’t get an incompetent cervix when carrying three. He said that they would just put me on strict bedrest and give me drugs to stop contractions should something happen (that he thinks is unlikely in the immediate future). They wouldn’t do what is sometimes done with incompetent cervixes where they sew you up. He said that this would have little benefit for me since I am carrying so many children. On a separate matter, he said that at 24 weeks (end of July) I get to have a home uterine monitor. This is a monitor that straps to my belly and I use for a couple or more hours a day. It is to monitor for contractions that I may not be able to feel or think are something else like stretching. From what I have read about these machines, I would keep them on for an hour at a time and have to rest for that hour. Then I would hook it up to the phone line and it would be downloaded to a nurses station where they would tell me if there is anything I need to do. I would repeat this 2 or more times a day. Sounds like fun! I imagine I will not be moving a whole lot during that time. Right now it is getting hard for me to move around and in 5 weeks I imagine it will be worse!
I have not posted a picture this week for a reason. My mother is coming up on Thursday and I want her to see how big I have got in person. This will be my little surprise for her! 🙂 I hope to post a picture this next weekend though. So you will have to wait till then!
By the way, Tony gets the National Geographic. This issue (July 2006) has in it a photo of Central Park where I used to do Argentine Tango almost every weekend in the summer of 2002. It was interesting to see it in there! Tony never did any Tango there but I sure did. Just thought I would mention it.
That is all the news I have for now!
Jennifer