I've been looking like a total stoner since I woke up on Thursday. Back when I was in college it might have been acceptable to arrive at the various stops of my day with eyes as red as Mars. But today as I drop my toddler off at daycare, go to meetings for work and am just 42 years old, it's just not so cool.
On Thursday I went to my primary physician hoping that she would give me some drops for the pink eye. Not only did I sit in the waiting area for 40 minutes before I got called in, as she saw people who arrived later than I did first, but when she did see me she told me the pink eye would probably go away by itself. I wasted an hour of my time for nothing. She said to call if it hadn't gotten better by Monday and she would give me drops.
So yesterday (Friday) I went to my regularly scheduled OB appointment, nearly a week after the bleeding drama began. And although she was rushed because of an imminent delivery at the hospital nearby, my OB had enough time to check for continued bleeding (no blood in the vaginal canal right now) and OFFER ME FREAKING EYE DROPS! Needless to say, I happily took them, got the prescription filled, and now I just look tired instead of like I am leaving a Grateful Dead concert.
Nonetheless, this cold still has me dragging. It's been a cold with lots of congestion, the kind that interrupts your sleep. It has progressed to a stage that causes painful coughing fits. All of this has me thumbing through my OB practice's little handbook about pregnancy, specifically what drugs I can take. They say sudafed is OK. They say Tylenol is OK. They say Robitussen DM is fine. I've taken scanty amounts of the sudafed and tylenol so far, and only in my most desperate moments.
Which made me think of another thing about that period of time in the Trisomy 18 pregnancy between when I learned the diagnosis and the D&E took place. During most planned and wanted pregnancies women are painstakingly careful about what drugs they take for fear of harming their child. But after our Trisomy 18 was diagnosed the perinatalogist told me to go ahead and take ibuprofen (a big no-no in pregnancy). At that point in time, that limbo time, I felt like I should still be nurturing this much loved child with everything I had -- the right nutrition, the right self care, and no drugs from the bad list. But on the other hand, everyone acted as if it suddenly didn't matter anymore. That was a hard thing to reconcile. And I don't know that I ever did.
I understand what you mean...it's a tough thing when everyone starts to write off your high-risk pregnancy and you haven't even begun to contemplate that reality.
That said, ibuprofen isn't such a no-no. We've talked about this before, but try going to www.motherisk.org and you will see a long list of medications that are perfectly fine in pregnancy, and a bunch for colds, etc.
They study these things very extensively and if you want to get ahold of them by phone for an individual consult, let me know, and I'll tell you how to become an "honourary canadian" so you can get it for free, hehe.
Posted by: Aurelia | February 11, 2007 at 08:29 PM
I drank my first cup of coffee after six months when I found out! It was like I was rebelling! I felt guilty almost immediately, still feel guilty, can you believe that!
Posted by: Artblog | February 12, 2007 at 04:02 AM
Hey, you there? Are you in the middle of moving?
Posted by: Aurelia | February 15, 2007 at 11:07 PM