Almost Admitted

Today was a doctor visit, and boy was it a doozy.

Right away it was a different sort of visit--today was the first day of the second summer session of classes at ECU, and Michael was teaching.  I had tried to reschedule my appointment to no avail, but his parents were kind enough to accompany me. I had them sit in the waiting room, because I was fairly certain that they would be performing a procedure that would be a little uncomfortable (and I was right). It will be easier to have them leave the room for short periods of time when I'm in the hospital than it would have been in the clinic, so I opted to be in the room alone.

The nurse took my vitals, and lo and behold, my blood pressure was higher than usual. She exclaimed at my feet, which were swollen as they usually are, and left so that I could strip off my bottoms and wait for the doctor. I waited in the room for quite a while because the clinic was especially busy. When the doctor came in, the swelling coupled with the high blood pressure had her worried and recommending that I be admitted to the hospital and be induced. Her supervising doctor (she's a resident) said that while my blood pressure was higher than usual, it wasn't high enough to warrant immediate admittance to the hospital. Thus, the recommendation was to strip my membranes (also called sweeping the membranes) and have me come back in tomorrow. The hope is that the procedure will get the labor going without having to use chemical inducement.  I'm really hoping it will happen tonight and that I won't even have to keep the appointment, but with my luck I'll probably have to keep it. 

Gentle readers, I'm not going to lie--having ones membranes stripped is pretty uncomfortable, and there are moments when it is even a little painful.  It is certainly bearable though, and much less uncomfortable than I'd feared. I tried to concentrate on keeping as relaxed as possible, and not tensing up. The procedure is meant to stimulate the production of hormones that begin labor. Since it was done, I have felt some general crampy sensations, with occasional feelings that may or may not be contractions (I find that I'm getting irritated by those who claim "Oh, you'll know when you're having a contraction"--every contraction? Even the beginning ones? The mild ones?).  My stomach and abdomen sometimes tighten up, and often the tightening is rolling down--top of stomach down to the abdomen.  The muscles of my back are sometimes involved, but not in a painful way--just in a way that seems to remind me that they are there. None of these feelings are particularly painful at this time--just strange.

So I'm still waiting. Tomorrow my appointment is later in the day and Michael will be able to go with me.  I'm very curious to see what the night will bring....