Monthly Appointment & Glucose Test

On Thursday the 9th I had my two hour glucose test and my regular monthly appointment.  I had to fast beginning at midnight and was only allowed to take sips of water throughout the test.  I got to the clinic at 8:30 a.m., registered and then went down to the blood lab to have my first draw done.  The first drawn went fine and I headed up to Women's Health for my regular appointment which was scheduled for 9:20.  They took me back early so I could drink the glucola.  It was lot more to drink this time than when I did the one hour glucose test when I was pregnant with Alex.  This time it was a full cup of the cold, super sweetened, flat orange soda like drink.  You have five minutes to finish it, last time I was able to shoot it back very quickly, this time it was very cold so I got through about half of it and then had to sip the last half a little more slowly.   I was taken to a room and it was time to wait until my appointment.  While I was sitting there I got pretty nauseous while I was waiting having all the sugar on an empty stomach, but after a little bit it passed and I was okay.

I needed to be back down to the blood lab for my next draw at 9:55 and then my last draw at 10:55.  Luckily the midwife was running on schedule and got to my room by my appointment time of 9:20.   I was weighed, had my belly measured and listened for the heart rate - she said all were great and within the limits of what they should be.  Nothing too eventful.  I did ask when I should see one of the OBs since I want to do a VBAC and have only seen midwives so far.  She had wanted me to see her one more time and then see the doctor at the appointment after that, but now that I have to start going every two weeks there were no midwives available for my next appointment so I will be seeing a doctor at my next appointment instead, which is fine by me! 

I then went back down to the blood lab for my second draw.  They took me right in and the guy tried my left arm, since the first girl had stuck my right arm and they were going to have to get one more draw out of me.  He tried but my vein moved so he ended up going in my right arm and using a smaller needle saying that for the next one they would be able to use the same one.  He got the blood and I went out to the waiting room to entertain myself for another hour before my last blood draw.  The last hour went faster than I expected it to partially due to the Olympics being on TV and also because my friends' aunt and uncle happened to come in and be waiting too so we got talking which helped pass the time.  Then when it was time, I went in for my last draw.  The girl checked the one that the previous guy had done as he had said for me to tell who ever I had to check if they could use it.  I ended up having the same girl that I had for the draw, she checked it and at that point it was kind of swollen and the girl said she was going to leave it alone.  So she went next to the first stick she had done.  The sticks she did were perfect and didn't cause any damage.  However, the second one the other guy did ended up looking pretty nasty (see pictures below).  If anything is wrong with the testing, I will get a call this week, otherwise they'll tell me my results were fine at the appointment in two weeks.

This is what my arm looked like the first night after I took the bandaid off (note how it has swollen up and taken on the shape of the bandaid):

And now, three days later it looks like this.  Which does look better by comparison, but is now bruised under the surface all around but less bumped up and the color is getting lighter.