A Day in the Life of an Anxious Hobbit: NT Scan Edition

Good Evening Humble Readers...

My day began at 4am, when I woke up to a growling stomach.  I was starved!  I ate some strawberries and eventually was able to fall back to sleep on the couch a couple of hours later, after watching a rerun of House and a rerun of NCIS. 

Of course, due to my early morning I ended up being a bit of a slug when it was time to get moving, which is something I don't do well at the best of times.  We left at around 9 this morning, and went out for a quick breakfast.  I was only able to eat half my scrambled eggs and hashbrowns before I was stuffed.  (This is getting to be a familiar routine... hungry enough to eat a horse, but after half of what I would normally eat, I'm feeling like I'm ready to pop.)

We hit the road in the rain, and were in Edmonton by 11:30.  I was still feeling pretty anxious about the whole scan thing, and being tired and acting as navigator had me on edge.  We found the hospital without too much angst, altho I think our GPS unit sent us on the most circuitous route possible. 

The Royal Alexandra Hospital is a jumble of new an old buildings connected by a maze of courtyards and covered walkways.  We found parking pretty easily (amazingly enough!), and we went in through the main entrance to the women's Pavillion, and proceded to get a little lost.  We were really early, as my appointment wasn't until 1:15, but I was starving again and I had to pee, so thus began our first meanderings through the hospital. 

It took a while but we found the main building and eventually found the food court.  I ordered my lunch, and of course was only able to eat half of it.  Nerves?  Pregnancy?  Little bit of both I'm sure.

After another meandering trip through the hospital, we finally found the admitting desk for the women's hospital.  I checked in, and filled out the requisite paperwork.  We were then given one of those flashing vibrating coaster things they give you at Red Lobster to let you know when your table's ready. 

We only waited ten minutes before our coaster thing went off, and we went in.  The u/s tech went right to work, but unfortunately I couldn't see anything because her screen was facing her and my Beloved, and the big screen on the wall wasn't in working order. 

She set my mind at ease fairly early on... fetal heartrate was 144 per minute.  I guess I must have let out a big sigh of relief because she asked if I was okay...

After that, tho, the Halfling decided to play shy.  He/she didn't want to have their picture taken.  It also turns out that the Halfling is hiding out close to my right hip (who knew that was possible) which explains why I wasn't able to find the heartbeat on my own.  The tech had to really really dig and press to get the pictures she needed.  After aabout twenty minutes or so of staring at the ceiling, she finally turned the screen toward me, and for a minute or so, I got to watch the heart beat and see Halfling stretching his/her legs and then sort of rolling up into a ball... such a cute little hiney!  Sadly, there are no pictures to share as they don't print any at that clinic and we weren't allowed to use our camera. 

So, the point of the whole thing... the results of the scan.  When she was done, the tech said she was going to show the images to the doctor and then he might come in and take a peak himself.  That had me a little bit concerned, but hey, there was a heartbeat... we could handle anything else right?  About ten minutes later the tech returned with the doc and he did indeed want to take 'a little peak'.  He was digging and pressing and then he started jiggling my stomach around trying to get the Halfling to cooperate.  After a minute or so, he agreed with the tech's assessment... 1.5mm.  (Yay!!!!)  He said it wasn't a beautiful picture and they wouldn't be submitting it for publication, but it was good.  I think I started breathing again at that point. 

After the scan, we had to meander the halls of the hospital again to find the lab for the bloodwork I had to have done in conjunction, but then after that we were able to head for home.  I slept part of the way (after we hit a Tim Ho.rtons so I could get something to eat... I was starved again) and my Beloved was singing along with the radio.  All in all, it was a good day.

So, this long and rambling post?  Well it just goes to show that I am a worrywart, that I stress about things I have no control over, and that it's usually for no good reason. 

Thank you for putting up with this ridiculously long post, and for all your good thoughts and prayers.  I really felt you all with me today.