Well, the big ordeal is finally over…and I’m still alive!! Now I just get to wait until Monday to get the news. You better believe I’ll be eating my share of chocolate and sweets in the next 48 hours!
Here’s the rundown on my morning…
I got there at 8:40 and they started the party by drawing a baseline blood sample (before I drank more of the glucose drink). I had not eaten for 14 hours prior to arriving, so I was already a pretty hungry girl! Immediately following the blood draw, I had to drink 100 grams of the glucose drink. My philosophy on drinking that stuff is to chug it as fast as possible…so I downed the whole bottle in less than a minute. After that, they sent me back out to the waiting room to wait for the next blood draw.
They needed to wait an hour after I drank the stuff to take my blood again, so I got to sit in the waiting room and try to read…but really I just sat there and people-watched. You see some interesting things in an OB’s office. One thing you see a lot of is pregnant girls checking out other pregnant girls. It’s pretty funny…the girl walks in, the other preggies check out her bump, trying to determine how far along she is (at least that’s what I’m doing). You check out her maternity clothes of choice. You have those girls that wear designer maternity clothes that look like they cost as much as my mortgage, and then you have the girls who wear their husbands over-sized t-shirts and baggy sweat pants—decidedly not giving in to wearing maternity pants and flowy shirts. And then you have me…sitting there in my 2 year old maternity clothes, just glad they still fit and are still (somewhat) in style!
So yes, I eavesdropped on a lot of other pregnant women’s conversations. After the first hour, they drew my blood again (this time out of the other arm). I got pretty dizzy after this blood draw, but they let me take sips of water and that helped a bit. I probably looked a little rough sitting in the waiting room during this second hour.
Another hour went by, more people watching, more attempting to read, and then another blood draw. This one was in the same arm as the baseline blood draw. Not as fun getting it taken out of the same place twice.
Another hour, more people watching. This time I sat there and listened to an extremely excitable girl and her husband and mother-in-law talk very loudly on cell phones about how OBVIOUS it was that the baby on the ultrasound was a boy. Due to this very boisterous conversation including lots of loud cell phone talking, the book reading did not happen.
Finally, at 11:50 they called me in for the last blood draw. At this point, I was so ready to be done and go home that I didn’t really care how bad this hurt. The last needle stick was the most painful considering my arms were pretty sore, but the lady was good and got my vein on the first time.
Then it was over! I raced home, thinking only about food. Depriving a pregnant woman of food for 16 hours is cruel and unusual punishment! Hopefully Monday I’ll have good news to report. But with my family’s awesome track record with medical stuff, I’m betting that I have it. Now to raid the pantry for the leftover Christmas chocolates…
Man, what a day! I love your “play by play” report from the waiting room. We heard some doozies, too, sitting around for hours on end at Mayo. Some people have NO PROBLEM discussing, well, pretty much anything in public. You’re right – reading is difficult with all of the various conversations going on around you. I took my iPod to help distract me. (Hopefully I didn’t sing outloud. I tend to do that when I have headphones on. Whoops!) And Russ and I played lots of cards.
We’ll be praying for a good report. =)
Wow, what a day! You are so funny. I will be praying for you! Hope you are enjoying your sweets this weekend!
I have had this test (the 4 hour) with all three kids and finally had “the beetis” with KB. It wasn’t as bad as one would think and helped me gain only 6 pounds with the entire pregnancy. The worse part was the four hour class to learn about it and sticking my finger four times a day. I’ll eagerly await your update.