Oddities

I had the pleasure of having my glucose test on Monday. Really, I didn't mind the test much, just the fact that I had to have my blood drawn thrice. And I had to fast for forever to take it. Every drinking fountain was such a temptation! They even had a plate of cookies out on the front desk- come on, are you kidding me?!

But hurray, no diabetes for me! Plus, no anemia! I think I have the Father's Day steak I consumed the night before to thank for that result. Sean started his summer break that day (YAAAAAAAY!) and stayed home with the boys so they didn't have to hang out at the doctor's office for 2.5 hours. So I got to read in between blood draws and I preregistered at the hospital. Then went to the store afterwards and got a maternity bathing suit. What an unusual morning for me!

Speaking of unusual, a lot of funny stuff happens when pregnant. Here's a few oddities:

1) It wasn't this way with Liam and Dash but this go around, I've been getting so light-headed. Absolutely anytime I bend so that my head's about level with my heart, I'm sure to have a dizzy spell when I right myself.  I'm learning to do funny squats and things to prevent the situation.

Now, let's bring in my vaso-vagal syncope. At my first OB appointment with this babe, they had to draw so much blood. Now, I usually get a bit woozy with a blood draw. But this time, oh man, I was this close to passing out. I could feel my consciousness fading, I vision went blank. The tech yelled for Sean, which freaked him out while he was out in the waiting room with the boys. The three boys hurried over and the tech practically dragged me over to a bed.

I could tell that my state was freaking the boys out. But something very weird happened. I knew I could do absolutely nothing to help them, that all I could do was to get myself right. And that was the only point during the boys lives in which I completely abandoned all thought of caring for the boys. I only focused on myself. I can't really convey was odd and surreal it felt. This only lasted for a minute or two but I can recall the sensation quite potently.

I've since been ordered to be lying down for all blood draws.

2) My house is so horribly cluttered. I've gotten to the point where thinking about bending over makes me tired. On top of that, my light-headedness (as discussed in numero uno) makes me even less excited to pick things up. Then there's my hip that makes me limp half the time. PLUS I twinged my back so doing any sort of extended cleaning is wicked painful. I'm pretty sure that instead of being pregnant, I'm becoming geriatric. So there's toys everywhere. Everywhere everywhere. I do the bare minimum. And it wrankles me so to have such a messy house. But my body won't let me fix it!

3) I don't know if it's my fair skin that's the cause, but I have several little spots of ... hmm... how to describe... shallow capillaries? dotting my epidermis (Sean says they're angiomas). Here's a sample from my wrist:

I used to have one right under my eye that used to bother me but it faded in college. It's been replaced, in recent years, by one on the side of my nose. Way annoying- even my dad, often when he sees me, makes fun of the zit on my nose. "Gah! It's not a zit!" I exclaim.

My PA told me that your blood volume doubles when you're pregnant. I don't know if that's true but those little spots have definitely gotten bolder. When I was pregnant with the twins, the nose spot became such a big bump, I thought it actually was a zit. So I tried to pop it.

I did pop it.
It was not a zit.
And the blood came out. No, it PULSED out.

Yes, I had popped an artery. And I do mean that it pulsed- it gushed harder with every beat of my heart. Oh, was there so much blood. I could not staunch it. I'd press against it for ten minutes and when I'd pull away, the blood flow didn't miss a beat. Literally. Sean had me put ice against it to try and constrict the vessel but the force and heat of the pulsing blood swiftly melted a nice tunnel through that cube. Sean was fascinated.

It finally stopped after probably an hour of pressure. But I had to treat it so gently for the next several weeks or else it'd open up and I'd have to fight it all over again. Drying my face was the worst. An absent-minded nose scratch? That became a very long trip to the bathroom at work. Embarrassing.

At least I know better for this time?