Monday, May 19, 2008

coming up for air

I'm not in labour and haven't been getting any more contractions, but I do feel pretty lousy.

See, about a week ago, I stopped taking my fragmin shots (low molecular weight heparin) and ever since then, I have felt really crappy, tired, nauseated and achy. Probably contributed toward the choking/heartburn issue....

Then yesterday, I started to swell up, feet, hands, and face. My head is pounding, but so far my eyes are okay, no visual disturbances. And since I stole some peestrips from my Doc's office a few times ago, I know I have no ketones yet. But I'm very very glad the baby is still moving and I see my doc in the morning.

For now, I'm just lying quietly and trying to keep everything elevated. If need be I'll go to triage, but I suspect that I will simply feel lousy from now until the baby is born, or until I'm allowed to take fragmin again.

As for why I stopped taking it? Apparently the medical myth that women can't take heparin and have an epidural endures to this day. There is no medical evidence that I can find that it is dangerous---just a theory about blood getting into the epidural space. But of course that presumes that heparin is overly thinning the blood, as opposed to people like me, who are achieving normal bloodflow and clotting levels. Anyway, as far as I have googled and pub med'ed, I can't find any randomized controlled trials, or really anything. not even a credible case report from a first world country. Which is odd since you'd think that with so many people taking baby aspirin and heparin and possibly needing c-sections or early deliveries, they'd study it, but they haven't.

So women like me have to risk blood clots, retained placenta, high blood pressure, preeclampsia, and risks to our babies, and for what? Some theoretical bullshit thing?

Have to stay calm, forget about stupid stuff....right, zeeeeeeeennnnnnnn.

On to some other subjects------

My husband bought me many many snacks when he went shopping the other day, like cookies and cakes etc. So although I am mostly eating healthy, I also have lots of yummy things to eat. Jos Louis, Oreos, fruit, and many other things. Plus we're having Indian food tonight. Weeeee.

Oh, almost forgot, a special link that I have sent many of you before by email, and that I have blogged about, is down. Early Path Placenta Pathology services has closed and Dr.Carolyn Salafia appears to now work for the New York Methodist Hospital Pathology department. The notice says that she still does consults for patients, and can now accept insurance, (there is a contact number for more info) but I have no idea what she charges for the service or how it will work. I'm pretty unhappy that she took down the website mostly because it was a very very good resource for patients trying to understand reports, and learn more about their placentas. I wish I had taken screen shots, but of course, I hadn't....oh well. If I learn more I'll let you know.

Another business I liked that has disappeared? Small Planet Diaper recycling. You see, prior to cloth diapers becoming pinless, and the green bin starting up in Toronto, the only thing you could do with disposable diapers was either chuck them in the garbage or hire Small Planet to come pick them up and recycle them. Oh yeah, technically, there was a point where you could drive the diapers to a municipal recycling depot and they would properly recycle the plastic, etc....when Kaz was a tiny baby and had colic round the clock, Mr.Cotta would take the weekly bag of diapers on a drive with the baby, and recycle away. We jokingly called it the "Shit Run", and I secretly called it "Momma's Two Hour break". It was the only time in the week when I had some quiet peace and calm. Bonus: I could feel kind of environmentally okay.

Now, if we use disposables, my only option is the Toronto Green Bin, which doesn't recycle diapers, but just sends the plastic parts to the garbage dump, and then lets the rest rot, until it seems dried out and ugly enough to spread on the side of the highways all over Ontario. They used to give it to farmers for free, but those smart fellows realized it was toxic and don't want it anymore.....so now it ends up on the highway edges.

And honestly, I'm not sure I can deal with cloth. I know, some of you do just fine, and make it sound super easy, blah blah.....but I'm really more of a disposable gal. I just wish Small Planet could still recycle them properly. That new deck you just installed? That was made from recycled plastic from old diapers. That oil spill that got mopped up super quick? That was cleaned up with the help of the reused absorbent beads in the core. That newspaper you are reading? Made of recycled paper from old diapers.

All picked up at my door, and clean new ones delivered, all courtesy of this lovely little company that has been driven out of business by the single stupidest city government ever. Sigh....oh well. Someday, I'll be in charge of something, and I swear, stuff like this will never happen.

I'll let you know what happens tomorrow at the Docs.

7 comments:

  1. I am living in denial pretending small planet took the diapers from my green bin.
    I won't hear otherwise.
    sorry you feel so crap. also sorry I didn't check salafia earlier now I have to hunt her down.

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  2. I mentioned something about using disposable diapers to a friend of mine the other day and he looked at me a bit horrified and told me that his wife (who is a doula) has trained their 3 month old (yes, 3 MONTH not years) to pee on command. He says that she can look the baby in the eyes and know when it needs to pee and she then puts it on this special baby pee pot or something.

    Now how talk about being earth friendly???

    Can you even imagine?? Because I can't.


    Anyways, hang in there. You're getting closer. Hope your discomfort is manageable and short lived.

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  3. So sorry you're feeling lousy. I hope your doctor's visit goes well.

    As for Dr. Salafia's site, I think you can get most of the pages through here: http://web.archive.org/web/20070627030735/www.earlypath.com/pathology/index.html

    (You can look for any site that disappears at archive.org and if they have it, they store the main pages for several years.)

    Enjoy the junk food (seriously). We have the rest of our lives to lose the weight, right? :-)

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  4. Good luck with the appointment tomorrow.

    Bea

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  5. Good luck with your appointment, let us know.

    I actually never even heard of recycling disposable diapers....all of ours are sitting in a large heap somewhere. But i have heard of flushable/compostable diapers -- gDiapers, i think. They are rather expensive.

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  6. I wonder if that's just a Toronto Green Bin thing? I'm pretty sure the green bins out here in Durham Region say NO DIAPERS, but now I will have to check.

    It's a tough choice. I used cloth diapers for the Wondertwins over the first 6 weeks and they were okay, but a real pain. I have to admit that I caved and went to disposables. I know - I am a crappy eco-friendly mama.

    Anyway, I hope that the lack of fragmin doesn't cause you anymore discomfort and that everything goes well both tomorrow and, of course, on D-day.

    ReplyDelete