I had the IPS (Integrated Prenatal Screen) this morning. First, an Ultrasound. She did all the measurements that she needed to do and then called in G and D to take a look. D was a bit scared to come in, he had it in his head that it would be a scary machine I think. But we got him in there in the end, and the baby was an absolute delight to see. It was the clearest image I've personally ever seen on an ultrasound, the baby was lying there kicking, stretching, putting it's hand in it's mouth, turning it's head, just fantastic to see!! They gave us a few print-out photo's which I'll scan in at some point.
I then had to go onto the lab to get the blood work taken. Because I also had a requisition to get my 'regular' blood work done for pregnancy too, I ended up having 8 test tubes full of blood taken from my arm which was not entirely pleasant. They also wanted a wee sample, and handed me the most ridiculous tiny, thin, test tube to pee into. I hate doing wee samples, I'm really bad at them, it's just so icky and messy - I'm a girl, aiming is difficult!
I have to go back there in 3 weeks time for the follow up blood tests, which should be interesting as I'll be anti-coagulated at that point so it'll be blood-central.
I've worked out I'm actually at that hospital for the next 4 weeks on the trot. Next week is a High Risk Clinic appointment. The week after is the Haemataologist, more blood work, and getting started on the Fragmen, and the week after that will be High Risk again + this follow up blood work. Hopefully the weather will have improved as we had a huge snow storm last night which dumped around 25cm on the ground and the roads were pretty slushy and slow going. In this weather it takes me around an hour to get down there and get parked. I imagine I'll be sick of the journey before long, but will try to keep in mind that it's better to be looked after carefully than not.
Posted by katie at January 27, 2004 11:27 AMYou're not supposed to be able to see actual recognizable things on an ultrasound! It's just supposed to look like blobs and the med staff point at stuff and say what they are and you nod and say "uh-huh" and wonder if this is where Rorschach(sp?) got his ideas from :-)
That's a lot of blood! I think the most I've ever had drawn from me in one sitting was about four samples. Which was quite enough by my estimation. It doesn't really hurt and I'm not squeamish about blood or anything, but I can think of many other things I'd rather be doing than sitting there bleeding into sample tubes, some of which were not so little.
But as long as you're getting excellent care, it's well worth putting up with the inconvenience and the Draculas.
Posted by: Steve at January 27, 2004 07:32 PM