Engaged and out of Breech

Looking back on yesterday's blog entry, I can honestly admit that I was in a funk all morning. I was just so down for the better part of the day, and even the usual "suck it up" speech I got from my Mom didn't really pull me out of it. I ended up cleaning the apartment all freaking day long. Literally, it took me 6+ hours to sponga the floors, clean the bathrooms, tidy all the rooms, do two loads of laundry and leave stuff outside the door for Pidgeon to toss in the garbage. All the while, I tried to cheer myself up so that Pidgeon wouldn't come home to a sullen wife. I was definitely much better by the time he walked through the door, although I wasn't Stepford so he knew something was wrong.

I asked him what he thought of the apartment, and he walked around the place and said what a great job Miriam did. At that point, I was beeched like a whale on the couch, looking and feeling like garbage, and smiling because he thought I'd done a great job. I then told him that I saved us 160 shekel and that I'm the new Miriam. He wasn't happy that I spongaed the floors and cleaned all day, but I think he was happy to see the apartment in nice shape. I know I'm happy when I'm in a clean environment.

So, loads of GREAT things happened last night that completely made up for such a lousy morning!

First - and most importantly - my favorite Cousin Neil is engaged!!! It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. I've been waiting for this day about as long as he has, and just knowing how happy he is makes me so thrilled for him and his fiance. I just hope I get to meet her soon! But, depending on when they're getting married, I might not even get to meet her before she becomes Mrs. Cousin Neil! If they get married before the baby is 3 months old, I won't be able to fly in for the wedding. They don't recommend that babies fly before they're 3 months so we'll just have to wait and see. As much as I would LOVE to dance at Cousin Neil's wedding, I'd much rather he get married when it's good for him than wait until I can fly into the States. I don't want him to be single any minute longer than he has to be - he's waited long enough to be with his soulmate. Of course, the selfish part of me will be very sad if I have to miss it. I only have 5 first cousins and, I'm closest to Cousin Neil, so it would be great if I can be there for it. That being said, I do get to B"H share a lifetime with them so I'm trying to look on the bright side.

And, if Cousin Neil getting engaged last night wasn't enough to pull me out of my funk and onto this high, the news that our baby is out of breech position just sent me soaring! Well, and into a panic too. We waited to see Dr. Yanai for a while and - as always - it was well worth it. When we got into the room, I told her about the hospital visit and showed her the information. Then, I mentioned that the baby was still in breech last week when they did the ultrasound, but that I felt different. I told her that I feel like something has dropped and there is this tremendous pressure on my bladder. It's getting harder to walk too since it feels like I've got something very heavy stuck between my legs. So, she told me to hop up on the table and we'll see where the baby's at. And, when she announced that the baby turned and is no longer in breech and is "head down" Pidgeon and I whooped so loud that we swear the people in the waiting room heard us. We were just so elated that I didn't have to go into the hospital for them to attempt to turn the baby. Of course, that's when I realized HOW the baby is going to be getting out of me. So, I turned to Dr. Yanai and said "wait, I need to actually deliver this baby now?" She was surprised and asked me if I wanted a C-section. I said, not really, I just didn't think about the alternative. 

The baby is also right now 6 pounds and with 4 weeks left to go - could grow about 1-2 more pounds! That's a BIG baby pushing its way through my delicate area. I was so small, I was only 5-11 when my Mom had me. I was kinda hoping this baby would be on the leaner side so that it won't hurt as much. But, what the heck do I know? I've never done this before - but now I'm going to find out!

The Dr. then did my test for GSB (step test) and sealed the tube and handed it to me to bring today to Maccabi. We were just so happy with the news, we practically skipped out of the room. Plus, my blood pressure was looking really great, so all three of us were thrilled. We made an appointment for 10 days from yesterday and then went to celebrate. 

I spent the night on the phone, Skyping with my sister in Cleveland (my  4 year old niece got her ears pierced!) and IMing with my brother in Miami Beach. I could barely contain my excitement and it was hard getting to sleep, but with another 6:45 a.m. wake up call I knew I had to get some shut eye.

My body woke me up this morning about 4 minutes before Pidgeon's alarm went off. He dropped me off at the Maccabi in town and then continued on his way to work. It was almost 8:00 a.m. and I was thinking I would be in and out of there in no time. Unfortunately, when I got upstairs to the blood clinic, they told me that they don't draw blood for my type of tests until 9:30 a.m. I literally had to sit there for an hour and a half with nothing to do. I hadn't anticipated that long of a wait so I didn't have a book or magazine to keep me company. Instead, I watched the people and watched the clock and waited. At 9:25 a.m., I walked into the area and immediately got processed. 7 huge vials of blood later, I went in search of the nurses station for my flu vaccine. They recommend pregnant women get a flu shot and, since I really don't want to get the flu this year NOR do I want the baby to get the flu, I thought it was a good idea. I waited for another 30 minutes before they could administer the shot, and then I was on my way.

I had the cab driver drop me off at the Supermarket near the apartment and picked up some food for tonight's class. I got a big bag of potato chips and some sandwich cookies, and a couple of other odds and ends for the house, and then hauled my three shopping bags back home. It was not easy and not because the bags were particularly heavy but because each step cause the baby to press down on my bladder even more! I was very happy when I got home, collapsed onto the couch and just relaxed.

Well, I'm off to finish my work for the morning. With another Dr.'s appointment slated before our 8:00 p.m. class, I really need to be as efficient as possible!

Yom Tov from Baka!

 

Israel's Medical System

I seriously hate Doctors in this Country. If I could afford it, I would packed up for the last 3 months of this pregnancy and move back to New York where my old trusty team of physicians await. What is with the medical system in this Country? Why is it that when we need access to our physicians, we cannot get them.

The Doctor on my shit list today is my hematologist. I have been trying to reach him for the past 3 weeks since our last appointment. On my agenda includes this issue with my Clexane shots and the birth, which is a pretty hefty one considering that if I go into labor with 24 hours of taking a Clexane shot, I cannot get an epidural should I choose to have one. Excuse me, but don't I deserve the right to choose whether or not I want or don't want an epidural during the labor and delivery? I just need a minute of this man's time to figure out a different course of action for both ease of mind and in order to figure out the where/when/how of this birth.

The second issue is that my OBGYN sent me for blood work, which I did, and of course there were abnormalities. But, no one is available to discuss the results with me! In New York, when a Dr. sends you for blood tests, they are the ones who get the results, reviews them and then calls and discusses them with the patient. Here, you need to go to the Kupah or access your account online, print out the results and then pray that someone in the medical profession here will be available to discuss the outcome. That's the problem with dealing with a Kupah, the Dr.'s just don't care about you. I can honestly say that the Dr.'s who are available to us, here in Israel, are the ones from the Medical Center. I believe we lucked out with those physicians, but my Maccabi paid hematologist and OBGYN won't give more than an inch unless I whip out the private checkbook.

Now I completely understand why people here pay privately for their Dr.'s. Unfortunately, we aren't in the position to pay that kind of money. We make no money, and the little we do have, we use on things like food, and gas, and apartment bills.

So, here I am up against a barrel, and I just need to freaking speak to the hematologist. I have his e-mail address and cell phone. I tried two other avenues first. I tried to make an appointment - nothing available before September 24th. I then tried to leave a message with his office for him to call me. Ummm, have you EVER seen a Maccabi office worker actually DO work? The phone rings and rings and rings. So, this morning, left with no choice, I decided to try the e-mail route.

This was the response received from my hematologist this morning:

Dear JTownunderground,

Unfortunately I am not doing e-mail medicine, especially when serious questions are on the agenda. Please make an appointment at Macabi (or elsewhere), to get more information on this issue.

Regards,
Pompous ASS Hematologist, MD

I just want to scream, I'm so damn frustrated. I responded, still being the polite, nice, reserved American woman that I am, with the following:

Dear Dr. Who Thinks He's G-d,

Thank you very much for your quick response to my e-mail. I cannot get an appointment with you before October, and of course trying to schedule an appointment to see you was my very first course of action when dealing with these issues. Can we speak on the phone instead? Since my due date is in November, I didn't think that these questions could wait until my appointment with you at the end of October. I look forward to your feedback.

Well, at least I have two episodes of Alias on my Hot Magic to watch this morning. Hopefully that will take my mind off of all this Dr. crap. Hopefully my bad mood will be gone by tonight, just in time for the Nefesh B'Nefesh Blogger Conference.

Yom Tov from Baka!

Electrocution No More!

I've been bad about blogging lately, but that's because I've just been absolutely exhausted. Shabbos was really nice and relaxing. We woke up early and decided to go to Shir Chadash, which is in a school on Yehuda HaLevi street. We really like the Rabbi, but the Kehillah is not necessarily our speed. Hmm, this whole shul search is frustrating. We've been to so many different shul's and have yet to find the one that's perfect for us. We, did, however find one that we both like which is really close to our apartment. I think we're going to have to give up the shul search for now and just try to make a go of it with the Kehillah in our neighborhood. Besides, my walking is already starting to get a bit limited, so it's nice to know that there is something 2 blocks away that we like.

Meanwhile, the biggest news in my life is that, after 1 year and 9 months living in this Country, I finally have a solution to my Mac problem. Before I moved here in August 2006, I asked the Mac people whether or not my computer would have a voltage issue. They insisted it wouldn't and I bought 2 packages of the international travel plugs so I could plug the computer into the outlets here in Israel. So, I moved here, and even with the new plugs, my computer would shock me. Literally, I had sores up and down the insides of my arms from repeated shocking. I tried to ignore it by always wearing shoes while working on the computer, but after a while it really started to bother me. Then I met Pidgeon, and he would share my computer and would really had the shocking. Once I got pregnant, Pidgeon said that it could go on no longer. We tracked down the phone number for the Mac people here in Israel and Pidgeon finally got them on the phone to discuss the problem. They told him that there's an extremely easy solution! All we needed was a special three-pronged plug. 80 shekel later, I am now the happy owner of this fantastic plug which works with both my MacBook Pro AND my Powerbook G4! It's soo nice to sit at my computer without getting little shocks running throughout my body. And, on the plus side, the sores on my arms are finally healing. This has taught me to never let something really important go, and to try to find the necessary solutions ASAP!

I spent the day in and out of bed yesterday, I was just so exhausted. I would get up, go to the kitchen and wash the meat dishes, then crawl back into bed. An hour later, I would crawl out of bed and wash the dairy dishes and then get back into bed. I did this for various other household tasks throughout the day, and tried to also do some school work reading. I am really proud that I'm getting ahead of my school work and have finished 3 books I needed to read for my two courses. I have about 6 more to go, but I'm hoping it really won't take that long if I'm diligent!

Today, I managed to go back to sleep after Pidgeon left for work. He started a new job yesterday and B"AH he is really liking it. I slept in and woke up feeling really energetic, so much so that I was able to clean the room, fold the laundry, shower, get dressed and make myself a decent breakfast. I was even feeling good enough to clean the toilet and sweep the living room floor. That's pretty impressive given my really low energy levels lately. We have an ultrasound appointment this afternoon that I'm really nervous about. This is the ultrasound where they check for disabilities in the baby. Apparently, they're able to tell with a picture of the baby's neck and then a blood test. Phew, another blood test is not necessarily something I'm thrilled about! My bruise from last week's blood work is actually still healing in the inside of my arm! Well, I'm hoping that the women at the Agrippas HQ of Maccabi are better at finding the vein and drawing some blood. 

It's a beautiful and hot day today! The sky is practically cloudless and with all the windows open in the apartment, we have a very comfortable breeze going. It's nice, especially since I'm sitting at home waiting for Pidgeon to pick me up for the appointment. Well, since I have some energy left, I'm off to put away my Shabbos dishes. 

Yom Tov from Baka!!