The past 2 months have been a bit of a
trial for both Kat and myself; back in June she arrived home from a clinic she
had been holding locally, but didn’t immediately get out of the car. I was
curious, but thought she was maybe answering a phone call or something like
that, after all there is little or no peace when you are a doctor, even when
you get home from work. After a few minutes, she got out and came over to the
house with what I can only describe as a confused expression on her face “What
do you think?” she asked me, showing a pregnancy test stick to me. There were
two lines, the control line was thick and clearly present, the result line was
a little less defined, but still there. “Looks like you are pregnant” I
exclaimed, somewhat surprised but happy with the outcome, Kat still wasn’t
convinced so she sent me out to get a number of additional tests from a
friend’s pharmacy. To cut a long story short, over the next few days all of the
tests, including one done in a certified medical laboratory came back positive,
although all indicated that this was an early pregnancy.
Since Kat had miscarried a year earlier, we
had some concerns about this pregnancy, following the advice of friends sought
a consultation with a maternal/foetal specialist obstetrician at Asian Hospital
in Alabang. After a brief history was taken, Dra. Reyes conducted an ultrasound
scan; frustratingly the results were inconclusive with only a couple of
follicles being visible on one ovary. The interpretation was that we had caught
this really early, something like 3 to 4 weeks, which explained the weak
response of the pregnancy tests. We were asked to return in 2 weeks for a
repeat scan, Kat and I were also admonished for not monitoring her blood sugar
and pressure since she suffers from diabetes and hypertension. Suitably
chastened we arranged to visit her diabetician early next week.
The time between the first and second scan
seemed to drag on, we were both very anxious about any twinge or discomfort
that Kat was feeling, this was exacerbated by the battle to get her blood sugar
to within the limits set by Dr Hingzon after our consultation, including the
need to monitor her blood sugar and to administer insulin injections. I started
a spreadsheet to record the results so we could easily identify any trends by
plotting the results on a chart.
Eventually it was time to return and see
Dra. Reyes, she was somewhat surprised by my chart, suggesting it was a bit OTT
(obsessive she actually called it) as all she wanted was a notebook with the
numbers; I maintain that I am doing the right thing and besides it makes me
feel more a part of the whole thing. She was not overly impressed with the
numbers and asked us to try harder. The scan this time showed that we had an
embryonic sac, but it was too early to see whether the embryo was viable or
not, she estimated again that this was around 5 weeks, supporting the earlier
finding that we had detected the pregnancy early. We were sent home again with
a request to return in two weeks.
Two weeks later and an early start we
returned to Asian Hospital, armed with further results of Kat’s blood sugar and
pressure, the latter of which was now better than mine as she has stopped
consuming caffeine in all forms and especially in Coke etc. the blood sugar
results were still a bit outside Dra. Reyes guidelines, but the general trend
was much better. The all important scan this time was an overwhelming
experience, we could see the embryo, although it was very small, something like
1.5cm crown to rump but the kicker was the heartbeat which we heard for the
first time, it was a little fast at 169 bpm but I couldn’t help but have a
little tear in my eyes at the sound of our babies life force being confirmed. We
also now had a better idea of the age of the pregnancy at 7 weeks 1 day and a
due date of 24th March, 3 months after my birthday! Dra. Reyes asked
us to return in two weeks and also alter the monitoring protocol of Kat’s blood
sugar, rather than immediately before a meal, she wanted it done 2 hours
afterwards; this was to prove troublesome in almost all respects…
Following our consultation with Dra. Reyes,
we headed off to Kat’s parents to share the happy news and to show them the
sonogram pictures. It was also around now that we shared the news with close
friends and family, mindful of the fact that it was around 7 weeks that we lost
the last pregnancy, although Dra. suggested that now we had a heartbeat and an
implanted embryo that another miscarriage was less likely. We also scheduled
another consultation with Dr. Hingzon since the new regime of post prandial
monitoring of blood sugar was throwing up some quite scary numbers, this led to
an adjustment in the insulin dose, increasing it slightly and to monitor after 1
hour, not 2 as this was more likely to give a better number.
In the intervening two weeks Kat and I have
been dying to tell more people that we are expecting but we agreed to keep
schtum to all but some additional friends and colleagues who needed to know so
Kat wouldn’t be exposed to patients with infectious diseases like measles and
chickenpox.
We returned to Asian Hospital the other
day, only to discover that we had all forgotten that 21st August is
a public holiday here in the Philippines, this meant no scan or consultation.
We were however fortunate that an OB Sonologist was to be at one of the clinics
where Kat needed to carry out ward rounds later that day, so we arranged to get
a quick scan done for peace of mind and check the heart rate. This was an even
more emotional moment if that is possible than the last scan as not only did we
get the heartbeat again (still a little high) but we also were able to see the
baby moving a little, we decided that he/she has the same sort of sense of
rhythm that I have, i.e. not much. The baby’s age differed slightly from that
determined earlier, but only by a few days so well within the error inherent in
the measurement technique, around 10 weeks.
Kat’s blood sugar is still causing us some
concern as measuring it before a meal is easy, but we have forgotten to do the
measurement on time after a meal and it fluctuates wildly because of this even
worse to hit the marks requested by both Dra. Reyes and Dr Hingzon she can
drift into hypoglycaemia a couple of hours later if we are not careful,
symptoms of this are cold sweats, trembling and a feeling of overall malaise. Accordingly
Kat takes some fruit or crackers with her to clinics and we have made
arrangements to have a consultation with a dietician so that we can get a menu
plan and better understand what is happening; I shall be taking my spreadsheet
with me just in case it is useful….
