The indignity of the abdomonal ultrasound

Had very minor spotting this morning, but my handout from the OB/GYN yesterday said have the doctor paged for any vaginal bleeding.

Doc said, have a sonogram today.

You will be excited to know that for an abdomonal ultrasound, the patient must have a "full bladder."

My appointment was at 11:30. The nurse told me to "empty my bladder" at 10:30, then to drink 16 oz of water before the appointment time and to take 16 oz of water with me to sip while I waited. She said I was a work-in appointment, so I was likely to have to wait. (I don't know if they told me this specially. Do they have my chart marked "patient is time sensitive" now?)

First, I must say how difficult it was for me not to absent-mindedly "empty my bladder" once I started to need to pee. As in, need to pee, go to the bathroom and pee. I kept having to tell myself, no! No peeing! And this was before I left.

So I got to the hospital, and my appointment was not actually til noon. You get there 30 minutes early so you can go through the hospital admissions process. By the time I was done with being admitted, I *really* needed to pee. As in, if you were driving, a woman *might* consider just pulling over and peeing in the bushes. I know that doesn't sound that desparate to a guy, but if a chick is willing to pee in the woods, you *know* she's got to pee.

And, of course, while the patient is in this state of desparately needing to pee, the ultrasound technician is prodding your abdomen with ultrasound equipment. REALLY REALLY HARD!!!!

Though I must say, she was VERY impressed with how full my bladder was.

I had both an external and internal ultrasound. For an internal ultrasound (yes) they insert the (yes) probe in the vagina. She joked that when she explains how the internal ultrasound is going to work, as she is finishing up the external exam, most patients say, "I don't care what you do to me next, just let me pee!"

I told her she must be the most hated and loved doctor in the hospital. On the one hand, she tortures everyone with the full bladder. On the other hand, "Oh my God! She let me pee!"

Very, very undignified process. And we haven't even (and will not) discussed the probe...

Also, the "ultrasound transmission gel" was in a warmer and was not cold, but surprisingly hot. I was braced for cold. The hot gel on my tummy almost made me pee right there. Though at that point, to be fair, almost any random event could have made me pee, so....

The end result is that this morning's minor bleeding probably had to do with the development of the placenta. Apparently, the placenta puts out "roots." If one of these roots encounters a blood vessel, the vessel can break and there can be minor bleeding. Apparently I do have a very small one of these events going on and that is probably what caused the spotting. It is "self correcting." I have yet to speak to the doctor, but the nurse said that typically they would do some follow up bloodwork and a follow up ultrasound in a couple of weeks, but that it looks like everything is normal.

According to the (yes) yolk sac, I am 5 weeks, 3 days pregnant. They could not find a fetal heartbeat today, but that is nothing to be alarmed about. The doc said this morning that if I really was six weeks pregnant, they *probably* would see a heartbeat.

And that is all.

I'm sure you have both had preggers friends before, but as I was saying to Uisgich via AIM this morning, I have no modesty left after the last pregnancy. You are likely to hear gruesome, gruesome things from me... :)

Will edit this if the doc has anything to say.

I find this slightly interesting

I took the personality diorder test.

It was a stupid little test, and of course, based on self-reporting.

I got low on everything, except I got High for Histrionic Personality Disorder, and Medium for Narcissistic personality disorder.

( Description of histrionic personality disorder )

( Narcissistic personality disorder )

Now, this is only interesting to me because I came up as Orli on some personality test earlier - always the center of attention, was how he/I was described.

I have had a couple of other "tests" in line with this, too.

In light of my LJ behavior, I wonder if I am actually learning something about myself here? Am I a manipulative attention whore wiht a superiority complex? Hmmmm.