I think I’ll call today “around the hospital in 80 minutes”.
I let my mother in on what was going on – with all the tests, I knew she would figure it out. We headed out for our appointments (she had one earlier in the day) together.
We arrived very early at the mega-hospital center where the OB/GYN sent the ultrasound scan order. After much circling and waving and gesturing (polite gesturing) of parking attendants we finally found a spot at the end of the lot (this hospital has been having notorious issues with parking lately, so we were thankful for any spot).
We were also in the wrong place.
We were expecting to be directed to the Radiology department in the main hospital, or perhaps Maternal Fetal Medicine, but it was actually neither of those. The lovely lady at the info desk directed us to get back in the car and drive around the hospital to a completely different outlying building on the other side of the hospital complex. So, after following her directions we found another rare parking spot at the second building. After negotiating through the building (it’s still under construction) and two different sets of elevators we found the radiology center.
Turns out that was wrong, too.
The nurse at the counter looked up my appointment on the computer and it turns out that it was at a radiology center outside of the hospital complex (across the street on the other side of the hospital). So, we got back in the car again, drove around to the third building and luckily found yet another parking spot.
Finally, we were in the right place. Thankfully we had started out really early, so we arrived on time.
They did the ultrasound scan and explained the results respectfully and clearly:
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I am definitely pregnant
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the pregnancy is located in the uterus (phew!)
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it measures 5w 4d, not 6w 2days. A discrepancy of 5 days.
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there is a significant placental bleed
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it’s too early to see anything
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my good parking karma has been exhausted. Let’s hope the baby’s parking karma hasn’t been, and it stays put for a good, long time
They’ve asked me to come back in a week for another scan to check the baby’s growth and to check on the bleed. They also asked if I could be wrong about my dates. Anything’s possible – I am 40 and my periods have been more irregular than they’ve been previously. It could be that my dates are 5 days off.
It could also be that the baby is in trouble. The bleed is pretty concerning. My mom’s reaction was “why” and I had to admit – I know nothing about bleeds. I have no idea what it means. The results aren’t a complete disaster… but it isn’t the best news. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens – hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
