On Sunday night, I was talking to Kurt on the cell phone when I started to have a pain near my pelvis on my right side. I've had what the doctors call round ligament pain there before, and it's caused by my muscles stretching to accomodate the baby. That night it was rather a dull ache, and while it was annoying it wasn't too big a deal.
I went into the bedroom and watched the baseball game as I laid down, and I think I drifted off a bit. At some point, my father called just to say hi, and while I was talking to him the pain went away entirely.
However, when I woke up Monday morning, I began to have the pain again. And this time it really hurt. It felt almost like the menstrual cramps I used to have when I was a teenager, and they were very painful. Finally I called the nurse, and she advised me to go ahead and come in, just to make sure everything was okay.
I was worried about the pain because it was pretty severe and I'd had it since the night before, and also the baby has been quiet for the last few days. I knew I'd feel a lot better if the nurses listened to the baby's heartbeat, even though I knew there was nothing wrong with the baby.
J took me to the hospital in her car, which I wasn't sure was going to work since she is a civilian, and we had to go through a gate to get to the naval hospital. Once we got down there, the pain had dissipated a bit, and I was able to stand comfortably. They sent me up to the labor and delivery deck so they could make sure I wasn't in labor, but I was pretty sure that wasn't the case.
Finally, the dorkiest corpsman I've ever seen led me into a room where they put women who are in the early stages of labor, before their water breaks. He went ahead and hooked me up to a machine to track any contractions I may have, and also checked the baby's heartbeat -- which, as I knew it would be, was just fine. The only problem is the gel they use was COLD!!! I told him they warm the gel in the OB clinic, but he said their warmers were broken. Brrr! I also had to give a urine sample, which surprised me a bit because the only other time I've had to give a urine sample was to make sure I was pregnant, and to do some preliminary lab work when I was first admitted to the OB clinic back in March.
After a while, I was seen by another nurse-midwife, not the one that I see every month, but one that may deliver my baby. I absolutely adore the nurse-midwife I see on a regular basis, and while this one was nice, I just wish my nurse-midwife didn't have to transfer so she could deliver my baby. The nurse-midwife I saw gave me all kinds of advice regarding pre-term labor, like how to recognize it, and some good home remedies to attempt to stop it. That was definitely good information to have, not that I think I will go into pre-term labor. But knowledge is power.
As we were about to say our goodbyes, she picked up my record and noticed that my preliminary lab results were back on my urine sample, and that I tested positive for a urinary tract infection. I was really surprised by that because I have absolutely no symptoms, except perhaps the pain on my right side. So she put in for an antibiotic for me which I have to take for the next seven days.
J and I stopped by the Subway in the basement of the hospital to get a sandwich for lunch (we were at the hospital from 11am to about 1:30pm), and then we headed back home. I wolfed down the first six inches of my sub (I was HUNGRY, and I got a foot long just back I love subs so much), then saved the rest for later.
Halfway home I started to get the pain again, and this time it was a lot worse. By the time we hit our subdivision, I had to take off my seatbelt because it felt like it was too tight on the area that hurt so badly. Once I got home, I tried to use the bathroom because I felt like I needed to, and I took off my pants right in the bathroom and left them on the floor. Then I crawled into my bed, where I felt like I wanted to die. I kept trying to distract myself from the pain by digging my nails into my palms or another sensitive part of my body. At some point I thought maybe if I got up, I would feel better, so I walked around the house, but it only made me feel worse. I felt really sick, like I would either throw up or need to visit the restroom again. Finally I went back to bed and just tried to deal with the pain.
J came in to check on me about 45 minutes after we got home, and she came bearing gifts -- an almost full container of cranberry juice and a heating pad. Thank God for the heating pad. She told me I looked awful, and I know I did because the pain was just incredible. I found a way to lay where I wasn't in too much pain, wadded the heating pad up beneath where the pain was, and tried to watch TV. Slowly, slowly, the pain began to fade. By 4:30pm, it was almost completely gone, but I didn't trust it enough to get out of bed till after 5pm.
As I talked to Kurt last night, I kept exclaiming about how good I felt again, and how nice it was that the pain had finally disappeared. I could not believe how wonderful it was that I felt so much better. Today's been pretty uneventful, but every so often, if I move the right way, I get a bit of a twinge in that same muscle, but it's very minor. Hopefully, the UTI will go away with the medicine I'm on, and then I won't have both UTI pain and round ligament pain. And I guess I'll just have to start drinking more cranberry juice.