At 29 weeks I had the routine blood work up to test for gestational diabetes. I failed, just like 9th grade biology 😒. So I had to endure the 3hr glucose test, which btw takes 4 hours! I tried to get out of it, but no. I'm sure later when I have a clingy newborn I will look back on this time, and long for that stretch of alone time 😂! At least I came prepared with my computer. Kinda funny... I used my time to finish scrapbook pages of Maddy's birth (better late than never).
The following day I had a weird pain in my arm a few inches where they drew blood. Then the next day the pain was higher up my arm and more intense. Later that night my whole left upper arm, shoulder, neck, and chest hurt like crazy. The first thing that came to mind of was sepsis, I was scared! So immediately I booked an appointment with my doctor. He didn't find any evidence of sepsis and insisted the pain must be from nerve damage or inflammation. However, later that night a rash started to appear and the pain increased. The pain was an intense, want to rip my arm own off kind of pain! So another co-pay, another day wasted in pain, I went back with my Webmd print out in hand for the correct diagnosis, shingles.
From webmd:
Shingles: An acute infection caused by the herpes zoster virus, the same virus as causes chickenpox. Shingles is most common after the age of 50 and the risk rises with advancing age. Shingles occurs because of exposure to chickenpox or reactivation of the herpes zoster virus. The virus remains latent (dormant) in nerve roots for many years following chickenpox.
Shingles is an extraordinarily painful condition that involves inflammation of sensory nerves. It causes numbness, itching or pain followed by the appearance of clusters of littles blisters in a strip pattern on one side of the body. The pain can persist for weeks, months or years after the rash heals and is then known as post-herpetic neuralgia.
I did catch this early and my doctor was able to prescribe a anti-viral medication. The drug has cut the infection time considerably, however even though the rash is almost gone I still have a lot of pain.
Next on my list of third trimester complaints is my trip to L&D last night. All day I felt like I was leaking fluid. So called the advice nurse and she told me since there is no way to tell if I had a leak in my amniotic sac that I had to be checked out at L&D. As soon as Dane got home to watch the kids I headed in. On my way I noticed that I was having regular contractions. Once there they hooked up the monitors and saw I was contracting every 5 minutes! A midwife came in to check me and found baby was very low in the pelvis +2 station, soft and "dimpled" (not dilated but would be soon). The fluid turned out not to be amniotic fluid. Instead I have an infection that needs to be treated with antibiotics. After a bag of IV fluids the contractions stopped and I was allowed to go home with a promise that I would drink more water and stay off my feet.
So here I sit hoping this baby doesn't come early. I'm 32 weeks. But at the very best I'm going to be walking around with what feels like a bowling ball in my pelvis!
**update, baby has moved higher up! She's still pretty low, but at least I don't have to worry about an impending labor**
