why not take all of me

today's quick check with the gd gd peri turned into a 3 1/2 hour test-apalooza.

everyone jumped on the increasing variance between my first-thing-in-the-morning and my late-in-the-afternoon blood glucose levels. my reward? a bigger dose of insulin at night, and an all-new additional dose in the morning when i wake up! because i looooooooove to shoot up. dammit. at least, it will help keep milo in the middle range, size-wise, and it should correct the roller coaster i've been riding the last few days which crashes every afternoon, leaving me completely wiped out.

we tested my blood sugar (nice and low for an hour after breakfast), measured the ute (at 32 cm, i am in good shape for 31 weeks), tested for a urinary tract infection (negative!), and drew blood to determine whether i've had diabetes for a while that's gone undetected (still up in the air). i didn't have it with hans, but i suspect it might already have been in play at least earlier in this pregnancy than when gestational diabetes usually kicks in, based on the swings i've been experiencing. i wonder if last summer's weird protein problem wasn't the beginning. who knows.

and then the big 'ol king-o-tests - the NST. i'm not scheduled to start them bi-weekly until a week from tomorrow, but in response to the movement question, i related yesterday's experience - which earned me a trip back to the fetal diagnostic center and no less than four lectures (from the gd gd resident, the gd gd peri, the NST nurse, and the fetal diagnostic center peri) for not coming in yesterday. for the record, milo performed beautifully. i, on the other hand, was shitting my pants.

some footnotes:

• one of the NST nurses noted on my chart that the goal of the powers-that-be is to get me to 36 weeks. i think she slipped up, because no one is sure as hell saying such a thing to my face; all i get is the 39 weeks talk. it's all 39, all the time. i'm not bringing it up to any of the docs because i don't want to jinx myself or get her in trouble, and there's no guarantee of getting induced at 36 weeks, but it's nice to know it could all go down in as little as FIVE weeks. holy cow.
• let me reiterate how much i despise the two people who work the front desk for the gd gd clinic. may they rot in the morgue, or medical records, or wherever it is that people least want to work in the hospital.
• the fetal diagnostic peri-of-the-day was usually the l&d attending on the night shift last year when i was going to l&d when hans didn't move and getting a load of attitude for my trouble (not from him, but from the nursing staff). justin and i always got the giggles because it was clear he wore his scrubs and his clogs and nada mas, as they say south of the border. lots of blond body hair sticking out and some gold jewelry and a pretty thick moustache and a bit of a combover and - that was it. today, he was wearing an actual dress shirt and tie and dress pants, and the 'stache has become a full-fledged goatee, and they must be passing around the rogaine up there in obstetrics. he gave me the hardest lecture about not coming in yesterday (in response to my home dopplering, he explained i could mistake the baby's heartbeat for my own if he was in distress - as though if the highest rate i detected was a 70 i wouldn't be hauling my ass immediately in to l&d...but i digress), but i didn't do much to defend myself, as i might otherwise have done, because i had to focus my energies on keeping a straight face. it's very hard to take someone of whom you think as "dr commando" very seriously.

barring any freakouts, i don't have to go back until next monday, but then the real fun begins: i will be going to the hospital for scheduled events at least three times per week, if not more, for the duration. are we having fun yet?