Saturday, September 6, 2008

And the nerves have returned!

I swear I'm having a "pain" in left ovary. Not a terrible pain but a twinge of pain and, now, of course, it has me on edge. I am so nervous of losing this pregnancy, too, yet there is still so much more peace that normal. I know I should just let the nerves go- acknowledge and let them dissipate- but I can't stop thinking of the what ifs... What if it is ectopic, what if the baby dies before the u/s, what if, what if, what if... Combined with the increase in mucus which, of course, has me scared, I just feel like it is fear after fear. Tomorrow we are 6 weeks pregnant and I want so desperately to hit the high 30s or, God willing, 40 weeks and give birth to happy healthy baby/babies.

I keep praying and I know God hears our prayers. I just am so hopeful... and so afraid...

And because nothing is ever easy... (TMI alert). This morning, my first morning urine (as well as my last urine before bed last night) was very yellow. I thought, last night, that perhaps I hadn't drank enough water to counter act the decaf I'd had when meeting a friend for coffee. I didn't think much of it. This morning, I coughed it up to the prenatal I take at night because taking it in the morning makes me sick to my stomach. In addition, I was slightly constipated. So, an hour later, second pee: it looks slightly pink. Freaking out, I call Peter in to look at it. Because of my paranoia, I wipe prior to urinating to check for mucus and/or bleeding. There was nothing. Peter mentioned that it was possibly from my earlier constipated "go" and that possibly there was slight bleeding, but a check revealed no such bleeding. Nervous, we decide to drink water and wait for round two. Half an hour later, again, pink pee. At this point, I'm ready to totally freak out and am in tears. We call Dr. Lee.

The answering service patches us through to her. She advises me to put on a pad (to make sure it isn't vaginal discharge) and to monitor the urine for continued pinkness. She also says to drink plenty of water and add some cranberry juice to my daily liquid consumption (to which I promptly respond with about 20 ounces of juice!). She wants us to monitor my urine and, if it hasn't cleared up by tomorrow, to call her and make an appointment for Monday. After assessing that my pain hasn't occurred in my upper pubic region, she says not to worry, especially since the pain isn't pattern or severe, and to relax.

With this in mind, Peter and I decide to conduct an experiment. Since urinating is no problem (the bathroom is my new best friend), we decide to catch the urine, just to make sure it isn't blending with any possible (though completely invisible) vaginal discharge. Sure enough, the next pee is practically clear! We're thinking, What Gives???, when Peter remembers that he had just added a chlorine tablet to the toilet bowl for cleaning. My little scientist hurries to the computer.

Well, it turns out that the urine of people taking Methyldopa (which I take for my HBP) mixed with chlorine can become brown (or even black). (Up to 70% is excreted into urine.) Since the urine outside of the toilet bowl was clear or light yellow and then, upon being added to the toilet, changed to a pinkish color, our fears have been assuaged, especially considering a clear pad. (Although, we tried adding a dash of bleach to a cup of urine and it just turned it VERY neon yellow). I'm still drinking a class of cranberry juice- just in case I do have a mild UTI- but, since I have no pain when urinating, I don't think that is the case. And of course, water. I've drank more water today that I'm sure I did yesterday and Thursday combined.

Every pregnancy is different... No kidding... But, truly, I wish that I had the level of confidence I did when pregnant with Nicholas and Sophia. I feel like that is gone forever. But I'm doing my best to pray, trust Peter's advice (he's much more laid back than I am!), and remember to treasure each day..

2 comments:

navywife78 said...

I know this was written few Yeats ago, but thank you . I've been researching this and was starting to freak out myself since I also tend to do that. I even went in and had a urinalysis everything came back perfectly normal. so I started my experiment of peeing in clear plastic cup. what do you know normal varoty of yellow to clear yellow. except when its added to toilet bowl which has a bleech tablet in it. everythingi searched said Brown or black for methyldopa but mine is light pinkish.. so this really helped ease my paranoidism a lot.. so glad after researching for over a week I found your post..

Michele said...

I'm glad that, even years later, this was helpful!