9 week checkup

As most of you know, it has been a pretty rough last two weeks.  At first my problems were mostly with my GI tract (nausea, cramping, loss of appetite, and diarrhea), but now my arthritis has flared to the point that I can barely walk around the house to use the bathroom, get food, etc. 

Because of the bumpy last weeks, the OB wanted me to come in to check my vitals and check out the baby.  The good news is that the baby is measuring perfectly (exactly 9 weeks and 1 day, as it should) and the heart rate of 175 is great.  See the below picture where our little baby is 2 cm long and I think looks like a cute house mouse.  It was such a relief to hear that all the struggles I have had are not negatively affecting the baby.  My vitals also look good and I got commended on my hydration (despite my weight loss).

We need to continue to try to figure out what is wrong with my stomach and we have ruled out bacterial/parasite/viruses as of today.  The next step is a gastroenterology appointment on Thursday morning.  We want to find out what non B/P/V causes could cause these symptoms.  The concern of my OB and PCP (primary care provider) is that I have some type of inflammatory bowel disease.  These are autoimmune gastro-intestinal diseases and include Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.  Since I already have 1 auto-immune disease, I am more likely to have another.  What we need to figure out from the gastroenterologist is whether there are other things it could be and what treatments would even be worth pursuing during pregnancy.  My Enbrel should already help Crohn’s, but prednisone would help all.

I have been taking a lot of time off work and will continue doing that as necessary.  My priority is keeping me and the baby healthy.  I have about 19 weeks of paid leave available before I have to take leave without pay.  Either way, my job is not at risk, and we are financially stable even without my salary.  However, given my health, we are not going to the do the remodel before the baby, which gives us a little extra cash in case of emergency.

Charles is picking up the brunt of everything around the home turning in to a superman going to the store (many times a week), cooking, cleaning, organizing, doing laundry, and working full time and coming to all my doctor appointments.  Honestly our house is cleaner than usual and it is such a relief to not worry about anything.  I am so lucky to have him.  We have a lot of people around who can help but so far Charles has done it mostly on his own so far. 

Thanks for all the love and support as we go through this not-so-ideal first trimester.