Bad Day

“I’m not even supposed to be here today!” – Dante from Clerks

Yeah, it’s one of those days. I’ve been looking forward to my day off all week. With my doctor and back-up doctor both out of town, I didn’t make an appointment for my day off. Instead, I was going to have it all to myself. I was going to wash and sort Peter peppers, finish dehydrating our stevia, start dehydrating the lemon balm, put away Halloween decorations, do some yard work, go to the thrift store, do water changes on my fish tanks, and maybe even do some beading. Lately I haven’t been motivated to do most of that stuff. So I was excited to be motivated and have time to do it. Instead, I’m at work today.

Yesterday I felt good, and decided to be responsible. So on my way to go get breakfast, I stopped at the health unit to get my blood pressure checked. Unfortunately my blood pressure was high, and the nurse immediately called my doctors office, and then made me talk to them. Both nurses insisted that I got to the doctor’s office. I tried to explain that I was fine, and that it could wait until my next appointment on Tuesday or even the following day that I had off. But no. By the time I was allowed to leave the nurses office to go to the doctors, the cafeteria was closed. I grabbed a fruit cup and a muffin from the snack shop because I needed to eat something. Since I haven’t been to the doctor’s office from work before, I managed to make a wrong turn and found myself at the DC line before I could turn around. When I finally got to the office, I had to use the restroom. But I held it, in case I needed to pee in a cup. When I finally saw the nurse, it was Nurse T., who is the nurse that has upset me a few times already. She wanted to have me sit quietly for a few minutes before taking my blood pressure. I asked to use the bathroom first, and as I left the room, she turned the TV on to CNN or some other news channel. When I returned, there was some political crap on the TV. Yeah, I’m sure that’s really going to help my blood pressure. I called the nurse and told her to shut it off. When she finally checked my blood pressure, it was still high with readings similar to those taken at my work. Then she proceeded to ask me questions and picked a fight with me. As she switched cuffs on the machine, I’m already talking in a raised voice, and my anger is building. And she says, “You’ve never had high blood pressure before?” While my blood pressure was being taken, I gritted my teeth instead of answering. The reading was much better, but still high. Then instead of yelling, “Of course I have high blood pressure, why don’t you check my patient history!” I said calmly, “I have had borderline high blood pressure all of my life.” It went downhill from there. She continued to tell me how bad high blood pressure was, threatened me that I’d have to see a Perinatologist, and then argued with me for a bit. Then she shared the results with Doctor C, who I don’t like either. The nurse came back and told me I had to pee in a cup. So I had to chug some water and wait a while since I had just gone to the bathroom a few minutes earlier. After I used the restroom, Nurse T. brought the pee stick in to show me that I was starting to have protein in my urine, and lectured me some more. The she left to go tell the doctor. Finally Doctor C comes in and introduces himself, even though I’ve seen him twice before. He says that I don’t need meds yet, just to monitor my blood pressure a couple times a week. And, [pay close attention here] he told me to make sure the nurses at my work use a large cuff in order to get an accurate reading. It was after noon when I left the office, so in addition to missing breakfast, I was now late to eat lunch.

It took me awhile that afternoon to piece together what had happened. When Nurse T switched to a larger cuff, even though I was nearly yelling at her, my blood pressure was lower than it had been when taken with a smaller cuff after sitting quietly. I wasted a good chunk of my day being abused by nurses because some dumb nurse that I’ve never seen before didn’t think to use a large cuff, and then she made a big deal out of my blood pressure just because I was pregnant.

Do you think I could go back to work after that? Nope. And if I did go back to work, I would have had to take at least 4 hours of sick leave. Instead, I decided it was best to sacrifice my day off for this debacle. The thrift store was nearby and it was the last day for the 50% off sale on Halloween items. Still upset, I forgot lunch and headed there. I didn’t find any Halloween items that I wanted. So I went to the baby section. I had previously avoided this section since I didn’t know the gender yet. I still don’t know the gender, but I didn’t care. I picked out a Hawaiian shirt and a Hawaiian dress (for when my work has Hawaiian shirt day) and bought them both. I picked up a few other unisex onesies, some sleepwear for myself, and a cute snowman themed tissue box cover. But thrift shopping didn’t help.

It was 2pm when I finally stopped for lunch. I really don’t think I have to tell you the rest of my day in blow-by-blow detail. I tried to do a few chores on my list, but they no longer interested me. I cried, I ate leftover Halloween candy, and I fought with Aaron. I seriously wanted to call my mom and have her cancel the 3D ultrasound and the baby shower, both scheduled during my visit over Thanksgiving. After all, the way Nurse T. talks, I’m not likely to even have this baby. I thought I would be stronger than this, but I guess I’m not.

Crap. I wanted to end this post a little bit lighter, but now I’m upset again. I’m not even supposed to be here today.