Seven weeks to go

DC is incredibly beautiful today, which has made my lengthy morning of
errands bearable. I just gave up a ride on the Circulator since I have
my grandma cart full of groceries and the bus was completely SRO. That
was a very good call considering the second bus is completely empty.

For all of those brand fanatics out there, you’ll easily spot that me
and my belly were waiting for lunch in the Papa John’s Pizza. I could
easily eat pizza every meal. And pasta and most other Italian food
choices. I was on my way to Trader Joe’s when I saw all of these
people carrying a small PJ’s box. I wasn’t really hungry, but I rarely
am.

One of the strangest things that I have had throughout my pregnancy is
related to my lack of hunger pangs. I get to where I can’t see. I don’t
really know how else to describe it other than that. So I’ve recently
resorted to eating whatever is around at the appropriate time.

I am not sure of the scientific word, but the instance of losing your
vision first happened to me when I was a senior on high school and my
wisdom teeth were impacted. I was driving home and I realized that I
could not decide which side of the road this dog was on. This should
have been a sign that I should have immediately stopped driving, but I
didn’t. By the time I got home, I called my mom and told her I
couldn’t see. The room wasn’t black or anything. I also have horrible
vision, both blurry and fuzzy. (Yes, there is a difference.) I could
not focus.

We went to see Dr. Branch, my eye doctor. He told me that essentially
it was a auratory warning that I was about to get a migraine. We
still weren’t sure about the connection to my wisdom teeth, but the
head splitting pain set in sometime soon. Long story short, I got some
serious drugs and was incredibly high for the homecoming football game
that Friday night. I did have a driver.

So over the years whenever I got a fuzzy electrical line blocking my
field of vision, I have known that I need to take some pain killers
and rest up to avoid a migraine. They weren’t that frequent and I
would never categorize myself as a migraine sufferer. But since I
have been pregnant, these frustrating warnings have come on much more
frequently. I can only attribute them to my need to eat.

In the last week, I have lost my vision twice. Both were around the
same time of day (in the 11 am hour) and I was able to see the full
progression. The first time I felt a little crampy and like I wanted
to go to the bathroom. I ended up on the couch feeling awful. I
couldn’t decide if I needed a nap or what. The TV was on and I could
not make out anyone’s faces. It took me a while to realize this
because I wasn’t really watching TV. But once I started paying
attention, I knew what was going on. I started eating and took some
Tylenol. But I had waited too late and soon the wavy electrical line
took it’s place over the field of vision in my left eye.

The strangest part about this is that it really isn’t part of your
eyes, but your brain. If I hold my hand over each of my eyes
separately, I can still see the line in the same place.

So earlier this week, I took a very long shower only to feel awful
afterwards. This time I even broke out into a sweat. My symptoms had
intensified from the previous occurrence so much so that I did a
search for preterm labor symptoms as I snacked on a cheese stick and
tangerine. And that did the trick! It took a while for my blood sugar
to regulate, but I had prevented the loss of vision. Hooray!

Other than that, I have been very fortunate to have a pregnancy that’s
been such smooth sailing. It is really hard for me to believe that I
am under two months to go. Now if I can just keep my fear and anxiety
of the labor and life change in check, I’ll be good to go.