New Doctor Blues

Lorne and I had appointments with our new Primary Care Physician yesterday. Our previous one sent us a letter saying he was leaving Plano so we had to find a new one. This new doctor was referred to us by Denise so I felt pretty confident that I would like her. I called to make Lorne an appointment because he's running out of his blood pressure pills, but they said I need to come in during open enrollment even though I'm pregnant. The nurse said that if she begins no longer accepting new patients and I haven't been in to see her I would have to find another PCP. I'm just expecting to fill out paperwork and leave but I actually have an exam and she says she's detected a heart murmur and that I need an echocardiogram. She said they are common in pregnant women, but I've never heard that before. Of course in true Kelly style I keep it together while I'm scheduling the procedure for next week and then I lose it as soon as I call Lorne on my way out of the office. I am very upset and scared at this point because I don't know what it all means. I don't know if its' caused any harm to the baby and I don't know if it's something I could have prevented. Most of all I'm worried because I have been healthy my whole life and don't want to stop now. I mean, I had tubes in my ears when I was seven and my wisdom teeth extracted in high school and that's it as far as surgeries go. I've never even spent the night in the hospital other than when I was born!

We go to lunch and then return to the office for Lorne's appointment. He gets more of a workup than me! He has an EKG (which was fine), gets his blood sugar checked because of glucose in his urine(it was 98), blood taken, and his ear cleaned out. On top of that HE gets to have an echocardiogram next week too! They're also drawing blood again next week after he's fasted. I was getting really upset at this point because I'm thinking here we are about to be parents and it's like our health is falling apart! I've decided that she just wants to be thorough because we're new patients, but geez, I'm 36 weeks pregnant. I can't take a lot of drama right now!

I talked with the nurse at my obstetrician's office this morning and she said Dr. Watts would check my heart at my appointment on Monday. She said the echo and the murmur wouldn't do any harm to the baby. She also said that if I have a true murmur I will probably have it THE REST OF MY LIFE. Yeah! Just what I want to hear! She did say that lots of people have them and that I will just have to let my doctors know from this point on so that I can get antibiotics before any procedures I have like at the dentist. My main question for Monday is whether or not this will affect my desire to NOT have a C-section. I want to be able to have a vaginal delivery more than anything at this point. Of course the health of the baby is my main concern, but I really don't want a C-section.

OK, I'm through whining. Hope everyone is doing well!