But I did get a free trip to L&D today, and I totally blame it on the hell that is Tripler Army Medical Center. Here's the thing about Tripler (ok, more that one thing}:
It's just outside Honolulu.
It's on a freakin' mountain.
It's a nightmare to navigate.
It's just outside Honolulu. {It's there twice for a reason.}
Oh, and it serves all the military {and veterans} on the whole island.
{via}
Please tell me you can see the ridiculousness of the parking setup here. It's dumb and I almost always have to park in the BFE. The OB clinic is on the back side {aka mountainside} of the hospital, where there is one tiny parking lot. Today, I drove around said parking lot for about 15 minutes before giving up and driving around to the front. Enter traffic. Lots of traffic, all of us trying to find parking. Right as I see someone going to their car, some jerk of a Soldier cuts me off and steals the spot. Thanks for stealing a spot from a very pregnant woman, dude. Finally, 10 minutes before my appointment, I found a spot and hightailed it into the hospital, up 4 floors, and across that floor.
Because I got there pretty much right on time, they called me back immediately. And, guess what? My blood pressure was high. I wasn't surprised at all, but I know that's not a good thing. The doctor comes in about 10 minutes later. A male doctor I don't know, accompanied by an intern/student/1LT person. So, I'm a little nervous. {I should note I don't always do well with male doctors. My first GYN experience - which was not good - was with a male doctor... Pretty sure I'm scarred for life.} He takes my blood pressure again and it's still high.
Then he says he wants to do lab work, a 24 hr urine collection {great} and monitor me in L&D for an hour. I was really more frustrated than worried, but I'll admit that I almost started crying. I just didn't want something else to be wrong with me, you know?
I found a spot with good reception {yet another reason to hate Tripler} and called Joe to let him know what was going on and headed for L&D. And then I got lost. Apparently the L&D tour did me no good whatsoever. I took elevators up the the 6th floor and somehow ended up on the 3rd floor, without going down any stairs or elevators. {This is what I meant about the navigation...} Thanks to a nice orderly, I finally found my way to L&D.
They got me into triage right away and hooked me up to monitors. The nurse found her right away, and I got to listen to her heartbeat the whole time. =) But wait, it gets better. My blood pressure was totally normal the entire time. In fact, it was pretty darn perfect. Dr. Overreacter can eat his words now. My super awesome nurse agreed that if he'd given me enough time to calm down that it would have been fine. They let me go after 45 minutes because I was doing so well. And Charlotte was doing even better, though she did move away from the monitor at one point. Sadly, they're still making me do the 24 hr urine collection. =( I really, really, really don't want to especially since there's really nothing wrong with me. But the triage doctor thinks it's still "a good idea to have." Bleh. Basically, I just have to do it within the next week. Though I didn't think of it earlier, I'm hoping I'll be able to take it to the lab in the clinic on post so that I don't have to drive all the way to Tripler. If I can, it would really make my life a lot easier.
So, that was my first trip to L&D. And I'm hoping it's the last before I'm actually in labor.
Please stay put for a little while longer, little girl!
