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Welcome to Mama Witch's Blog.

For more from Arietta, aka Mama Witch, check out her other blog: http://small-songs.blogspot.co.uk/
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Friday 30 July 2010

So... It's not Gastritus after all...

Well at least I know what's wrong with me now...

Another bad "Gastritus" attack on Wednesday night had me calling Hubby at work and asking him to take me to A&E again the pains were just so bad that I am not ashamed to say I wanted the relief that I got last time from hospital strength meds.

Once again the staff at A&E were brilliant and I was seen straight away, but I was in a pretty bad way, by the time we got there, so they put me straight on to a drip and gave me Paracetamol followed by Morphine (seriously trippy and just a little scary) to take away the pain and to calm me down.

I was diagnosed as being hypotensive which was a bit concerning so spent some time hooked up to an ECG monitor and then had to make the decision as to whether to go ahead with the x-ray which the doctor wanted to do. We eventually concented to an x-ray (the purpose of which was to check for perforations in my bowel) and were glad to be told that everything looked ok.

The consultant then said that he susspected Gall Stones and wanted to do an ultrasound of my Gall Bladder in the morning... so off to the ward I go to spend a night in hospital

I didn't get much sleep though as it was about 3am by the time I got to the ward (I did get my own room though which must have been to keep me away from the other sick peeps because of my pregnancy) the ward staff then had to book me in and do all of the usual checks like blood pressure and temperature and before I knew it the sun was up and the doctors had begun their morning rounds.

I spent the morning trying not to think about food (as I was nil by mouth) and using my mobile to research Gall Stones ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallstone )

I went down for my ultra sound at about 10am and the scan confirmed the existance of several Gall Stones which was worrying but I was just glad that I finally had got a correct diagnosis and could now look at preventative measures.

The consultant has said that I will have to have my Gall Bladder removed after the Bean is born but that until then I will have to be on a REALLY low fat diet... this includes:

Things To Avoid
  • Butter, Margarine, olive oil, sunflower oils, lard, suet
  • All fried foods
  • Full cream or Jersey milk, evaporated and condensed milk, full-fat cream inc. soft cheese, cheddar, stilton, cream cheese and full fat yogurt
  • Fatty meat, eg Lamb, beef, Processed meat eg sausages corned beef, beefburgers, meat pies, tinned meat, fried eggs, all fish tinned in oil, smoked mackerel
  • Biscuits, especially digestives, cream or chocolate biscuits, hobnobs, cream cakes, marzipan, danishes, pastries, sponge cake
  • Crisps, nuts, bombay mix, low fat crisps, chips
  • Chocolate, toffee, fudge, coconut
  • Fruit pies & crumbles, milk puddings, ice cream, gateaux
  • Pastry foods eg quiche, oil-based salad dressings e.g vinaigrette, mayonnaise, cream or cheese sauces, gravy (made with the fat or juices from the meat), creamy dips, hummour, avocados, & creamy soups

Unfortunatly for me I have to check this list against the list of things the docs recommend you avoid eating during pregnancy. eg the dietitian recommended that I eat shell fish as an alternative to processed or fatty meats but of course these are off the menu when you are pregnant... I was please to see I can still eat Marshmallows though :o) thank the Gods for small mercies.

So from now on it is vegetables, steamed rice and skinless chicken for me... I'll keep you posted on my progress

Sunday 25 July 2010

A Question of Faith

Today I am 25 weeks pregnant!
Where has the time gone???
It has been a bit of a baby related day today as Hubby and I attended the Catholic Baptism of another recent addition to his family. This provoked a lot of discussion on our part as to the importance of welcoming ceremonies for newborns and also brought up questions about the role of the god parents (or guardians)
When my daughter was born (8 years ago) I had a much smaller pagan community around me but I still held my ground with non-pagan family and friends and refused to have her christened. There were a lot of people who felt it would be the "right" thing to do and some others who didn't really perceive that I had a choice - Baptism was simply what you did after a child was born.
Still I could not bring myself to make promises for myself and for my child which I did not fully believe and so we opted for a naming ceremony and I am so glad that I stuck to my guns. The naming was personal and moving and also acknowledged the 6 friends whom my daughters father and I had chosen to be her "Fairy God Parents".
Hubby and I will host a similar ceremony for this new life some time after he or she is born but now that we are more well versed in such things we will probably lead the ceremony ourselves. This child will also be granted 6 "Fairy God Parents" and will be ceremonially welcomed into the circle of our family and friends. We may opt to ask our own personal deities to watch of the child but we will at not be ritually bringing the child into a particular religion ( that is something they can choose when they are ready)

Monday 19 July 2010

When will it end???

Had another bad night with Gastritus on friday. I'd had a lovely girly evening with my sister-in-law but I'd had niggling pains throughout the evening. When I got home I popped a couple of Gaviscon (as suggested by the Docs) and paced about waiting for the pains to go. The pains never got worse but they didn't get better either :o(

Saturday night I had another horrible attack, crippling cramps in my stomach (across my diagphram) followed by sickness. Hubby was fabulous, he is such a level head in these circumstances. Eventually the pain and sickness subsided and I could get some sleep.

Sunday night brought another set of unbearable cramps and I was sick until I could be sick no more :o( I ws tired and in pain and, I will admit, more than a little scared as I really couldn't see an end to the pain this time and I began to panic...

In the end I gave in and asked Hubby to take me into A&E. Once again my knight in shining Mondeo came to my rescue and got me to hospital in record time (all good practice for the birth I keep telling myself)

Once there I do have to commend the emergency staff who saw me straight away (no 3 hour wait - yay!) was given an IV and dosed up with a drip feed of liquid paracetamol which must have been good as I fell asleep :o)

On waking I was still in pain though (although not nearly as bad as when I had arrived) so they gave me a dose of Ranitidine through my IV which seemed to work

Eventually (5am monday morning) I was discharged with a prescription for Ranitidine tablets.

I REALLY hope that we have cracked it this time :o)

Fingers crossed!

Friday 9 July 2010

Consultant Meeting

Today was my "consultation" at the hospital with the "specialist" about my home birth, because the midwife who did my booking in appointment (not the midwife I have now by the way) , said that my BMI was concerning if I wanted a home birth.

So off we trot to the maternity ward today to pee on a stick and have my blood pressure taken ( all fine ) they then listen to the beans heart ( also fine ) then we sit about for nearly an hour waiting to be seen by the specialist.

She begins by telling me that she doesn't know why I’m there this early in my pregnancy as she can't make a firm decision until I’m about 35 weeks!!!!

Then she says that I would need a BMI of less than 30 to have a safe home birth and that because Eloise was over 8lb they would be concerned about me having a large baby this time too.

I said that I didn’t care what they said and that I still wanted a home birth as I did not have a good experience at the hospital last time and...

So now they want me to see a councillor to deal with my latent birth trauma.

I just felt like they were not willing to accept anything I said and they just want to prove that a hospital birth would be best and that I can be “fixed” in some way to want a hospital birth.