Meeting the consultant, kinda.

This did NOT go as well as I'd hoped. It started off well with Mark and I actually finding a parking space at the hospital, (No easy feat.) which was followed by a very short wait. However, that's where the goodness ended. The midwife who walks in is none other than "Allison." She was the surly midwife who showed us around the hospital in Paisley, basically scoffed at questions and generally looked like she was having a bad year.

We went into the little check-up room and she asked me a few questions even though she didn't seem to care what the answers were. Since yesterday I've been getting really intense pelvic pain on one side and it's been making it hard to walk so I definitely wanted to ask someone about it. She shrugged it off saying it was ligament pain. I tried to explain that I know what ligament pain feels like and that this felt completely different. She obviously wasn't going to listen. I'm just a dumb patient who doesn't know anything. When I told her I'd been able to feel the baby moving occasionally she rolled her eyes at me and said it's far too early for that. (Can you believe her? Rudest midwife ever!) After she took my blood pressure, without explaining it to me at all or even saying, "that's okay then." She said she'd pop outside to see if she could find a doctor. A doctor?? A doctor? What happened to the Dr. Ellison that my appointment was scheduled with? No one ever explained where Dr. Ellison was.

The doctor who came in was actually quite nice. At first I was worried because she asked me why I was here and when I said that it was because I had hypothyroidism, she said "ah, overactive thyroid." Um no. Under. It was only when I told her my medication that she looked up at me and said.. "Oh you mean under active." Ahem. That IS what I said. She asked me most of the same questions the midwife had and despite the fact that mean midwife was still standing there I decided to voice my concerns all over again. Mark says I probably teed the midwife off even more doing that but I didn't care. I wanted someone to actually listen to me. The doctor was much nicer when I told her about the pain. She thinks it's just muscle related, but did tell me to see my GP or go into A&E if it gets worse or I get any swelling.

Here comes the bit I was waiting for- time to listen for baby's heartbeat! Doctor is writing something in my notes and midwife pulls out the doppler. She attempts to find the heartbeat but is just getting a lot of static. After about a minute she asks me if I had just put lotion on my belly. Umm a few hours ago. That convinces her. It's all my fault, the lotion is causing interference. uh huh.. Depsite it being all my fault she goes to get a new machine anyway. While she's struggling to find the heartbeat the nice doctor suggests that we just go next door and do a scan. Yaay that would be awesome! Alas.. mean midwife makes an interception. She frowns at the doctor and says "Someone's in there." Like we wouldn't have happily waited to be able to see baby again. Allison decides that she's found something that sounds like a heartbeat to her. She holds it up towards my ear but all I'm hearing is static. She does try to reassure me at one point and says, "I do hear baby moving around." Apparently this is enough for her and we're done. :( I was really looking forward to being able to hear the heartbeat and she couldn't bear to spend 10 minutes with me? Mark says I need to learn to speak up a bit in these situations.

It's all over quicker than any of my appointments thus far. I'm so glad Mark had the day off and didn't have to miss work to take me. Midwife hands me the hospital's folder of my notes and tells me to take it to the receptionist who will make a 28 week appointment for me. We wander back to reception but there's no receptionist so I flick through my notes. They are MY notes after all. Uh oh. Allison comes in and sees me looking at my notes. She actually takes them out of my hands and puts them on the receptionist's desk and says. "We'll put this over here so she can see it." The nerve! They're MY notes lady. I felt like picking them right back up but of course I'm not that brave.

So I have another appointment to see Dr. Ellison on November 23rd, but who knows if she'll be there then either. Hopefully 'Allison the evil' won't be there when I go back for my 20 week scan... and that just maybe she'll be on holiday in February when it's time to actually have the baby!