Doctor's Orders

I went to the doctor’s today – without my kids, so of course I waited a total of like 2 minutes versus the usual hour! It was a good visit and I came away chuckling about my adorable doctor. Granted he is probably nearing retirement and he looks exactly like Albert Einstein, he is, however, funny and comforting – two things I need in my life right now! My veins look good considering, and so no blood thinners for me at this point. We did talk over vascular surgeons, and if I have any swelling (none yet), redness or increase in numbness (this I have a lot of) I get to meet with one of them. My doctor made a few suggestions that I have to follow and a few crazy ones that I don’t know how on earth I could possibly attempt to try. I've been wearing my very-warm compression pantyhose every day, but I'm supposed to put them on first thing in the morning with my legs up in the air... I am sure I will need help with this as I can hardly touch my toes as it is! I am also supposed to lay on my back with my leg higher than my hip and heart as much as possible – this will limit my fantastic lazy-boy chair time and isn’t quite as “raising-kids” friendly. He also suggested being in waist deep water as much as possible – not swimming mind you, because that will increase my muscle use and blood flow, but just sitting in it for up to 6 hours a day. Yes, he said this! This cracked me up. I asked him what I was supposed to do with my kids while I’m just sitting there and not swimming while they drown each other? His next suggestion was that if I could just hang upside down the rest of my pregnancy that would be the ideal. This was a joke, meant to make the water concept not seem so far out of reach… but still… this is a bit crazy! I’ll be grateful when my Mom comes and then she can swim after my kids while I sit in the water for up to six hours and turn into some kind of prune!

Good news is I only gained 1 ½ lbs. in the last month – I was worried that without walking or exercise of any kind I would really start gaining. My record is 50 lbs with Little E and I would hate to surpass or even meet that amount again! Also I am officially in my last trimester – so yeah for me too! My baby looks great and besides my leg, the doc says I’m having just a superbly wonderful pregnancy – I’m glad somebody thinks so!