What's the point?

It's a boy! :) After a week chock full o' doctors appointments (endo on Monday, pediatric cardiologist on Wednesday, perinatologist this morning) the baby is looking fine and dandy. We've decided to name him Jason and the nursery is coming together nicely. I'm so excited . . . but at the same time I'm going through a strangely boring period of the pregnancy. I guess I'm not big enough to be super uncomfortable yet.

My blood sugars were less than great last week, but my endo cleared things up for me. I went in with a week's worth of charts and a list of suggested changes, all of which she agreed with - but I let her do the math. Now my I:C ratios have me staring in shock when the bolus wizard calculates a dose, but I was prepared for this by years of community participation at Diabetic Mommy. I'm down to 1:5 at breakfast and 1:7 the rest of the day - holy cow! She said to expect the insulin resistance to ramp up and up from this point on. In the meantime it feels REALLY strange to take 10 units of insulin for breakfast, when I usually take 2 . . . but I can't argue with the numbers this week. They've been awesome. My most recent A1C was 5.4, up from the 4.8 but still great in my opinion.

We had a fetal echo cardiogram performed to check for any defects in Jason's heart. The tech and the cardiologist both asked me why I was there with a quizzical look on their faces - and although my response of "I have Type I diabetes" seemed explanation enough, the doc still seemed a little nonplussed as to what the fuss was about. She said, "His heart looks perfect," and sent me on my way.

Today was a routine check-up at the high risk OB's. I'm going twice a month now (and at 32 weeks will go twice a week, ouch) . . . I had the gall to ask the doc what the purpose of the visit was, and she seemed a little put out and didn't answer me right away. "You are just checking up on things then, I guess?" I offered, and she said yes. Ooooohkay. So I take a two hour chunk out of my day to tell her things I could tell her over the phone in 2 minutes (how are my sugars, what is your A1C) - and she gave the baby only a cursory glance on the ultrasound screen. "Look, there is his heart beating." Yeah lady, I know, I stared at his heart beating for 35 minutes yesterday. I could've told her he was still alive as he was kicking me at that very moment, and she didn't take the time to see if there was anything else to note besides his heart.

So, I'm trying to take away what is important and what isn't from my first experience as a pregnant Type I. I think the AFP and nuchal translucency tests are worthwhile. I think the echo cardiogram was worth it, kinda, although after getting an all clear at my Level II ultrasound it did seem redundant. I'm not sure that I will be running to a high risk practice with my second child, though - I feel like my doctors are honestly bored with me and don't spend very much time with me at all, even though this is my first pregnancy. They look, they see nothing to alarm them, and they shoo me out of the door. Next time I may try to go with a single OB - and let him/her refer me to a peri as needed.

I'm very relieved that thus far my diabetes hasn't had an impact on Jason, but I am a little disenchanted with the high risk fuss. I'm pouring out a lot of money in copays on people that ask me why I'm there (shouldn't they know?), or expect a lot out of me (do this do that wait an hour to be seen by me just to have me ask what's your A1C), but don't give a heck of a lot back (okay well, we're done here, bye).