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January 12, 2011

A little bit of drama in my life

For the past couple of weeks, and especially for the past few days, I have been raving about how wonderful, and just plain "normal" this stage in the pregnancy has been.  I'm not light headed or nauseous, my hormones are nice and balanced, I'm not bloated or full feeling even though my stomach is getting bigger, and my boobs are no longer tender (even though they are also getting bigger!).  Unless I look down to be reminded that I no longer have a waist line, or unless I feel the baby kick (which is heaven, by the way), I don't even feel pregnant.  This really helps time to fly right on by.

So, this morning on the way to work, I had myself a little drama.  It was pretty cold out this morning, a tad below freezing, and there was residual ice on the roads from a little winter storm the day before.  I generally start off freezing.  The air in the car is cold, the steering wheel is cold, I'm bundled up, shivering.  Eventually the air on full blast is too much and I get a little hot and need to make an adjustment.  Usually that just means turning the heat down and maybe taking my gloves off.  This morning, about 5 miles from work, I got really stuffy and needed to remedy that immediately.  I turned the heat down and took my gloves off.  I turned left onto Old Oxford Rd., about 4 miles from work.  I continued to feel particularly restricted in my coat (happens in general when you've got baby belly and a scarf crammed in there) and I got increasingly hot.  I started to unbutton my jacket and was in a frenzy to get my thick scarf off of the back of my neck.  My vision was starting to get a little blurry, and at first I thought it was my imagination.  I would blink real hard and try to refocus my vision on the two lane country road.  I was reaching for my phone to call Matt while I continued to unbutton my jacket.  In hindsight this was not the smartest move on my part, but while I didn't want to overreact, I did want to be on the phone with someone in case something happened.  Matt didn't answer, thank goodness.  By the time I ended that call I realized I was definitely losing my vision, and fast.  My whole face and neck got clammy and I was running out of time to find a place to pull over.  I could tell that there weren't shoulders without ditches or trees, nor were there driveways or roads to my right.  Not even sure if I was 100% in the correct lane at this point, I found a left turn and took it.  I felt like I had very little time left to get my car off of the road and call 911.  Right after taking my left turn I saw that the left shoulder was flat (whereas the right shoulder once again welcomed a ditch followed by trees).  I crossed the lane of oncoming traffic, pulled onto the shoulder, stopped, and managed to dial 911 (and get my scarf off!) in time.  I put on my hazards, and wasn't positive my whole car was off of the road, but I knew most of it was, and people were driving pretty carefully in general because of potential ice patches.

While I was on the phone with the 911 operator my vision came back and I started to feel better.  He waited on the phone with me until a fire truck showed up followed by paramedics.  They took some of my vitals and determined that my blood glucose level was lower than it should be, considering I had eaten breakfast not too long ago.  My blood glucose level read 70, and they said they would expect to see it around 110 or 120.  They took my pulse, and my blood pressure, and sat with me for about 20 minutes.  I definitely felt better and felt like I could get in to work.  They escorted me right to my parking spot.  Once I got into the office it took a couple of hours of feeling lightheaded and switching between feeling clammy and having chills, but everything eventually balanced out.

I'm grateful that I made it through this safely.  I'm thankful that I have had this warning sign and can hopefully recognize it quicker if there is a next time.   Oh what a day :)

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