The day the strip turned blue, well sorta weeks 1-5

Alright, you guys asked so here you go, this is the first post in a series I will write about pregnancy. This will include my experiences, my personal story, but also just my general experience being pregnant and having a baby overseas.

So what better place to start then the beginning. The day they call, the day the strip turned blue, though I would like to add I never got any strip, I feel left out.

Let me start by saying I tried to keep this post TMI free, but well you know pregnancy is the only time we get to use genitalia words with strangers, so bear with me :P

So lets take a drive down memory lane shall we. Well this Journey all began toward the end of march. It all began with s DR. Named Christ. No, no, I know what you are thinking this time I don't mean Jesus. I mean that my OBGYN has the name Christ. I know kinda different right.

Anyway, back on point. Late March I went for a visit to the Frauenarzt. I wanted to have a pre conception check up, but also talk to her about the fact that in over a year I had not conceived. In Germany the one year mark is the border for when they start offering medical assistance, which by the way is covered by the krankenkasse, so stop insulting social medicine already will ya.

So I had a visit with Christ, hehe, sorry I had too, and she told me to come in during my next cycle and we would start by testing the hormone levels mid cycle and that would be a starting point to see if I had any issues hormonally that were affecting my ability to conceive. Well that appointment never happened. And here is the big TMI ALERT, you know the funny thing, assuming statistics and what not are right I conceived that day. Yes the day I went to visit Christ. So it is a small joke about Christ in the guiding light in our home. No harm, no fowl, I love Jesus, but you have to admit the humor in this situation.

So back on track, obviously I did not know any of this at the time. We had been trying for months. We had months with late cycles, no cycles, punctual cycles, so I stopped making assumptions and building my hope anytime it varied. So when it would turn out to be late again I did not think twice.

Well to tell you the truth I did, but I didn't know it at the time. I did not have the magical epiphany so many women talk about, because I had been so certain before. The closest thing I had was a feeling, I told my mom I felt different. But I am still not convinced it was not wishful thinking as I had been down that road before.

Well around the time my cycle was due I developed a nasty skin infection. NEXT TMI ALERT. Of all places on my behind, yes I admit it. Man I couldn't even sit it was bad. Well unlike the US the GP doctors in Germany do not do lancing. So I was given a referral to a surgeons office. Not for surgery, that is just where they do it, on an outpatient basis. So I went by myself, hubby dropped me off and went back to work, simple enough right, a small incision drain and go home. Yeah no, because of where the owie was the doctor could not do it out patient. He said there is too much risk of reinfection that can turn into staph, or infect other areas that are much worse. So he said you Rena need to go to the hospital and have actual surgery. AHHHHH!!!! So I called hubby in tears, woke my mom up in the middle of the night, to tell them I had to go to the hospital. Hubby got the rest of the day off work and we drove immediately to the hospital.

So we go in and I have to meat with a surgeon who has to again poke and prod. Through discussion it comes up I have had a fever and all the sudden this outpatient surgery has to be inpatient and I may have to stay overnight and get meds via IV. Well before we can jump the gun they have to run a full blood panel. Hubby then mentions that my cycle is irregular and I am late. So they say they will do a urine pregnancy test as well.

So they take blood and urine and we wait, and we wait, I mean we really wait like 2 hours, finally they get the first half of the results, mind you I am sitting on a huge owe on my bum, not happy I am. Then they discover the lab forgot the pregnancy test after calling down. Are you kidding me, I really thought I might go nuts on the nurses. So we wait again. Well about 3 hours later they got the results and called us back into the office.

Well you already know what those results said.

They walked us back into the doctors room, and the nurse casually said the test was positive. I remember a bit of shock, or being stunned, still not sure if I should accept it at face value, as it was only a urine test. I remember Toni looked at me wide eyes and smiling and we hugged. We were left for a few minutes alone to wait for the doctor. 

The next few minutes with the dr were a laugh. He was a very cross looking Russian dr named Sergei. When I asked him how thorough the urine tests were he responded, 'Look lady I only know what paper say, paper say positive, positive no surgery", lol. I was told to go visit and OBGYN and ask her opinion on how to proceed. On the way out I asked for a copy of the results and they were happy to give it to me. Everyone was smiling, I take it its not a common occurrence in the office. And you know what, I think even Sergei cracked a smile. 

So we called the Gynocologist and were given a appointment two days later. Normally one would wait longer, but since my situation involved a possible surgery I was squeezed in. So I went on Friday excited to find out if the results were accurate,  well the answers are never that simple in Deutschland.

So first things first they confirm pregnancies visually here. So she started by doing a internal ultra sound. I use the phrase internal as not to traumatize my father or brothers too much, but you get the drift. On the screen you could see just a faint flicker, but even then she would say only it looks good for your babywunsch (baby wish) but no confirmation. She then drew blood to test for the growth hormone. 

I then came back 3 days later at which point she said the levels were heightened, but still no confirmation, she needed a second blood draw as a point of reference. Needless to say, I sure got poked by a lot of needles in those 2 weeks. I was once again sent home and told to come back 5 days later.

The next appointment fell on April 23, at 5 weeks + 5 days. Once again she did an ultrasound but this time we saw this.

She also got the results back that the growth hormone was increasing. It was then that she finally confirmed pregnancy. I had already told my family, but we had all waited on that confirmation. A lot of it is a blur now and I wish I had written it down sooner. Best I can recall Toni was not at that appointment, I would have told him on the phone when I called for him to pick me up. I wish I could remember.

I was given my prenatal vitamins and told to come back in 4 weeks time. There was no wealth of information. I remember asking a few questions about if there are any changes I should make, ad asking a few things I had read in books about cold cuts, but it was just left at that. There has never been a whole lot of extra communication with the OBGYN it has always been very straight forth in and out, so to say.

And for all of you wondering about my lovely skin infection, well the OBGYN said it was not her call, so I ended up back at the home dr after 4 visits in 1 week to various dr's, and she tried a homeopathic medication which worked. So in the end there was no surgery, yay. 

So that is the story of the first 5 weeks of my pregnancy.

As far as physical symptoms, I never noticed anything until at least 2 weeks after I knew I was pregnant say around 7 weeks. I had none of the possible symptoms, no break through bleeding, no morning sickness, I really had not felt any different.

So I hope that answers some questions about that part of my pregnancy and my experience finding out I was pregnant in Germany.

A part of me wishes I had the test strip that turned blue, and that chance to plan a exciting way of telling Toni, but in the end, I can't think of anyone else I would have rather had in the room with me that day. And in all honesty, how many other people can say they were impregnated after a visit to a dr named christ who may or may not have had the guiding light. And how many got told they were pregnant by a very pissed of Russian names Sergei who had just checked their bum. I can tell you one thing for sure, my life is never short on laughter.