Well, this morning was the early pregnancy information session at the hospital. But first I had to get my labels printed. They had told me to come about 15 minutes before the session would start, but as I'm always (way too) early, I was there 30 minutes before. No line, so that was good. Before they could make the labels, they had to start a file in my name (so they apparently didn't do anything with the info I gave them the day I registered...?!) and then I got a nice sheet with 30 tiny labels which include a bar code, my name, my DOB and file number.
Apparently these labels are the entry ticket to anything that has to do with checkups, prenatal preparatory sessions, etc. within the OB department. At each appointment you have to give a label and then they charge it to the state-run insurance. So my first label was for the midwife who held the presentation... I must admit that the French health care system doesn't stop to amaze me and it's quite unbelievable sometimes that it in fact runs pretty smoothly.
On to the meeting room. At 9:45am about half the room was full. Then more people came in, some with, some without labels - apparently the line downstairs for printing the labels had become rather long. The midwife tried to start around 9:55am - even more people came in - there were not enough chairs. Attending husbands were asked to bring in more chairs. People kept coming in (you did not need to register for the session). At 10:15am a woman came in telling that there was still a whole group downstairs waiting for their labels. The midwife told her to go and get them so she could finally really start. Still, even after that people kept coming in (I think the last ones arrived around 11am). The room was way too full.
Apart from this, the session was quite informative, but I did wonder if I could not have gotten the same information in 10 minutes from a doctor, nurse or midwife affiliated with the hospital, instead of spending more than two hours in an overcrowded room...
I initially thought that after this session I would have the afternoon off so I could finally get some administrative and household stuff done. But this was not the case. As the burning sensation around my girlie parts (see two posts back) had not gone away yet, I decided I should call my OB, because just reading books and the internet only made me worry too much. Had to wait until after 2pm, because of course no-one here in France is reachable between 12 and 2, not to be disturbed while having their nice and lengthy lunches. Got hold of the secretary at 2.20pm, she put me through to the OB (replacement) who said she would need to see me and might have an opening today, so she transferred me back to the secretary: the 2.45pm appointment had just canceled, so, did I live far from their office...?
I took the appointment, found a city bike (free bike system), flew downhill, and was at the office at 2.42pm. Didn't have to wait more than two minutes. OB asked me what exactly my symptoms were, which is always a nice challenge to try to explain in French - I did look up some words in the dictionary before I called, but forgot the word for itch again, as it is so weird (demangeaison), but luckily she understood what I wanted to say.
So after the little chat, on to the stirrups. She couldn't detect any cut like my OB had seen last week, but said that she saw a lot of white thick discharge, so it must be a yeast infection. But to me that discharge looked just like the remains of the progesterone suppositories, which I told her, so now she wasn't sure anymore. But she said it looked a little reddish too and the itching was pretty bad after she removed the speculum, so she did give me a prescription for something against a yeast infection (a vaginal capsule I have to take tonight). Maybe it is actually caused by the fact that I've been putting in progesterone suppositories for 11 weeks now...? Luckily only five more days of that left.
She also ordered me to go to a lab to have my urine tested for infection, preferably today, so we would have the results before I leave for Holland this weekend. So once I was out the door, I called the lab to see if I could come still come by. Yes, but for I would need to wait 2 hours since last bathroom visit, so had to go there around 5pm.
So I went to the pharmacy first to get the prescription (including a cream to sooth the itching) and then went back home. Took a nap for about 40 minutes. Got up, got another city bike and rode to the lab (slightly uphill this time). Results will be back tomorrow afternoon. Pfff...
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