Drama isn't really my thing. Empathy is my #1 strength (do you know yours?) and drama tends to put a damper on my life. Put an empathetic person in the middle of chaos and she pretty much lays down to rock herself and cry. Someone out there must relate to this...
Anyway, the one time I do get sucked into a little drama is as it relates to health. Now, I've never been someone who is convinced that everything is going to give me cancer or kill me off at thirty-five. I choose to look at the upside as much as possible. But every once in a while I'll get sucked down into the Doctor Google rabbit hole (I know, medical friends, I KNOW!) and my entire world falls to pieces.
One example is when I was pregnant with my daughter. Everything is great. I'm one of those rare, elusive creatures that adored pregnancy. We get to the 20-week ultrasound and discover—ta-dah! It's a GIRL and I can hardly believe my ears because I was craving salt non-stop. As in, I totally would have purchased myself a lick if I'd thought of it. Not joking. Anyway, in addition to finding out the gender, we're also told that A) her head may be misshapen and B) she has a 2-vessel cord. Healthline explains, that typically, an umbilical cord has two arteries and one vein. However, some babies have just one artery and vein—like my daughter.
We're given a choice at that point to terminate the pregnancy. Not due to the cord—it's unusual but not unheard of. However the Brachycephaly was a bigger deal. The hospital only performs medical abortions up to 21 weeks so we had to decide pretty quickly. Holy $hitballs—I'm still stunned into silence when I think about the circumstances under which we had to make a decision. And this day that had held so much joy, so much promise completely crashed around us. We mumbled we needed time to think and left sad and confused and desperate to have answers. As soon as I got home, I dove down the hole that is medical science found through Google. And of course, I got sucked into the worst-case scenarios time and again until I was a huge, sobbing mess. As I gazed at the ultrasound pictures we'd been sent home with and stared and stared and stared at that little head—I simply couldn't see any problems. Her head looked perfect to me.
Needless to say everything turned out fine for us. We're crazy fortunate to have a sweet, happy, beautiful, perfectly healthy little girl. So one shining example of why it's better to avoid Google when searching for medical diagnoses.
Except I did it again pretty recently. I'll spare you the details, but I was convinced I had kidney disease or congestive heart failure.
Anyway, the one time I do get sucked into a little drama is as it relates to health. Now, I've never been someone who is convinced that everything is going to give me cancer or kill me off at thirty-five. I choose to look at the upside as much as possible. But every once in a while I'll get sucked down into the Doctor Google rabbit hole (I know, medical friends, I KNOW!) and my entire world falls to pieces.
One example is when I was pregnant with my daughter. Everything is great. I'm one of those rare, elusive creatures that adored pregnancy. We get to the 20-week ultrasound and discover—ta-dah! It's a GIRL and I can hardly believe my ears because I was craving salt non-stop. As in, I totally would have purchased myself a lick if I'd thought of it. Not joking. Anyway, in addition to finding out the gender, we're also told that A) her head may be misshapen and B) she has a 2-vessel cord. Healthline explains, that typically, an umbilical cord has two arteries and one vein. However, some babies have just one artery and vein—like my daughter.
We're given a choice at that point to terminate the pregnancy. Not due to the cord—it's unusual but not unheard of. However the Brachycephaly was a bigger deal. The hospital only performs medical abortions up to 21 weeks so we had to decide pretty quickly. Holy $hitballs—I'm still stunned into silence when I think about the circumstances under which we had to make a decision. And this day that had held so much joy, so much promise completely crashed around us. We mumbled we needed time to think and left sad and confused and desperate to have answers. As soon as I got home, I dove down the hole that is medical science found through Google. And of course, I got sucked into the worst-case scenarios time and again until I was a huge, sobbing mess. As I gazed at the ultrasound pictures we'd been sent home with and stared and stared and stared at that little head—I simply couldn't see any problems. Her head looked perfect to me.
Needless to say everything turned out fine for us. We're crazy fortunate to have a sweet, happy, beautiful, perfectly healthy little girl. So one shining example of why it's better to avoid Google when searching for medical diagnoses.
Except I did it again pretty recently. I'll spare you the details, but I was convinced I had kidney disease or congestive heart failure.