In Singapore

First order of business- thanks so much for all of the supportive comments. It really means the world to me at a time when I'm feeling quite down.

So, I'm in Singapore now. I arrived late Saturday night, so that I'd have a day to get oriented before my 9 am appointment on Monday. Sunday night I had what I thought was a lovely Indian meal. About three hours later, I was face down over the toilet. I managed to stop vomiting a few hours before my appointment, so I dragged myself there anyway. The doctor was very kind, and tried to schedule a level II ultrasound immediately. Unfortunately, the hospital apparently has a hard and fast rule about not doing level II ultrasound before 20 weeks, and I was only 18w6d on Monday, so there was simply no way to get it done this week. He could get me in for an amnio the next day, though (as a favor, he normally only does amnio on Monday mornings, but since I was in from out of town, and fairly frantic, he managed to schedule me in for the next day before his first appointment). The nice thing about the behavior of the folks at the hospital here was that they were all very calm and reassuring. When they spoke of the risks of amnio, they invariably said "but this won't happen to you", which of course they can't guarantee, but was what I really wanted to hear anyway. They quoted me risks of 3 in 1000 of miscarrying as a result of the procedure. Of course we all know that we can be (and sometimes are) on the wrong end of the odds, but somehow that number sounded much better than the numbers ringing through my head, so I went ahead and scheduled the appointment. Then I went back to the hotel and vomited some more. And had explosive diarrhea. About a thousand times. Charming.

Tuesday morning I showed up bright and early for the amnio. Before the amnio, they did a "quick scan". Now I don't know if quick means something different in Singapore, or if they were just doing me a favor, since they wouldn't let me do the level II, but the scan took about 1/2 hour, and they looked at every little bit of Eggbert's body (have I mentioned that the little one finally has a temporary name?) I saw two little hands, two little feet, lots of details of the brain, four chambers of the heart, two kidneys, a perfect little spine, etc. The tech took about a million measurements, and then said that everything looked great. Whew!

Then I was called for the amnio itself. They popped me up onto a table, did another quick ultrasound just to find the baby, and then swabbed my belly with antiseptic. They didn't bother with anaesthetic, since they said that the anaesthetic hurts as much as the procedure itself. I was skeptical, but honestly, it was true. The needle going in was somewhat worse than a suprefact injection, but infinitely better than a PIO shot. Really not bad, and very quick. The only freaky thing was seeing them pull about a liter of fluid out. Well, they said it was 20 cc's, but those were 20 of the biggest cc's that I've ever seen. It was over in about 20 seconds. They made me sit for about 20 minutes before sending me home, and then instructed me to report to the ER if I had any issues at all (fluid leakage, bleeding, pain, contractions, fever). That was it. I should get preliminary results on Friday.

So, then I went home for more vomiting and diarrhea. Good times, good times. Did I mention that I foolishly told Mystery Man that he needn't come with me? Of course he SHOULD have insisted, but then again, so should I. I always think that I'm tough, but then once I've committed to a course of action discover that actually, a little help would have been very nice. So, it's been kind of a crappy (literally) few days.

The good news is that as of last night, I am no longer extruding foulness from every orifice. I've managed to keep some food down, and Eggbert is wriggling vigorously, which leads me to believe that he's none the worse for wear. Whew!

I'm scheduled to fly back to Jakarta on Friday. The doctor said that should be fine, but to take it easy for a few more days after I arrive. No worries there! The very thought of exerting any effort toward anything strikes me as fairly ludicrous at the moment. I plan to have Mystery carry me around on a litter for the next four months.