Swollen Feet, Lets Hit Your Stomach, And Its A BOY!

Again it has been a very long time since my last post… But I find myself only wanting to blog about interesting things, I don’t want to bore my readers… So I end up analysing each little story and come to the conclusion that it’s not interesting enough… And after a while you kind of get immune to the crazy stuff that happens in Egypt…

Since the last post I went on a weekend trip to Edinburgh with my mum and sister, then to Norway for an ultrasound, then came back to Egypt for a night and left the next morning to Athens. Athens was so much fun, it was a couples trip with my sister and her boyfriend and me and my husband! Now flying for me is not a problem, I love it, but I don’t recommend 7 flights in the space of 2 weeks… My feet swelled up like gigantic balloons… I was so scared that my skin was going to rip and feet would explode.. Pretty gross, I know, BUT YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN MY FEET! I have never seen anything like it! Just imagine how sexy I looked with my beach dress on, strolling along the greek islands with elephant size feet plonking on the ground, with some sandals I couldn’t even close! Anyways I thank God that was the only pregnancy issue I had during my holiday… Except for, if I may complain a little bit more, that MANY of the toilets in Greece did not have toilet seats… This is very annoying for a woman who is pregnant, meaning front heavy and NOT good in balancing, BUT ALSO has huge elephant balloon feet… Now you might think that if my feet were so big, they would give me better support, but the swelling was actually on the top and therefore my support area remained the same! Dont worry I will show you a picture, keep in mind the picture doesn’t show the full volume to which my feet exploded to!…

So lets talk about something more interesting than big feet! On my little trip to Norway I did an ultrasound. As I previously mentioned I will give birth in Norway and have tried to have all mayor appointments in Norway. So I flew to Norway to have the main ultrasound, check that everything was okey and find out the sex of the baby! YEAH finally find out what colour cute baby clothes I can get… The ultrasound woman in Norway was very thorough… She measured everything and thank God the baby was healthy… Now the baby was positioned facing my back, so we couldn’t get a profile view of the face. We also didn’t find out the sex of the baby because the umbilical cord was in between the legs… The ultrasound woman did wait a while to see if the baby moved, but no luck… This meant I would have to go to do an ultrasound in Egypt to find out the sexy of the baby! DANANANANA DANANANANA, UH OH… What if they tell us the wrong sex… I’ve unfortunately heard a lot of stories about this… My husbands mum was even told that the second child was a girl until he came out a boy, whoooops!

Anyways we thought we might aswell try an ultrasound here, and in worst case I, myself have to analyse the photos and compare them to other baby ultrasounds on the internet and guess the sex! I swear in Egypt you have to mayor in EVERYTHING, because nobody in the professional world knows anything! Okey yeah that was a bit vague, but you know what I mean… If a doctor tells me that walking upstairs is dangerous while pregnant, then it kinda makes me think about her degree, where did she buy it?! So we went to ultrasound place that one of my husbands friends had been to before… The place was clean, THANK GOD, and the woman spoke okey english… The woman started the ultrasound and the baby was lying in the same position as last time, with its back to us… So she tells me to cough!??! Confused I cough, and she tells me to cough again much harder… Then she says unfortunately we can’t see the profile of the babies face, so im just going to push it to face us, the coughing didn’t work… WAIT WHAT? Doooosh, and she hits me in the stomach with the ultrasound wand… OUCH… That was not comfortable… Doooosh, im trying to get the baby to move its face.. OKEY OKEY OKEY WOMAN! I have a baby in my stomach, not an ulcer or something you can hit to make it move.. I don’t care about the babies face, I mean what you going to tell me: Oh look the baby has your nose and your husbands lips!??! I don’t care… Leave my baby alone, AND my stomach… I have never heard of a doctor pushing a pregnant woman in the stomach with an ultrasound wand to see the profile of the baby… So awkwardly the ultrasound woman moves on to find out the sex of the baby…

ITS A BOY!!! (According to a baby/pregnant woman beating ultrasound doctor!)

Now yes, I did analyse the ultrasound photos and I also think it might be a boy… When I left the hospital in Norway after my ultrasound, they gave me 4 pictures and a paper with all the baby info… When I left this Egyptian doctors office, I was given a folder, with 5 sheets of papers with info, 12 photos of the baby in different positions (Before and after hitting me in the stomach!), AND A CD!!! Yes I felt like I had been to a theme park and collected souvenirs… So yeah, that was an interesting experience…

Now in a few days im going to a check-up at the doctor’s office… I was told that I should do this once a month until closer to the birth, just the usual blood tests, and blood pressure stuff, oh and im due to have the glucose test, for diabetes… This put me in a sticky dilemma… Do I just go to any doctor nearby and do these tests and hope everything is okey… I mean if the doctor misreads any of the tests it could be pretty serious.. If I for example have gestational diabetes will the doctor tell me, or will she understand that the tests show that I have it… Yeah it’s just a small check-up to make sure everything is okey, but in the end its the small check-ups that show you something might be wrong… Well I decided that its once a month so I might aswell do it properly in a good hospital.. So I called the hospital Dar-el-Fouad, which is supposed to be the best hospital in AFRICA (It says that on their website, like to brag much?). Let me tell you how this phone call went.. again reminding you its THE BEST hospital in AFRICA (A WHOLE CONTINENT):

Ring ring

Person 1: Bla bla bla dar el fouad, bla bla (in arabic)

Me: Hi, do you speak english?

Person 1: One moment…

Music

Person 2: Bla bla bla (Arabic)

Me: Hi, do you speak english?

Person 2: Yes…

Me: I would like to book an appointment for a pregnancy check-up…

Person 2: Okey, you know the problem?

Me: What? No I don’t have a problem, it’s just a routine check…

Person 2: Problem?! (Woman in the back, nooo nooo no problem…) One minute…

Music

Person 3: Hello, can I help you?

Me: I would like to book (A FREAKING) appointment for a pregnancy check-up…

Person 3: You know the programme?

Me: Ummm no what is the programme?

Person 3: You have to fast for 12 hours, blood test, urine test, x-ray of your brain, x-ray of your stomach and uterus, x-ray of your lungs and full body check-up and appointment with gynaecologist..

Me: Ummm, I AM PREGNANT and want to book an appointment for a check..

Person 3: NOOOOOOOO you cannot do this programme when you are pregnant, it is sooo dangerous for the baby… Are you crazy?

Me: (Me, crazy? HOW ABOUT finding someone who freaking understands english, before you MAKE me crazy!) I am pregnant and need to see a doctor and make blood test to check that I am healthy and EVERYTHING OK… UNDERSTAND?!

Person 3: One minute…

Music

Person 4: bla bla bla (Arabic AGAIN)

Me: I need an appointment with a doctor (SO HELP ME GOD PLEASE!!!) because I am pregnant…

Person 4: Okey then you must see a gynaecologist…

Me: Okey, just give me an appointment…

Person 4: One minute…

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Person 5: bla bla bla (Arabic… In case I forgot I was in Egypt)

Me: Appointment with gynecologist…

Person 5: Now?

Me: NOOOOOOO, on the 25 May, pleeeeease!

Person 5: okey, with who?

Me: ANYONE!

Person 5: What time?

Me: ANY FREAKING TIME!

Person 5: Okey… With Mr Ahmed okey?

Me: Mr. Ahmed sounds perfect…

Person 5: just minute…

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Person 6: What is your name?

Me: Kristine

Person 6: Phone number?

Me: XXXXXXX333

Person 6: 3 WHAT?

Me: 3 3 3

Person 6: 3 and then what?

Me: Just three 3s…

Person 6: Address?

Me: Rehab

Person 6: Okey appointment on saturday with Mr. Ahmed.. Can we try your mobile number again?

Me: xxxxxxx333

Person 6: 3 What?

Me: 3 3 3

Person 6: okay, appointment okey… see you soon..

Me: So appointment on the 25th May?

Person 6: Bye ma salam…. HUNG UP!!!!

So as you can see it’s not that easy booking an appointment in Africa’s best hospital… It only takes 6 DIFFERENT people to book an appointment! I had to perfect their english because nobody would understand anything if I wrote the exact words they said.. When they told me to wait a minute please they said ‘just please’! I also got my husband to call them back to check the appointment was on the correct day, because the 25th is not a saturday! The appointment had been booked on the 24th and the mobile number was wrong, and my name was wrong… So the little information I gave ended up wrong in the system! Now lets see how that amazing appointment with Mr. Ahmed goes!

Here are some photos of my recent trip to Athens: