PREGNANCY DURING THE PANDEMIC PART 1

By Sha: Amsterdam, the Netherlands 

 I just got back to the Netherlands after my vacation in Zanzibar (see my blog here). My office announced that we will be working from home until further notice. There is no lock down yet, our prime minister said that the Netherlands will enforce an "intelligent lock down". Try to stay at home as much as possible and try to keep an appropriate amount of distance from each other when in public places. There is no face mask requirement or social distancing in place. 

I was pregnant, I called my OB/GYN to make an appointment. We calculated how far along I might be and scheduled an appointment for over 3 weeks. I wasn't feeling very well, but it wasn't because of my pregnancy it was due to an insect bite on my arm. 

While I was in Zanzibar, I sprayed anti-insect spray continuously on me and my son. I hate mosquito bites. Zanzibar is not a malaria zone, but mosquito bites alone are enough to drive me crazy. But, like I mentioned in my last blog, the day before we checked out I found out I was pregnant (the thought alone still makes me chuckle). On the bottle it clearly says: "Do not use while pregnant" and you have to listen to the bottle! So, I stopped using it for the last two days that we were in Zanzibar, and of course I got bit. 

Back in the Netherlands, that insect bite itched insanely. I tried not to itch but I couldn’t help myself. Within a couple of days I had a full-blown infected insect bite/cyst. I called my general practitioner, but due to the COVID-19 restrictions I wasn’t allowed to visit her office. We could only communicate through the online portal. I mentioned that I'm pregnant, I sent pictures of the bite and she prescribed an antibiotic cream. I used it for 3 days and it didn't work. The pain was killing me. It's not just the area around the cyst that hurts, my whole body was aching. I felt sick and feverish, I tried going to the emergency room, but they didn’t even let me into the hospital. I had to call the emergency number first and if they thought I needed to see a doctor they would make an appointment with the emergency room. 

The lady on the other end of the emergency number didn’t  think it was necessary. Talk to your general practitioner was her advice. I spoke to her and she prescribed an antibiotic in liquid form. I started using this, and the cyst was healing. Unfortunately, something else was also going on, I started to have vaginal bleeding. It wasn't clear red  so my OB/GYN said no need to be alarmed. I should wait and inform her immediately if the blood becomes clear red. 

A couple of days later, the blood was red. I contacted my OB/GYN and had an ultrasound, my uterus was empty. I had miscarried once again. 

My heart was, once again, broken. 

I hear crying, gotta run.