Diagnosis!

In my post a couple of weeks ago I said to stay tuned for a diagnosis of what's causing my pain, and now I finally have some answers to report!

First of all - the placenta moved up!!  Woohoo!  So we don't have to have a required c-section for that reason anymore and we can proceed normally.  Yay!

And the second good news is that I don't have gallstones!!  YESSSS!!!!  I was starting to really stress about that because they had said I'd have to have surgery when the baby is six weeks old, and that would've interfered with breast feeding and getting my body back to normal and all kinds of things.  So I'm SO relieved about that!!

Turns out I do have hydronephrosis, which is basically swollen kidneys (it's my right kidney).  So it's very painful, but it can be relieved when pressure is lightened.  It helps explain so much!  That's why resting helps SO much, and why I have no appetite, and why it hurts to walk around for very long, ...  Also everything I've read about what helps with hydronephrosis is what's been helping me the most (baths, lying on the opposite side of your affected kidney, etc).  Sometimes you can get a stent put in, but they don't do that as often for pregnant women because it tends to cause more problems than it solves, so I'm not doing that.  So this all makes sense to me and it's great to have an answer that fits!

The best parts about that diagnosis is that
1. it doesn't hurt the baby at all except in extreme cases where you have to deliver early - but that's not my situation,
2. I can start doing a little more as long as I stop and rest when the pain gets bad,
3. this resolves itself after the birth so no surgery or anything like that is needed (yay!), and
4. there is no indication that having this once means you're more or less likely to have it in future pregnancies (whew!).

So I'm feeling good about what's going on.  And my ligament pain has gotten a lot better so that CONSTANT pain is gone finally and downgraded to occasional pain.  So I feel like my pregnancy is becoming more and more normal!  I'm trying not to be too resentful that my 2nd trimester was the worst when most people say that's when you feel the best... I feel robbed of that 2nd trimester bliss people talk about!  Oh well :)  Only a couple more weeks until my 3rd trimester starts!  Crazy!  And I'm already starting to understand what people are talking about when it comes to 3rd trimester because I am u-n-c-o-m-f-o-r-t-a-b-l-e!!!!  But anyway, like I said, it's so great to have that constant awful pain lessen to a tolerable point.  It's nice to feel normal, even if normal is uncomfortable!  :)  I'm starting to think the rest of this pregnancy may just go okay.  Maybe we'll have a March baby after all???  We'll see!  :)