38 week appointment

On Thursday afternoon I should have had my 38 week appointment. I got a call from my OB office (about 20 minutes before leaving the house) to say that my OB wasn't there. Ugh! I had a few questions I wanted to ask her, and I was hoping to find out the status of my cervix too (just out of curiosity). Anyway, since I was supposed to have another NST as well as my appointment, they said I could have the NST done at the hospital instead. We had to go to the OB office to collect the script for that, and then we went to the hospital.

We waited about half an hour to be seen, which isn't bad really! My doctor actually asked for a NST and a biophysical profile (BPP). I think she hadn't seen the report from the BPP I had on Monday - everything was fine at that ultrasound, so I don't think she would have sent me for another if she'd seen the report, but I couldn't exactly find anything out at that point.

Anyway, the baby did great on the NST and then we went to ultrasound for the BPP. Baby scored 8/8, so that's awesome! :) After that we were taken back to L&D and waited to be sent home. Altogether we were in the hospital for about 2 and a half hours, which we weren't exactly planning on, but then again sometimes at the OB office we've waited ages too, and had fewer things done! It was nice to know everything was still going well, of course. Maybe my OB thought that since we were already having to go to the hospital, I might as well have another BPP? I don't know, really. I know we'll be getting another bill from the hospital, though!

I could have rescheduled my OB appointment, but since I already have my next 2 set up and they're weekly, I didn't think there was much point. My OB office is closed Friday afternoon, and I don't think they would have been able to get me in for a routine appointment much earlier than Thursday anyway. If anything happens in the meantime I'll either call my OB or go to L&D. I just hope that I'm able to see her on Thursday as planned, because I'll be 39 weeks then and I really need to know the answers to these questions!

The main question is whether I can even get an epidural if needed, because I have a syrinx in my spine. It's a fluid sac in my spinal cord, which was an incidental finding on an MRI scan I had more than 4 years ago. I've googled the question and it seems as though there's conflicting information out there. I wasn't planning on getting an epidural anyway, and honestly since the syrinx doesn't cause me any problems (knock on wood) and has probably been there my whole life, I don't really think about it! It's in my thoracic spine so I didn't think it would cause any issues if I did get an epidural, but I'd like to know for sure of course. I certainly don't want to cause any issues with something that's currently asymptomatic! I'm sure my OB will probably want to consult with an anesthesiologist, so I don't want to wait until I'm in labor to ask this! Hopefully Thursday my appointment will happen as planned. Fingers crossed!! :)