Pain in the lower left part of my belly.

Pain so severe I had to roll from my back to my side to get a little relief.

�Gas?� I thought. �No. I never get gas like that.�

�Constipation?� I pondered. �No, I�ve been totally jammin� on the fiber. There�s no way it�s constipation.�

�Hmm. That leaves � nothing benign. YIKES!�

I didn�t say anything to Blue this morning about the pain, because I thought, �Well, whatever it is will probably go away.� Plus, I felt the baby kick around a bit, so I knew she was still alive. (Yes, this was my first thought �having pain? Check to see if the baby is alive.)

It got worse in the shower. Depending on how I would stand or bend, the pain would go shooting across my abdomen or down my right leg.

By the time I was in the car and driving to work, I thought I might simply die from the pain. I called Blue on the cell phone. �Just want you to know that if I call you in a few hours and tell you I�m headed to the OB�s office, this is why �� as I explained the pain. �If it doesn�t go away by noon, I�m calling.�

�Why don�t you just call now?� he said, concern in his voice.

�They�re not open yet � it�s only 8:15 �� I replied.

�Yes they are. We�ve had 7:30 and 7:45 appointments before �� he said.

�Oh yeah, I guess you�re right. I don�t know, I wasn�t thinking straight. Okay, I�ll call.�

I got off the phone with Blue and called and left a message for my OB�s nurse � I explained the pain (in nursey terms � �a stabbing right lower quadrant pain, registering about an 8 or 9 on a 1-10 scale, radiating down my leg and across my abdomen � alleviated by positioning � aggravated by movement ��) and then asked them to call me back.

Within an hour my cell phone rang. It was my nurse. Although I hadn�t, yet, died from the pain, I was feeling close to death. I think I saw parts of my childhood dancing before my eyes.

I explained the pain.

�Oh, that�s round ligament pain,� she said in a very assured tone of voice.

�No, no,� I replied. �I�ve had round ligament pain. That was nothing. This feels like a hot knife repeatedly slicing into my abdomen on the lower right-hand side. This is take-my-breath-away-pain.�

�Yep!� She cheerfully responded. �That�s round ligament pain. You�re stretching out. The key is that you can alleviate the pain by position � if you push on your abdomen and push up on your uterus where it hurts, does that help?�

I pushed. I paused. �Yes.�

�Then that�s definitely round ligament pain � nothing to worry about.�

�No one ever told me it would be like this!� I must�ve sounded frustrated.

�Oh, well, yeah � I guess you don�t need to know that until you need to know it. Not everyone gets it so bad. In fact, what I would really recommend for you is that you pick up one of those maternity support belts and try it out. Some women get great relief from those.�

�Okay, well, uh � thanks for letting me know it was nothing serious.� I said.

�Always call when you have questions or doubts,� she replied cheerfully.

�

A maternity support belt.

I�ve seen those in maternity stores and I have scoffed at them. �Who would need one of those?!� I thought to myself. �That�s absolutely ridiculous! Maybe if you�re 50 pounds overweight, you might have trouble with support � but normal people � they don�t need those!�

The pain was so severe that I begged Blue to take me shopping tonight at Babies R Us (where I had seen them before) to buy one, ASAP. (�Did you purchase this off of a registry?� the checkout girl asked. �Um, no.� �Do you need a gift receipt?� she asked. �No,� I laughed.)

And you know what?

I�ll be durned.

I have less pain already.

I still have an achey pain in my right-hand side. But I don�t have the sharp, stabbing, Dear-God-in-Heaven-Take-Me-Now pain that I had earlier today.