mume

I wanted to blog about this stuff a few weeks ago, but I wasn't sure if it would be funny or just depressing. But now I realize I just want to get it out there. Let the internet know my experiences. I was going to refer to each of these as "idiot occurrences" but I really hate the word idiot, and everyone has an off day so who am I to say these people are idiots when maybe their brains just weren't functioning. So instead I will refer to them as messed up medical experiences (or mumes). And at the same time I will recount the odd parts of a very painful day.

mume #1
when I woke up in the morning I was having some bad cramping. I had had some the night before, but I figured it was just part of the growing pains process. My plan was to call the nurse's hotline to find out at what point I should be concerned. I did my morning routine, woke up, used the bathroom only to find something I did not want to see. Travis runs to find out what is wrong and immediately calls the doctor but gets the answering service. His conversation went like this,

tc: "my wife is cramping and bleeding, we need to talk to the doctor to see what we need to do"
not idiot #1: "okay, how far apart are her contractions"
okay so there are 40 weeks of pregnancy, why would this lady immediately assume I am in the last one of them? weird.
tc: "no, she isn't having the baby, she is only a few weeks along"
(11.5, but that's okay baby)
not idiot #1: "Oh, okay. I'll page the doctor and have him call you."

20 minutes go by. We have dressed, tc packed an bag with a change of clothes which was so random but it actually came in handy, and we are standing in our apt waiting. tc can wait no longer, he calls the answering service again.

tc: "hello, I called 20 minutes ago about my wife who (he retells the situation) I do not think you understand the urgency of the situation we think she might be miscarrying, could you please have the doctor call us"
I understand this phone call is useless and annoying, but her reaction is disgusting
not idiot#1: LAUGHS! yes she laughed. disgusting. "I told you I would have him call you" click. yes, she hung up. disgust

so the dr says we can wait until his office is open to see him or if it is bad enough we can go to the emergency room. I had read enough of the books to know this was bad enough to go to the er. we aren't sure if we should go to the hospital where the ob works which is 20 minutes away or to the one across the street, we decide we would see if the one across the street can handle lady issues and if they can't we'll make the drive. That leads us to

mume#2:
tc and I walk into the emergency room lobby, as we are walking in, the nurse is sitting in his chair but the window is closed. i stand there crying and he is avoiding looking at us, until we knock on the window. I think we stood there for at least a minute waiting for him to acknowledge we are there. we tell him our situation and he tells us that they can admit us but they have no woman machines so if anything is wrong I'll have to be transferred. we say we'll just go to our ob's hospital (20 minutes away) and he says there is one just down the street we can go to. we tell him we are going to go to that one

not idiot #2: are you sure?

I know this is not all that bad, it was just another interesting experience among many. why would someone talk you out of doing something and when you decide not to that thing say, are you sure? weird.

mume #3:
so we get to the second er that is down the street from the first, but not the ob's hospital. we walk right in and I (crying) tell the nurse what is going on. I fill out a form, she brings me back to her desk and takes all of my information. I am pretty sure it is clear what is happening at this point. then she asks this question

not idiot #3: "is this your first pregnancy"
me: "yes"
not idiot #3: "oh, that is so great. you are going to love having children. it is just so much fun"

begin inconsolable sobbing. i really really hope my sobbing made this not idiot realizes how insensitive she was and never makes that mistake again. really really hope. not idiot #3 provides up with

mume #4:
as the doctor is explaining to us what is happening, and basically saying we're not 100% but it isn't looking good, not idiot #3 walks in, grabs a piece of paper off of the er doc's clip board and says, "thanks, I just needed that". insensitive, yes yes she was.

mume#5
right after that happened and the doctor was done with his spiel, that of course caused more uncontrollable sobbing, he tried to take my temperature. while I am bawling. I could barely open my mouth so he just muttered something about doing it later and walked off.

I actually think there were a couple more, I just cannot seem to remember them right now. Luckily the ambulance drivers were a hoot, and the care I got at Baylor Grapevine Surgical Center was amazing. The nurse there cried with me a little bit, my doctor had some great words of wisdom, the anesthesiologist saved my arms from more stabbing, and everything else went very smoothly, that I know of.

I also have to give some props to my baby brother. My mom told him, va and tc may need your help. They had to leave their car, tc hasn't eaten, and we're not sure if they'll be able to, blah blah blah... before she was even able to finish her sentence he had strapped on his shoes and was on his way to the hospital. He wasn't waiting to see if we needed help, he was going to be. What a sweet guy!!

I think I also then have to say my mom did somthing very similar. We called to let them know we were on the way to the er just to get checked out and I am pretty sure before we got off the phone with my dad she was on her way to meet us. We weren't even sure where we were going to be, but she was on her way there anyway.