The day that changed my life forever: Part One

It was the morning of March 10 2008, I had a full day of fun activities ahead of me. First thing that morning I had my 37 week prenatal check up at 9 am. After my appointment I had made plans with my Mom to pick her up, do a little shopping, lunch and then head back to my house to set up all the wonderful gifts I had received the week before at my baby shower.

This is me 36 week pregnant at my baby shower. I was very swollen from the preeclampsia.

I got ready as normal and headed to the OBGYN’s office. I waited the normal wait and then went through the normal routine, weighed in (192 pounds, my “super skinny” weight is 160 and my pre-preggo weight was 170), had my blood pressure taken, and then waited to be seen by the doctor. This was the first time I would be meeting this doctor, Dr. H **.

Since the office was three doctors and a nurse practitioner, I saw the nurse practitioner most of the time and at least once a month I would have one appointment with one of the OBGYN. And then in the last four weeks of pregnancy I would only see the OBGYNs. Up until this point I had met one that was a female doctor, Dr. Y**.  I had seen her on several appointments including an extra one when I came in because I couldn’t feel Boog move (all the others I went to the hospital). I had mostly been seen by Dr. D**, one of the male OBGYNs. I didn’t care for his bed side manner, and had been keeping my fingers crossed that he wouldn’t be the one to deliver my son ( he was the one that had seen me and dismissed my concerns on a regular basis, Dr Y did too, but I didn’t see her nearly as often).

Back to March 10^th….while waiting the doctor’s assistant came in and took my blood pressure again. After she was done she asked me to lie down while I waited. I thought it was strange, but did it. Then Dr. H came in and told me that he was going to take me into the next room and do a quick ultrasound. At this point I was getting nervous, but thought that maybe they do another ultrasound on the 37 week visit to check the baby’s position. After the ultrasound I was taken back to the first room.  With in minutes my world was turned upside down.

Dr. H informed me that my blood pressure was 145/110. They had checked it twice and it didn’t come down. When he did the ultrasound, he saw that I only had one pocket of amniotic fluid left surrounding Boog. He told me that he was sending me to the hospital and that there was a good chance that I would be delivering my baby today. He said I didn’t need to rush; I could go home and get my hospital bag (which I had just packed the night before, thank goodness). I asked if I had enough time to pick up my mother and he said yes. I also asked if I should call my husband and have him leave work to meet me at the hospital. Dr. H said no that I should wait to make sure I was going to have the baby, and that wouldn’t be decided until I got to the hospital. As I was getting ready to leave Dr. H total me “You are the reason we have prenatal care”.

At the time this comment had very little effect on me, I had much more to think and worry about. But looking back on it I have a lot of resentment. I am the reason we have prenatal care!!! Well I got news for you buddy, your group of OBGYNs is the reason we have Malpractice insurance!!!!!!! (No I didn’t sue them, but there sure was grounds for it. I would have sued if Boog had huge medical issues that he would have had to deal with for the rest of his life. I would have gone after them to insure that Boog’s medical cost was covered by them for the rest of his life.)

When I left the office and got in my car, it was the oddest sensation. I was very worried and sacred, but at the same time I kept myself amazingly calm.

I called my mom and told her I was on my way to pick her, but we would be going back to my house to get my stuff and then heading to the hospital. I could tell she was trying to stay calm for me, but you could hear in her voice the worry she was experiencing.

My next call was to my husband, Mr. R. The doctor told me not to at this point, but I couldn’t leave him in the dark either. I told him the plan and that I would call once I got to the hospital and that he didn’t have to leave work until I found out what was going to happen.

This is a rather long story so it will be continued in my next post.

** I changed the Doctors names for the purpose of the blog