Friday, February 19, 2010
Okay where was I? Oh yeah so its about 330am on the morning of Sept 14th. I am finally admitted to the hospital. I manage somehow to hobble my way down the hall to the room they have set up for me. On the way I finally encounter the OB who is supposed to manage my care until her shift ends at 730am. I ask if I can please please please get some pain medication for my back/band pain. She says that an anesthetiologist is available and can give me an epidural. I said YES if it will take away this pain, if it won't I want something else. She made a joke about "you woudnt be able to have an epidural if you were having your home birth"... which I am sure she thought was humorous, but I did not. I wasnt asking for drugs because I couldnt handle labor, I was in extreme pain from, oh, my liver starting to fail. Hello.... We also talked about induction, as I prompted it and basically said something is wrong and this baby needs to be born today. I told her I would prefer to have my water broken rather than have any pitocin, as my labors usually go fairly quickly once that happens. She was in agreement and said she would come in to do that as soon as my epidural was placed.
So I get to my room and the wonderful anesthetiologist comes right in. We talk for a bit and he assures me that he can get the epidural to go high enough to take away the pain I am having. He promises if for some reason I can still feel it with the epidual in place he will give me other meds in my IV to help. He was very nice. He then proceeds to attempt to place my epidural... which took FOREVER. Apparently in the 3 hours that we had been in the hospital, I started swelling like crazy and he had a hard time finding the right spot in my spine due to how swollen my back was. This was my third epidural and it was reallty painful to have done. I had the shooting down one leg thing happen a few times (yowza!) and all in all it was almost 30 minutes to get it complete.
But thankfully that sweet man was correct, it took away my pain. For the first time in almost 6 hours I was pain free and felt normal. I stopped shaking and could finally relax. The OB came in and I was ready to get the show on the road. I was prepared for her to come in and break my water. She came in to chat, ask me why I wanted a homebirth, if I thought the pain I was having was due to an injury (uh, no). She said since I was contracting already, she was going to come back in an hour and break my water. It didnt really make any sense why she wasnt doing it then, but at the moment I was like "uh, okay.." and was also thinking I would like to rest for an hour as well since I was exhausted from the stress level of being in that much pain.
During that hour, Hubs returned from the house where he had gone to pack our "hospital bag" and fetch my list of things I wanted. Our midwife, Janet, also arrived after driving from Denver and our beloved Tiffany showed up after driving 2 hours from Loveland, CO. Tiffany was going to be our support person for our homebirth, being there to watch over the kids, and also to take pictures (she is uber talented).( She came anyway even though it was a hospital birth and let me say her presence was invaluable. The hospital environment with all the machines and tubes I was hooked up to kind of freaked out the kids and she was able to take them out of the room and even take them home for a bit to rest. She was a lifesaver!)
Janet was asking when was the OB going to come back in and rupture my water, and at that time we realized it had been over an hour since the Ob had been in. Janet had called a colleage of hers, a perinatologist (specialist in high risk pregnancies) at the University of CO and had consulted with him about my lab work and my symptoms. He was confident I had severe HELLP syndrome and advised Janet to make sure I was treated with magnesium in labor and was delivered soon, also advised to stop trying to hydrate me with IV fluids as my liver and kidneys were unable to process the fluid and I would only retain the fluid causing more strain on my already troubled internal organs. He told her if those things did not happen, then to have me ask for a consult with a perinatologist that works at that hospital so I would get the care I needed.
Of course, they were pumping me with IV fluids... but couldnt figure out why my urine collection bag showed ZERO output. Hmmm. No one ever brought up starting me on magnesium. And at this point the Dr was in no rush to get my induction started.
We called for the nurse about 530am, to ask where the Dr was. We were told the Dr was sleeping, and had told the nurses not to wake her. She told them we had decided on rupturing my water at 630am. Um, that is NOT what happened.
I asked the nurse for a consult with a perinatologist.
She looked at me like I was insane and said " Why would you want that?"
I said " Because I have HELLP syndrome and no one seems to think its a big deal"
She said "And why would you think you have that? The Dr never said that."
I said "Because I am highly symptomatic, my labs are highly abnormal and the perinatologist my provider consulted with at the UofCo said I have severe HELLP"
She looked at me like I had grown another head. I am not kidding. She then went on to say, I could ask the OB when she came in, as she had to place the request for a specialist consult.
It was crazy. I was very very sick and no one cared or even noticed.
The OB finally dragged herself out of the on call room from her stupor around 7am and wandered into our room. I asked her for a consult. She told me that the perinatologists at that hospital were really busy with their high risk patients and probably wouldnt get in to see me. I told her that I was high risk and I would prefer to meet with an MD who specializes in patients with my condition. She said she didnt think I was high risk at this point (what the heck?) and she would see what she could do. No specialist ever saw me the entire time I was in the hospital. I was basically denied my patient RIGHT to see a specialist. Nice.
She does however, break my water, about 2 1/2 hours after she initially said she would. She said her shift was over and her colleage would be coming to see me once he/she came on shift. Great.... maybe this Dr would take me seriously.
to be continued...
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