Thursday, February 9, 2012

How I visit my husband at work

As I’ve mentioned several times, I’ve been pretty sick with this pregnancy. I thought it was going to be a better pregnancy than the last because I wasn’t throwing up everyday, but that started to change a few weeks ago. I had been feeling okay in the beginning of the week, but by the time the weekend came, I was pretty much out of commission. On Saturday, Chris called in a new prescription for me since what I had been taking didn’t really seem to be working all that well, but the new pill didn’t work at all.

On Sunday, I didn’t keep anything down all day. That made church a real joy. But I just chalked it up to having a crappy day, hoping that meant Monday would be better.

It wasn’t.

It was way worse.

Again, I didn’t keep any food down all day (making sitting there during Miles’s speech therapy really fun), but it wasn't until late in the day that I started to realize that I wasn’t keeping water down either. I talked to my mom who suggested trying just a teaspoon of water and seeing if I could keep it down for 30 minutes. I couldn’t. And then I made the mistake of eating one of Miles’s fruit snacks. Why was that a mistake? Because I threw up that one fruit snack for about an hour. It was too late to call the triage nurse line at my ob’s office, but I did have the cell number of my ob. Of course I also tried getting a hold of Chris, but he’s not usually able to answer his phone while he’s working.

My doctor called me back at about 6 and told me that I needed to go get rehydrated in the ER. Really? I didn’t want to go to the ER just because I was throwing up, but he convinced me that it was more serious than that.

At that point I called the ER main number and asked to speak to my husband to let him know that I would be visiting him at work. He told me to wait for my parents to get to our house to watch Miles (an hour) and then come over. Then he called back two minutes later to say that the nurse yelled at him for making me wait and that they could handle watching Miles when I got there if they needed to. So Miles and I got in the car and made our first trip to the ER.

And let me tell you, I did not like it one bit. I’m not a big fan of hospitals in the first place, but the waiting room of the ER has to be the worst place there. And then of course the people behind the glass wouldn’t acknowledge my existence even though they all looked at me as I stood there clearly needing to tell them something. I knew they just wanted me to put down my clipboard and walk away, but I just wanted to someone to let my husband know that his wife and child were there. But no, that would be too much to ask. It wasn’t until a nurse saw me that I was given any attention. But then she misunderstood what I was trying to say because she responded with, “Well, we treat everyone the same so it doesn't matter if your husband works here.” Even though it kind of does.

A few minutes later Chris came out to see us, and a few minutes after that, I was called back. I’m sure the other people in the waiting room were pretty upset about that. But in my defense, I looked way sicker than any of them.  And Chris confirmed to me later that none of them were very sick.

After I was shown to my room, the nurses got right to work on putting in my IV and Miles got right to work trying to tear the room apart. Luckily my parents got there shortly after that so that my mom could take him home and put him to bed. That is, after giving him some very late dinner because I realized that I hadn’t given him much besides fruit snacks all night.

I stayed in the ER four about three hours and was given the standard fluids and medicines, and then what my doctor called, “the bad bag” because it always gets rid of nausea. It worked likes magic (even carrying into the next few days because it had steroids in it); I even cleaned my floors the next day.

Since then, I have been feeling so much better. I had about two weeks vomit free. And then one day that threw a wrench in my streak. But I’ve been okay for the past few days. And since I’m officially in my second trimester, I’m starting to feel like more of a human and less of a zombie. Hopefully it sticks.

Bottom line: this pregnancy is not better than the last.

Still undecided on whether there will be another one in the future.

3 comments:

Jennie said...

I love how the nurses were the voice of reason telling you to come on in and not wait an hour. We do get special treatment. One time I had to go to the er in charlotte and jon went and found a doctor so I was seen by a doctor before the nurse made it in. I agree the er is not a fun place to be. I had my first cat scan there and I hope to never repeat the experience.

Kimba said...

oh jenny, i'm so sorry! that's so miserable!!! SOO glad you're feeling better finally! and i totally wouldn't blame you, but you DO have a ridiculously cute kid, so there's that to consider. :)

Dernicks said...

Oh my goodness, so sorry to hear this 2nd pregnancy is just as terrible (if not worse) as the 1st. Sorry I couldn't find any Chinese remedies for you. I'll keep looking though... Oh, and just so you know, although they make me laugh out loud, your stories are terrifying me! I'm glad you don't sugar coat it like some other people. I can always count on you to be real! ;)