(no subject)
7 shifts to go!! It still sounds like too much to me now. Everything is uncomfortable. My back hurts when I sit too long when I get up my hip joints feel like they're going to pop out. I feel like I need a nap every few hours. I'm having irregular contractions all day. I had a bunch driving home yesterday and it's really hard to drive with them! I see why they tell you not to drive yourself to the hospital when you're in real labor :P
So I had a bit of a scare the other day I spent my day off on Sunday doing laundry, a MASSIVE amount of laundry of things that havent been washed in years and have been lying around being stored and both Spencer and I's laundry that had been sitting at our old apartment still (my dad just bought the house we used to live in so we have been able to take our sweet time moving out as he renovates our old apartment) and our regular laundry from the past week or so. It ended up being like 12 loads and it was boiling in the laundromat. My dad came and helped me otherwise I couldnt have done it. All the lifting of stuff and reaching up to put all the clothes in. I was dizzy and he did a lot of it. Later I went to my dads for dinner and came home around 11pm and tried to sleep. I couldnt fall asleep and then I realized I hadnt felt the baby move definitely since around noon time. He hasnt been the most active guy all the time so I wasnt worried and tried the stuff they tell you to drank some cold juice laid on my left side for 30 minutes, nothing, tried it again, nothing, tried playing this really annoying midi lullaby thats on a crib toy that usually makes him kick angrily in outrage. NOTHING. I poked him and prodded him and jiggledm y uterus. Nothing. I called my mom (a seasoned labor and delivery nurse) and she said try the juice one more time and then i need to goto the hospital. I called Spencer (who was on call on the L&D ward at childrens) and he told me "so what, babies move less now" I asked him to please ask one of the residents what htey thought and the senior resident said I need to come in right away. I called my widwife and she said she would meet me there and said I should have called sooner (i didnt realize it soon enough!). So I went in and Spencer met me and they hooked me up to the monitors and immediately I heard his heartbeat and was relieved and in a good mood from that point on. My blood pressure was up at like 146/96 but I think I was stressed out because a few readings later it came down to 118/70. I still wasnt feeling him move but his movements were showing up on the strip, his heartrate was good with accelerations. He was totally fine. What was weird was I had a few mild braxtons hicks while on it and they didnt show up at all on the contraction line. Great. Spencer thinks I'm not having braxton hicks at all but my whole belly tightens up and it feels massively crampy so what else is it?
Anyways I got home at 330 am and had to work the next day. I called and said i wasnt coming in until 11. which sucks because i lost money but i could not work being that exhausted. It's actually dangerous because I could really miss things and not be able to react right in critical situations.
Yesterday was a nightmare day at work. Almost all my patients were really sick. I had to spend a lot of time with families and we decided to go the hospice route with two of them. It's hard because I have to make the medical decision and tell them what *I* think the prognosis is. I mean obviously when you ahve metastatic liver disease and lung cancer its not good but how am I supposed to know how long you can go on? They always want time frames. I tell them hospice care isnt for sure. People do sometimes get better on it. The 6 month rule is a just a guideline made up by medicare in the 90's. Used properly people have longer lifespans on hospice on average because they are not referred at the brink of death. Then I had this lady and all her extremeties turned fucking PuRPLE I mean like PLUM purple. ORdered a big ole work up for her but she wasnt in any distress and still had pulses so there wasnt much else to do with her. Another patient had meningitis. Another one just completley went unresponsive with normal vitals but he wasnt responding to anything including pain stimulus, when I tried to pry open his eyes to assess his pupils he was clenching them shut which is really weird, possible seizure we are thinking, could be a stroke. Then after lunch I ahve this lunatic 24 year old girl who has been ehre for over a week with an asthma exacerbation. I am positive she is self inducing her wheezing as she wants to, she is screaming and crying that she is in horrible pain but if oyur ribs hurt that much how can you just suddenly raise your arms over your head in the middle of the conversation and stretch. She kept throwing herself off balance during her physical therapy evaluation so she would fail it. I have no idea how to discharge her because she is going to fight me on it. I re called a psychiatrist to see her, I just want some concurment that she is malingering so we can get her the fuck out. I had only seen two patients in 2 hours after lunch it was terrible!! Thank God Cheryl came down to help me and did two more for me because otherwise I would have been there until 6 :/
So I have an appointment with my midwife at 1245 today. I dont think they do routine cervical checks but at my last visit they had to do the strep b culture so they checked and i had absolutely nothing going on at all. No dilation, effacement and she wasnt sure he was even fully engaged because his head bounced back out of my pelvis easily. I know hes not because he is putting so much pressure on my ribs right now. I literally try and shove him down sometimes because it hurts so much. So I'm sure I'm going to be overdue now :(
So I had a bit of a scare the other day I spent my day off on Sunday doing laundry, a MASSIVE amount of laundry of things that havent been washed in years and have been lying around being stored and both Spencer and I's laundry that had been sitting at our old apartment still (my dad just bought the house we used to live in so we have been able to take our sweet time moving out as he renovates our old apartment) and our regular laundry from the past week or so. It ended up being like 12 loads and it was boiling in the laundromat. My dad came and helped me otherwise I couldnt have done it. All the lifting of stuff and reaching up to put all the clothes in. I was dizzy and he did a lot of it. Later I went to my dads for dinner and came home around 11pm and tried to sleep. I couldnt fall asleep and then I realized I hadnt felt the baby move definitely since around noon time. He hasnt been the most active guy all the time so I wasnt worried and tried the stuff they tell you to drank some cold juice laid on my left side for 30 minutes, nothing, tried it again, nothing, tried playing this really annoying midi lullaby thats on a crib toy that usually makes him kick angrily in outrage. NOTHING. I poked him and prodded him and jiggledm y uterus. Nothing. I called my mom (a seasoned labor and delivery nurse) and she said try the juice one more time and then i need to goto the hospital. I called Spencer (who was on call on the L&D ward at childrens) and he told me "so what, babies move less now" I asked him to please ask one of the residents what htey thought and the senior resident said I need to come in right away. I called my widwife and she said she would meet me there and said I should have called sooner (i didnt realize it soon enough!). So I went in and Spencer met me and they hooked me up to the monitors and immediately I heard his heartbeat and was relieved and in a good mood from that point on. My blood pressure was up at like 146/96 but I think I was stressed out because a few readings later it came down to 118/70. I still wasnt feeling him move but his movements were showing up on the strip, his heartrate was good with accelerations. He was totally fine. What was weird was I had a few mild braxtons hicks while on it and they didnt show up at all on the contraction line. Great. Spencer thinks I'm not having braxton hicks at all but my whole belly tightens up and it feels massively crampy so what else is it?
Anyways I got home at 330 am and had to work the next day. I called and said i wasnt coming in until 11. which sucks because i lost money but i could not work being that exhausted. It's actually dangerous because I could really miss things and not be able to react right in critical situations.
Yesterday was a nightmare day at work. Almost all my patients were really sick. I had to spend a lot of time with families and we decided to go the hospice route with two of them. It's hard because I have to make the medical decision and tell them what *I* think the prognosis is. I mean obviously when you ahve metastatic liver disease and lung cancer its not good but how am I supposed to know how long you can go on? They always want time frames. I tell them hospice care isnt for sure. People do sometimes get better on it. The 6 month rule is a just a guideline made up by medicare in the 90's. Used properly people have longer lifespans on hospice on average because they are not referred at the brink of death. Then I had this lady and all her extremeties turned fucking PuRPLE I mean like PLUM purple. ORdered a big ole work up for her but she wasnt in any distress and still had pulses so there wasnt much else to do with her. Another patient had meningitis. Another one just completley went unresponsive with normal vitals but he wasnt responding to anything including pain stimulus, when I tried to pry open his eyes to assess his pupils he was clenching them shut which is really weird, possible seizure we are thinking, could be a stroke. Then after lunch I ahve this lunatic 24 year old girl who has been ehre for over a week with an asthma exacerbation. I am positive she is self inducing her wheezing as she wants to, she is screaming and crying that she is in horrible pain but if oyur ribs hurt that much how can you just suddenly raise your arms over your head in the middle of the conversation and stretch. She kept throwing herself off balance during her physical therapy evaluation so she would fail it. I have no idea how to discharge her because she is going to fight me on it. I re called a psychiatrist to see her, I just want some concurment that she is malingering so we can get her the fuck out. I had only seen two patients in 2 hours after lunch it was terrible!! Thank God Cheryl came down to help me and did two more for me because otherwise I would have been there until 6 :/
So I have an appointment with my midwife at 1245 today. I dont think they do routine cervical checks but at my last visit they had to do the strep b culture so they checked and i had absolutely nothing going on at all. No dilation, effacement and she wasnt sure he was even fully engaged because his head bounced back out of my pelvis easily. I know hes not because he is putting so much pressure on my ribs right now. I literally try and shove him down sometimes because it hurts so much. So I'm sure I'm going to be overdue now :(