Mama Drama.

I was in the hospital all day yesterday. Nothing big, really. In fact, had things gone the way they should have, I should have been home after two hours.

On Tuesday night I began vomiting. An hour later Luke woke up with vomit all over his sheets. My night was over, and from 10pm until 6am, I was sitting on the toilet with a bucket in hand. Fortunately, Luke was able to sleep for a few hours between his vomiting, but no such luck for me.

Being pregnant with the stomach flu, I realize, is my greatest pregnancy hurdle. You see, this has happened before when I was pregnant with Paul. Everyone else pukes and feels lousy, but then seem to bounce back pretty quickly. Not me. And by 6am it was time to go in for fluids.

Again, this isn't all that big of a deal. Pregnant women can get dehydrated easily when they are as sick as I was. This is dangerous for the mother and the baby, so I figure that someone like me walking through the doors of the hospital looks pretty standard. Let's fill her up with fluids and get her some rest. Let's do it now so we don't have a bigger problem (like pre-term labor) on our hands.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case yesterday. I was told later by the Director of Nursing that I was "brushed-aside," and an Ob/Gyn who came into my room later apologized for my "poor" and "substandard" care.

What had happened was that I had a nurse would didn't do her job. I hate to write that, because I have a great amount of respect and admiration for nurses. They get pushed around by patients and hospital staff, and have to a huge job to fill. Nurses, more times than not, end up being my heroes.

The problem is that this nurse didn't do her job. Tired, weak, dehydrated, with very low blood pressure, for four hour and half hours I lay in a bed with absolutely no treatment or monitoring, being told over and over again that I was waiting on "orders." All of this I found confusing, since in my past experience, getting orders for something as simple as fluids has seemed pretty simple to do. I'm not a "frequent flyer" at hospitals, not a complainer or drug seeker, and I go out of my way to be as kind as I can to the staff. So I laid there exhausted in bed wondering what I was doing wrong. Did they think I was faking? Did the doctor get whisked away to an emergency?

After four and a half hours I called Mark and we decided that I needed to leave. We'd go to another hospital. Heck, we'd drive two hours to our hometown hospital if we needed to. Or, as Mark put, he could take better care of me at home than they were doing there. As I calmly and politely told a different nurse that I was going to receive care elsewhere, she agreed that something had gone wrong. I dressed to leave when the Director of Nursing came in and began apologizing left and right. Immediately a tray of popsicles, broth, 7up and water were brought into my room, as well as a fetal monitor and IV pole. A new nurse was assigned to my care. It took much convincing, because I honestly wanted to get as far away from the hospital as I could, but the DON was able to get me to stay for fluids just as Mark showed up with the kids to bring me home.

The DON explained that as soon as I was gowned (at 7am) that I should have been given an IV, that there are standing orders for this situation, and that giving a pregnant women fluids is as standard for an OB nurse as taking blood pressure. The nurse simply didn't do her job. At all. It didn't matter to her that I hadn't slept in 24 hours, was dehydrated, and wasn't able to keep anything down. She just lied to me, telling me every hour that she was waiting for the doctor to see me and give orders.

A bit later an Ob/Gyn came in. She was very caring and concerned and even wanted to admit me, which I found funny since it had appeared that for the first half of the day that no one was the least bit concerned about my or my baby's health. I didn't stay and got home at 3:30. Neither she or the DON made any excuses for the nurse's conduct, and with no prompting from me, took full responsibility for the incident and said that my care was completely unacceptable.

Today I'm feeling a lot better. I'm still a little weak and have little to no appetite. What I'm most concerned about now is that I have to deliver a baby in April and that the hospital nearest to us is one I have little faith in. I kindly told Quality Management this morning that I would rather be induced two hours away at our hometown hospital than to step foot into this hospital again.

Who could blame me?

Today I'm thankful to be home with my little boys again. I'm also thankful that I have very healthy pregnancies that require little to no time in the hospital. I'm thankful that what happened yesterday wasn't my fault or anything I caused or could have prevented. I'm thankful that I have the freedom to make health decisions, and if I please, have the freedom to deliver where I please.

Prayers for a peaceful Friday!