My Most Traumatic Night Ever ~ Part 2

Part 1
Part 3
(again, the disclaimer: if you are easily grossed out, read at your own risk)

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My (so far) Most Traumatic Night Ever ~ Part 2

At the ER they gave me some regular Tylenol which unfortunately did little to stem the pain I was in. They said they suspected a bladder infection and would need a urine sample. Since I was still bleeding from delivery they would not be able to get a clean sample unless they catheterized me. (Yippee!) I was told not to go to the bathroom because they need to get a sample and I would have to wait a little while for that to happen. As a good nursing mother I had been consuming great quantities of water so to be told I couldn’t go to the bathroom caused me no little distress.

I was ushered into an examining room and told to undress, put on a cute little hospital gown, get on the table and wait. I undressed down to my hospital-issued, disposable underwear with a huge pad in it (remember, I was still bleeding so I chose to keep that article of clothing ON). I put on the fashion-plate gown and somehow got up on the exam table. This was no easy task. Hoisting my self up on a table and scooting into position was very painful. I laid on that table for an eternity. It was after eleven o’clock at night, I was freezing, in pain, and I was hearing Rebecca cry since it had been more than two hours since I had nursed her. She was nursing every 2 hours like clock-work and now she was screaming. Soon I reasoned out that Rebecca was beyond two closed doors so I really couldn’t be hearing her. However, as a new mother who has had four whole days to bond with her child I figured I must be hearing her with my new, parental ESP. Even if my ears couldn’t really hear her, my mammary glands must have. Now I was leaking all over myself with no bra or nursing pads to help absorb the mess.

After a while, Jaymarie entered and asked how I was doing. Crying, I asked how Rebecca was doing. She said that Rebecca was sleeping. So much for ESP. I thanked God that she was sleeping and prayed that she would stay asleep until we all got out of there. Jaymarie requested some blankets for me and I soon warmed up. I asked that she send Jim in and she did that. About 11:30 pm the doctor and a nurse came in to do a pelvic exam. Great, I thought, just what every recently post-partum woman wants! I still had to go to the bathroom, I was still in extreme pain, the front of my gown was now stiff and crusty where I had leaked milk all over myself, and they wanted me to scoot down to the end of the table and put my feet in stirrups. I was not having a good day! My medical record says that “on exam, she was uncomfortable and in moderate distress.” I’ll say. Although I would have called it extreme distress.

During the exam, the medical professionals were trying to get me to relax. Right. I mentioned to Jim that I would rather be pushing. The pushing during labor was much easier and less painful than what I was enduring at that point. I guess the nurse thought I was actually wanting to push and started saying, “No! Don’t push!” Whatever. She didn’t get it. During the exam they found a rather large blood clot and a lot of infection. But that is enough of that! When the doctor informed me that he wanted to start an IV with antibiotics, I started crying again. I hate IV’s. I delivered Rebecca without one because I refused to have it. When the poor guy came in to do the IV, I told him that, no offense, I probably wouldn’t like him after this.

Now it was about midnight. The doctor informed me of two more things: he wasn’t sure I would be able to nurse while taking the antibiotics and they were admitting me! At this point, I pretty much lost control of myself. In the first place, I was feeling particularly unlovely. I hadn’t done my hair and make-up, I had been crying a lot, I was in pain and then I found out that I couldn’t nurse my baby? I was devastated. And they were admitting me? What was I supposed to do with my baby? Crying, I told Jim to call my friend, Joy. She would know what to do. I couldn’t think and Jim was pretty overwhelmed and wasn’t problem-solving at this point either. I think she is the one who mentioned that Rebecca could probably stay with me in the hospital.

(to be continued)