Friday, June 19, 2015

A Nap Was Not Involved

Well, as St. John Lennon said, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."
Just as I was girding my big girl panties (which reminds me of a bit of a dream I snatched last night where my grandfather showed up to give me a brown grocery bag filled with my grandmother's panties which were incredibly white and I said, "Well, talk about Granny Panties...") to go to town to do my errands, Lily called me. She had a new place on her leg that was swollen and red and hurt like hell.
I changed my clothes and drove to town and Jessie came to watch the boys and I drove Lily to the new satellite ER north of town which has a reputation of being chi-chi and not very busy and we checked in and sure enough, within a few moments we were in a room, having already been triaged by a very nice nurse who told us her birth story and then we were dealt with by other very nice people including a nurse tech, a nurse assistant, a nurse practitioner and a doctor. Okay, it took four hours but we had our own room with a TV and everything.
Lily has a blood pressure issue which is that her BP mirrors her anxiety more completely than anyone's I've ever heard of and it was high when we went in. And this could be a very, very long story but the bottom line is that they decided that since her BP was high, she needed fluids which made no sense to me whatsoever. Yes, dehydration can lead to a high pulse rate (which she had also had upon admitting) but Lily was NOT dehydrated. Not one bit. She hadn't had diarrhea or urinary problems and she drank about sixteen ounces of water just on our way to the ER. And I questioned them and so they didn't give her fluids which is what they WANTED to do and the NP sort of shamed us about that. I called Jessie to ask if I was crazy. She told me I was not.
Meanwhile, they did another ultrasound of her leg and it turns out that she has phlebitis which is painful but not deadly. Regular treatment would be aspirin but since she's pregnant, she can't take it. And the blood work showed up to be perfect. Kidney function, liver function, etc.
The doctor came in and told us about all of this and he told Lily that really, he'd like to see her take a week off of work because standing (which is what she does in her job) is the worst thing she can do and she's already wearing compression hose. When he told her that, that she had to take time off of work, she got even more stressed out and her BP went up a bit more and the NP shamed us about not accepting the fluids and went to talk to the doctor.
At which point, they took Lily's blood pressure again and it had come down to the normal range and they gave her some grape juice and a little pain med and sent us home with a prescription for another antibiotic even though her blood work showed NO elevation in white blood cells which would indicate infection and told her to rest and to walk.
It was funny- every one we dealt with was so personable and caring and lovely but still, the ghost of covering-our-asses overshadowed everything.
Did Lily need fluids?
No.
Does she need a stronger antibiotic even though the doctor himself said that he didn't think she has an infection?
Probably not.
But Lily got it filled and when I dropped her off at home she was talking to her midwife who, I am sure, gave her the advice she needed.

And so that's what my day was like. Being with my "child" as Owen says in relation to his mother and me.
And I was so glad to be able to do it although I am sure that at some points, Lily would have rather just done what they said and not have to deal with a mother who was a nurse.

And.

The ultra-sound tech did a quick check of Lily's baby. It was such a surprise- to suddenly see this newest one- and his or her heart was beating and there we were, seeing that. I saw a head and limbs. I saw life.

I would not have missed that for the world.

Good Lord. I need to go prepare some vegetables for our supper.

Love...Ms. Moon






14 comments:

  1. What a day. So glad Lily is okay.
    Rest. xo

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  2. Poor Lily. She is really having a time of it. I hope she feels better soon.

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  3. Glad Lily is OK and hope she is able to get some time off work to help her leg feel better. Also pretty cool that you got to see the baby. Take care, Ms. Moon,

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  4. You remind me of my mom. She was always there for me. Always. Even when she was tired and wanted to take a nap she was there. You are a good mom, Mary.

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  5. Glad she's okay. I know how hot support hose can be, so I hope she has extra time to relax somewhere cool and put her legs up!

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  6. Well, I'm glad that Lily is all right and none the worse for the wear, although I imagine it was all very stressful. The hardest part of going to the doctor these days, I think, is never being very confident that they really know what to do.

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  7. Glad to read that Lily is ok but antibiotics with healthy lab results, normal inflammation markers???? Good grief. I hope the midwife has better advice.

    You look after her, that's so good.

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  8. I do wish Lily could take a break and stay off her feet for a while. Im glad you were there with her, sleep deprived and all. She needed you to hold her.

    I love that Gibson says "I need you to hold me."

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  9. I am sorry Lily is having a hard time, hope she feels better soon. I think the ER wants to give everyone an IV, I have refused before also. Gail

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  10. my daughter's first pregnancy she was carrying twins and the doctor told her to quit work and go on bed rest because one of the babies was not growing and she wouldn't listen and then her blood pressure shot up with pre-eclampsia and when she was in danger of losing one of the babies they put her in the hospital for forced bed rest and monitoring until they felt the babies were big enough to survive and then they induced labor before she stroked out. It all turned out fine, beautiful babies that are 17 now but ever since that pregnancy she has been plagued with headaches. not so frequent now but for a while it seemed like every day. so glad Lily is OK.

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  11. I hate when doctors do what they think they need to do to look good, rather than what they know is the right thing. Hate it. Good for you for staying sensible and level-headed! x

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  12. Denise- It was a day indeed. But it sure was a nice ER. I'm not kidding you.

    Joanne- Me too!

    Mr. Shife- Thank you, sir. You take care too!

    Birdie- Well, I'm not real good at much else so I have to try hard. Thank you.

    Elizabeth- You know how I feel about that.

    A- She slept a long, long time last night. Bless her heart. She works so hard and has those two little boys to take care of and that teeny babe inside of her, growing into a person.

    Sabine- Her midwife told her to start taking Omega 3's. So she is. Not sure if they checked the inflammation markers. Did not ask.
    I should have.

    Angella- I kept saying, "Do you want me to hold your hand?" She didn't really but she let me.

    Gail- It's a thing. Don't know why.

    Ellen Abbott- What a nightmare! I'm so glad that in the end, everything turned out well for those babies. AND your daughter. That is nothing to fool around with.

    Mwa- I wish Jessie had been there too. She is more forceful than I am. Plus- a working nurse.



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  13. Look at those tomatoes!

    This may be a stupid question, but why can't aspirin be taken during pregnancy? Does it increase the risk of bleeding or something? I love aspirin. It is my go-to anti-inflammatory of choice. But of course, I am not pregnant.

    And yes, there's a lot of ass-covering in the medical profession these days. We see it over here too, to a much milder degree.

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  14. How very lucky she was to have had you looking out for her! It's good to know she's ok and what a thrill to have seen your grandchild in the making.

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