On Baby A's birthday, the c-section surgery went as planned. I walked into the OR around 9:30am and was pushed out around 2 hours later. W was instructed to wait outside while the team was getting me prepared for anesthesia. He then got invited to come in and sat next to me while the team worked on getting Baby A out of me 😂. W was a good DJ and Baby A was born while Taylor Swift's Shake It Off was being played. So...did I feel any pain during this life-changing surgery? No, I didn't. I had a spinal block. I never felt any type of pain during the surgery. Getting the anesthesia injected - however - was the most uncomfortable part of the surgery. There was a lot of pressure. I felt my back being pulled or pushed, or something. It just felt very uncomfortable, not painful, but very uncomfortable. It was also hard to try leaning toward the source of that uncomfortableness. Learning to relax while being uncomfortable was a very hard thing to do. But it was necessary. Once it...
On Dec 15, we had our 2nd prenatal appointment at Kaiser. It was a long day and I ended up being rolled to the ER by the medical team. Fortunately, everything turned out okay in the end!
So here's how our 2nd appointment went. It was our first in-person visit to the OB department for this pregnancy. The exam room we were in this time was very similar to the one we had for the last pregnancy. The main difference between this in-person visit and the last in-person visit was the provider I saw this time wasn't an ob. The hospital assigned an NP for this visit just for this time (it's pretty normal to not get seen by a doctor/ob until 9 - 12 weeks in the states). Before this visit, I have not had any experience with an NP. I looked up online and saw that "A nurse practitioner (NP) is a nurse with a graduate degree in advanced practice nursing" (according to medlineplus.gov).
Truthfully, I did not like this visit with my NP one bit. When she first came inside the exam room, it was okay. She pulled in an ultrasound machine and checked for the baby's heartbeat. Then she asked a few standard questions (e.g., how I was feeling and if I was taking prenatal vitamins) with a very neutral tone. Also had my pap smear done while there. She told me I would see some bleeding because of the pap smear. The bleeding happened right away, though it was very minimal (a liner pad was sufficient and the spotting stopped a few hours later). Everything up until the pap smear was fine. Then she said she wanted to order some blood tests for me which was something I expected anyway. There was one test I wasn't expecting - glucose tolerance test.
I knew it's standard to test for gestational diabetes but it was my understanding that it's tested in the second trimester - usually after 20 weeks. She didn't ask me if I'd like to get tested early, at 9 weeks, she just said "you can go to the lab downstairs after this or any other Kaiser lab." She didn't give an explanation as to why she was ordering the test so early. Toward the end of the appointment, she asked if I had any questions. I said "yes" and went through a list of questions W and I had prepared.
"We know Westside doesn't have NICU, what's the standard procedure for a situation where we need extra care after the baby's born?"
"What's the hospital's policy on planned induction?"
along with other questions regarding policies on delivery.
The main reason for asking those questions was because I wanted to know the hospital's approach on those topics so I could make an informed decision about where to deliver the baby. Even now, a month later, I'm still upset about that day. I want to choose a hospital where I feel most comfortable. I didn't feel very comfortable about my visit that day. The NP didn't give a direct response to any of those questions. Rather, her responses were "this is the type of questions you'll discuss with your ob when you're in 32 - 34 weeks" and "you'll talk about this when you get closer to delivery." Then, she went on saying "you can't control everything with pregnancy, not everything will go accordingly with the plan. it's best to let go." I immediately felt she didn't want to answer any of my questions and I just shut down and stopped talking to her. Of course I knew not everything will go with "the plan," which is why I wanted to know what the hospital would do if an emergency happens. Of course I knew no amount of planning will make everything 100% proof, but I could at least ask how a hospital would respond to certain situations to help me decide where to deliver my baby. I don't appreciate her response and the push to "wait until 32-34 weeks" because if I don't like the hospital's approach then I'd have to look for a new hospital then and I would much prefer to not do that during third trimester. Those questions were basically like screening questions to see if the hospital was a good fit.
Retrospectively, she likely didn't know the answers to my questions. However, she could at least direct me to someone who could, rather than having me wait until I'm 32-34 weeks. Also, I probably should've asked her why testing so early for glucose tolerance. At the time, I was just annoyed and nervous and didn't ask. So that day, after the prenatal appointment, I went to the lab and had 8 viles of blood drawn (for the glucose tolerance test, among other tests).
For the 1-hour glucose tolerance test, there were 2 blood draws - one right before drinking a small bottle of solution and another one hour after taking the bottle. The purpose of waiting one hour was to see how my glucose level would respond after taking in something so sweet. The solution tasted like extra sweet sprite. Not too bad, actually, but I definitely wouldn't drink that again if I had a choice 😒 I chugged it down in one go and sat in the waiting area with W for an hour.
I started feeling nauseous about half an hour after I took the drink. The rule was to not move around and not eat anything or drink more than sips of water while waiting for the 1 hour to pass. Two minutes before the 1-hour mark was up, I gave W my purse and told him to go ahead and get the car while I was getting up to head back inside the lab. I watched him leave the waiting area, then I stepped inside the lab, and had my blood drawn at the 1-hour mark. Right as I was heading out of the lobby, I started feeling a strong wave of nausea and dizziness. I asked someone (either a volunteer or a hospital staff) if there was water nearby. He asked around and someone gave me bottled water and led me to a bench. Before I sat my butt down, the dizziness & nausea came stronger and I felt my knees buckled. Someone caught me before I slid down. I started rocking myself uncontrollably and began having chills. The person who caught me before falling down to the floor began asking questions like what I ate (nothing within hours of the incident), what I did (just finished the 1-hour glucose test and was heading out of the lobby), and how I was feeling (nauseated & dizzy). As soon as I told them I'm pregnant they started calling people and a medical team came with a rollaway bed within minutes. A lab personnel came to me with an ice pack and put it on my forehead and told me to request for blood draws while inclined in the future. Someone took my jacket off because he noticed I was warm and sweating (even tho I felt like they were chills). Meanwhile, my arms were being poked for random glucose test and something else while vitals were being checked. At one point I was dripping blood on the hospital floor. A respiratory therapist also helped me to regain control of my breathing. All of this happened at the lobby of the hospital so it was quite a scene. After my breathing became normal, the medical team suggested I should get checked by ER. At that point, I said "my husband doesn't know what's happening here, he's just outside in the car waiting for me. Can someone let him know and have him come in please?" A nurse quickly jumped on the mission of "search for W." She found W just by my description of our car and led him to where I was. W later told me he was worried sick while waiting in the car because I should've been out within minutes but I wasn't, and then seeing a nurse wave him down just confirmed his fear that something had happened.
After W was updated with what just happened, the medical team asked if wanted to be checked by the ER. We were told "with everything pregnancy related, it's best to be conservative" and that it was "probably best to get checked out." So we agreed and I was strapped to the bed and four men rolled me to the ER from the lobby. I got admitted right away and was rolled into an exam room and met with a team of 2 nurses and a doctor. This was my second time at this ER (same place where I was admitted during my last pregnancy last May). My last visit was mostly a blur as I was in pain and hooked to so many machines and loaded with drugs. This was the first time I could get a good glance of the ER lobby, hallway, and the exam rooms etc. The nurses and the doctor were gentle with everything throughout the whole visit. They checked my vitals, did another random glucose test, and did an EKG. All of the tests came back normal so I was released within an hour.
The appointment with NP was at 2pm. The glucose tolerance test began at 2:47pm. I finished the test at 3:48pm. I got admitted to the ER at 4:05pm. Released by ER at 5pm and got home at 5:10pm.
All in all, thankfully everything turned out just fine. While everything happened so quickly and it was just a few hours at the hospital, it felt like a super long day. W and I said to ourselves that we'll never see the NP again. We don't blame her for the ER visit, we just don't like the way she responded to my questions regarding hospital policy and approach on labor & delivery. One thing we're looking forward to is all of the remaining prenatal visits are with our ob. We've first met our ob last May so we already know she's understanding and thorough.
Things we did at the hospital today
OB Dept
Ultrasound, checked for fetal heartbeat
Q&A (even though we left the department with more questions and no answers)
Lab
Blood tests
1-hour glucose test
ER
EKG
💗 CM
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