Yesterday...last appointment (or so I thought)...
Ugh. That about sums it up. I got to my appointment and wasn't on the schedule. They told me my next "check up" was next mon the 3rd... I patiently said "That can't be. I am scheduled for a CS that day" and the nurse got an attitude and said they had no information on my CS and they would see me on the 3rd. I stood my ground and told
them I needed to speak with a dr. b/c I was scheduled for a CS on 3rd and was also supposed to be given pre-op instructions as well as my weekly tests today. All I got was attitude. So insisted on seeing a doctor and I sat quietly and was eventually called back.
The dr. with whom I spoke told me not to eat after 12a the night before and to be at L and D at 7:30 am next Mon. morning. When I asked him about nursing after the CS he basically said it was up to the recovery room nurses whether or not they wanted to do the extra work because they don't generally deal with nursing mothers in recovery. He suggested I just plain wait it out and deal with the boys getting supplemental bottles in the nursery (it would likely be 4-5 hours between birth and a reunion outside recovery *if* all goes well). His rationale was that his wife had nursed 4 children and never had a problem despite using bottles as well as nursing. Totally NOT scientifically based so I was't about to get into it with him... I am *so* tired of the laziness (*if* the
recovery nurses want to do the extra work) and the use of anecdote when it is more beneficial than scientific fact (ie. post-op nursing). Groan.
Then I had a non-stress test and a biophysical profile. The most important thing of all for my boys is the AFI masurement. I asked the US tech what the AFI levels were and she refused to tell me. All she would say was that they were normal. When I got back to the head
RN to review the results I asked her about the AFI levels and she claimed she couldn't read the US report so I asked to look at it.
There was only one AFI reading... not one for each boy. When I pointed it out she went to ask the tech who stormed in and gave me a lecture on *how its done*. Unfortunately the lecture she gave should have been entitled "How its done for a singleton" because not only was it incorrect for a twin pregnancy, but downright dangerous in the face of a fluid problem for twins sharing a placenta. (Basically, a singlton's fluid is measured in each of four quadrants and the computer comes up with an average that is said to represent the approximate total amount of fluid (i.e 20.5 cm total AFI). For twins, you can't measure quadrants because each baby is only occupying two of four uterine quadrants. Also, when they are in separate sacs but sharing a placenta, if you measure quadrants and average, it is very possible to get a normal amount of fluid and a normal average, even if
there is a serious problem - for instance if one baby has only 1cm of fluid and the other has 14cm of fluid the average of the quadrants would be 7cm - well within normal despite very serious health concerns for the babies due to actual fluid levels. ArGH). So I am frustrated, no?
I also asked the dr. about a prescription for a topical cream to treat thrush. My body got all out of whack when they prescribed antibiotics for a UTI (after a failed attempt on my part to treat it without anibiotics) and I ended up with thrush on my breats. as I'm sure you know, it is no fun... Take any type of sore breast issues
you have ever had and amplify it 100x. Wanting to knock it out before the babies get here, I ahve been meticulous with laundry and have been using GSE to treat it... to no avail.
So i finally asked for Nystatin cream.
After several years of nursing it is not foreign to me. So I told the Dr. I had thrush and asked for a general topical
prescription and he told me they don't write prescriptions for thrush treatment without doing a "scraping" and
running tests so I should just wait until the day of my CS and deal with it then. TOTALLY made no sense since I would then infect the boys and/or truly have problems nursing. I was insistent and they finally wrote the prescription just to shut me up, I think. I am getting to feel less and less like i am able to be patient and kind
and good-natured through all of this and it is certainly hurting my heart to feel so angry at them all.
Needlesstosay, I am more than a little frustrated but trying to hand it all over to God, knowing it is so totally out of my control at this point. This, I am sure, is part of my Lenten trial this year.
So, nuff said. I'll have an amnio the morning of the CS to double-check lung development and the CS will happen that afternoon. The precise *when* will all be dependant on how fast the lab is and how soon an OR is available after the results are back. We shall see...
Ugh. That about sums it up. I got to my appointment and wasn't on the schedule. They told me my next "check up" was next mon the 3rd... I patiently said "That can't be. I am scheduled for a CS that day" and the nurse got an attitude and said they had no information on my CS and they would see me on the 3rd. I stood my ground and told
them I needed to speak with a dr. b/c I was scheduled for a CS on 3rd and was also supposed to be given pre-op instructions as well as my weekly tests today. All I got was attitude. So insisted on seeing a doctor and I sat quietly and was eventually called back.
The dr. with whom I spoke told me not to eat after 12a the night before and to be at L and D at 7:30 am next Mon. morning. When I asked him about nursing after the CS he basically said it was up to the recovery room nurses whether or not they wanted to do the extra work because they don't generally deal with nursing mothers in recovery. He suggested I just plain wait it out and deal with the boys getting supplemental bottles in the nursery (it would likely be 4-5 hours between birth and a reunion outside recovery *if* all goes well). His rationale was that his wife had nursed 4 children and never had a problem despite using bottles as well as nursing. Totally NOT scientifically based so I was't about to get into it with him... I am *so* tired of the laziness (*if* the
recovery nurses want to do the extra work) and the use of anecdote when it is more beneficial than scientific fact (ie. post-op nursing). Groan.
Then I had a non-stress test and a biophysical profile. The most important thing of all for my boys is the AFI masurement. I asked the US tech what the AFI levels were and she refused to tell me. All she would say was that they were normal. When I got back to the head
RN to review the results I asked her about the AFI levels and she claimed she couldn't read the US report so I asked to look at it.
There was only one AFI reading... not one for each boy. When I pointed it out she went to ask the tech who stormed in and gave me a lecture on *how its done*. Unfortunately the lecture she gave should have been entitled "How its done for a singleton" because not only was it incorrect for a twin pregnancy, but downright dangerous in the face of a fluid problem for twins sharing a placenta. (Basically, a singlton's fluid is measured in each of four quadrants and the computer comes up with an average that is said to represent the approximate total amount of fluid (i.e 20.5 cm total AFI). For twins, you can't measure quadrants because each baby is only occupying two of four uterine quadrants. Also, when they are in separate sacs but sharing a placenta, if you measure quadrants and average, it is very possible to get a normal amount of fluid and a normal average, even if
there is a serious problem - for instance if one baby has only 1cm of fluid and the other has 14cm of fluid the average of the quadrants would be 7cm - well within normal despite very serious health concerns for the babies due to actual fluid levels. ArGH). So I am frustrated, no?
I also asked the dr. about a prescription for a topical cream to treat thrush. My body got all out of whack when they prescribed antibiotics for a UTI (after a failed attempt on my part to treat it without anibiotics) and I ended up with thrush on my breats. as I'm sure you know, it is no fun... Take any type of sore breast issues
you have ever had and amplify it 100x. Wanting to knock it out before the babies get here, I ahve been meticulous with laundry and have been using GSE to treat it... to no avail.
So i finally asked for Nystatin cream.After several years of nursing it is not foreign to me. So I told the Dr. I had thrush and asked for a general topical
prescription and he told me they don't write prescriptions for thrush treatment without doing a "scraping" and
running tests so I should just wait until the day of my CS and deal with it then. TOTALLY made no sense since I would then infect the boys and/or truly have problems nursing. I was insistent and they finally wrote the prescription just to shut me up, I think. I am getting to feel less and less like i am able to be patient and kind
and good-natured through all of this and it is certainly hurting my heart to feel so angry at them all.
Needlesstosay, I am more than a little frustrated but trying to hand it all over to God, knowing it is so totally out of my control at this point. This, I am sure, is part of my Lenten trial this year.
So, nuff said. I'll have an amnio the morning of the CS to double-check lung development and the CS will happen that afternoon. The precise *when* will all be dependant on how fast the lab is and how soon an OR is available after the results are back. We shall see...
hope it goes well.
s:
I hope things go well next Monday!
