Going to the ER while pregnant

[HappyFun Ball]

With my 2nd child (She was a surprise.. Well, she was planned but not by me. I had a much older boyfriend who wanted me to want to settle down and have kids and I was 18 and sooo not ready to do that yet, I needed to catch up on the irresponsibility I missed while I was pregnant with my 1st child, I had her to give to my mom and step dad because they so desperately wanted a baby to raise.. Anyways, when I told him I wasn't ready to settle down and I wanted to go to college, he made it a habit of wanting sex when I was sleeping and answering yes to when I asked him if he was wearing a condom)

Anyways, when I was about 4 1/2 months along, I start having real pain pains that felt like a vice grip around my chest and back, it would happen mainly at night .. I thought it was gas, I chewed up gas tablets like they were candy, but I got no relief. I was at work 2 times that it happened and was taken to the hospital twice by ambulance. Now I have learned that if you are pregnant and get hurt, they don't care about what you hurt, you can go in with your arm lopped off and all they want to do is pin you down and monitor the baby, not even giving your lopped of arm a second thought. I keep insisting that these were not contractions, or fake contractions, these were too high up and I was vomiting. They would tell me that it was the braxton-hicks contractions and I would tell them that these were too high to be contractions. I hated that I had to use that hospital, but I had no choice, back when this happened, I had to get Medicaid and back then there was a very limited choice of hospitals you could use while on Medicaid.

After numerous visits I finally get a doctor who wants to look at something other than my baby and she orders some blood work. She comes back in and tells me that I have pancreatitis and she was to ultrasound my gall bladder. They found gall stones, I'm like good, they can give me medicine to fix it. There is no medicine you can take for it, it will have to be removed, I'm like ok, let's do that. They said no, I am too pregnant now to have surgery, to add insult to injury she tells me that if they had found this a week sooner, I would've been able to get the surgery, and to add more insult to injury she tells me that I will have to stay in the hospital and have nothing to eat what so ever until the pancreatic enzymes (or whatever) went down. She didn't mention that they'd have to take blood from me every 4 hours.

For 2 months after that I was having gall stone attacks 3-4 times a week and after that it was nightly, this pain was only second to being in labor. Now for 9 months of my pregnancy I was told that I am due on April 28th, on April 26th I have another attack and I go to the hospital to see if they will induce labor so I can get this damned gall bladder removed, after all I'm just 2 days away from being term.. Umm, no I'm told, you are due on May 12th. BULL SH!T I yell at the doctor, I am due on April 28th, I have been told that through the whole of my pregnancy. He says that he can't induce now because I am not due until May 12th, he makes the mistake of telling me that they would induce if I had another attack of pancreatitis, earlier in this whole thing, they also made the mistake of telling me what causes pancreatitis, which is high fat foods. When my boyfriend (Not the father) came and picked me up I said "Tim, to King of Burgers!" That day and the next day I pigged out on everything that was really high in fat and that night I had an attack, and I hoped it was pancreatitis, it was and they admitted me to induce me. She was born April 30th.

The gall stone attacks did not stop, they happened day and night and I got no sleep at all, (The baby was a screamer, did not want to sleep unless she was being held). They finally got around to sending me an appointment to see a surgeon, I go see him and he schedules me for 2 -1/2 weeks later. I begged him to do it sooner, but he wouldn't budge.

3 days later an attack hit me that was worse than all the others put together, I was vomiting, could not stand up straight, so I had my boyfriend take me to a different hospital. The doctor there almost sent me home to await my surgery date, I puked on him and when I looked up at him he says "I'm gonna do one more test".. The test was an ultrasound, and they found 3 stones lodged in my bile duct, the doctor admits me for emergency surgery. SO instead of a simple, laproscopic surgery where I would be released the same day, I get a huge 9 inch scar across my belly and a 4 day hospital stay.

[iradney]

Allright guys, let's keep this clean. If I have to close this thread because of fratch-worthy posts, I will be VERY unhappy. And that means infractions. Got it? Good.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

... I've heard something similar about baby vs injury elsewhere as a complaint. I'm glad you got your problem fixed, but... why couldn't they operate on you? I've heard of women getting chemo while pregnant... I might have misheardthat however! I mean... geeze.
Although, you puking on the doc was hilarious in a schadenfreude way... :(
Also: clogged duct? YIKES. Talk about a miserable few months... no wonder you were so ill!
how is your bebe doin,' now that she's not being a slowpoke? :p

[Mikkel]

I've heard of women getting chemo while pregnant... I might have misheardthat however!

I doubt that, chemo work by killing fast-growing cells. That's why you get sick and bleed and loose your hair. Intestinal linings, bone marrow and hair follicles are hit hard.
Anyway many of the chemo drugs are mutagens. I was warned not to sire any children for at least two years after my chemo. I think the child would end up as Miles Naismith Vorkosigan or worse :eek:.

I can believe radiation therapy.

[Lurking Sockpuppet]

I understand the don't care about the mother only the baby. When I was pregnant with my second daughter I was scheduled to be induced the following Tuesday. Friday I slipped and fell breaking my tail bone and pulling/injuring several other muscles. They would do nothing for me. They wouldn't even examine me. They hooked me up told me the baby was ok and sent me home. I had contractions all weekend long and on Tuesday they induced. After she was born (I had an epidural) I asked for pain meds because it hurt so much to sit/lay in the bed. I was told that I delivered naturally therefore do not need pain meds. No c-section = no pain med :cry:

I had to wait to get out of the hospital and go to another doctor before I could get anything for the extreme pain in my legs and back.

[Sparky]

This:
Now I have learned that if you are pregnant and get hurt, they don't care about what you hurt, you can go in with your arm lopped off and all they want to do is pin you down and monitor the baby, not even giving your lopped of arm a second thought.


So true. Your nose is stuffy? It's because you're pregnant. Your hair is turning green? It's because you're pregnant. Your home was destroyed by a tornado? It's because you're pregnant. There's a war in the middle east? It's because you're pregnant.


Still, I suspect that if you'd had better doctors, which you would have had with good insurance, you'd have had an easier time. Can't say anymore without fratching long and hard so will shut up.

So sorry this happened to you.

[Sapphire Silk]

... I've heard something similar about baby vs injury elsewhere as a complaint. I'm glad you got your problem fixed, but... why couldn't they operate on you? I've heard of women getting chemo while pregnant...

Pregnant women who get chemo during pregnancy get it not knowing they're pregnant. Chemo is contraindicated in pregnancy. If a pregnant woman got chemo knowing she was pregnant it would be with all kinds of informed consent forms because of the extreme dangers to the baby . . . and the doctor might recommend ending the pregnancy to focus on the cancer because it is so dangerous.

General anesthesia is very dangerous for the baby. Big risk of stillbirth or fetal demise. That's why they don't like to operate on pregnant women. It also increases risks to the mom because of the increased strain on the body (especially the heart) pregnancy induces. They can't X ray a pregnant woman at any stage of the pregnancy---too dangerous for baby.

I asked for pain meds because it hurt so much to sit/lay in the bed. I was told that I delivered naturally therefore do not need pain meds. No c-section = no pain med :cry:

I had to wait to get out of the hospital and go to another doctor before I could get anything for the extreme pain in my legs and back.

Now this is absolute crap. Natural childbirth hurts too. We DO treat for pain for women who deliver vaginally . . . the good stuff, too: Percocet for women who want it. And anti inflammatories. You could have fractured your pelvis: very, very painful.

So sorry to hear that happened.

[blas]

I was coming too quickly for my mom to get an epidural, but they gave her plenty of other stuff after I came. Thankfully, I behaved and slid right out.

[NorthernZel]

When it was time for me to have Lil'Zel, I got assigned a midwife trainee who apparently had some sort of "New Age" approach when it came to pain medication, and tried all sorts of alternatives, including acupuncture and sitting in a hot tub. (The hot tub did work, but only to a certain degree.) All my requests for more "conventional" medications were denied: "uh, well, let's try this first, it's less invasive..." (uh yes, and less effective as well, it's what I've been telling you for the last 5 hours...)

So when New Age Noob's shift was over and a certified midwife was in charge, I ROARED for some proper drugs - and got them. It was too late for an epidural but what I got offered instead was still better and more effective. My guess is that if I just had been administered the medication I asked for in the first place (and epidural was not included) I would have spent 3 hours less in labor.

[ShadowBall]

They don't just do this shit to pregnant women - basically, if you're a woman between the ages of 10 and 60, you might get denied treatment because you might be pregnant. My ENT pulled that shit with me as a teen; she almost didn't give me some potent antibiotics because they were known to cause birth defects. Where's this shit coming from? Because I had mentioned the last antibiotic I was on (that did not cure my sinus infection) made me nauseous and she claimed there was absolutely no possible way that med could have made me sick.

So of course the ONLY reason a 17-year-old virgin, menstruating female could be nauseous is because she's pregnant. And she tried to convince me to get a confidential pregnancy test several times. Eventually I won, getting it through her thick skull that I was not pregnant - just sick - and I got my meds.

[Little Retail Rabbit]

They don't just do this shit to pregnant women - basically, if you're a woman between the ages of 10 and 60, you might get denied treatment because you might be pregnant. My ENT pulled that shit with me as a teen; she almost didn't give me some potent antibiotics because they were known to cause birth defects. Where's this shit coming from? Because I had mentioned the last antibiotic I was on (that did not cure my sinus infection) made me nauseous and she claimed there was absolutely no possible way that med could have made me sick.

So of course the ONLY reason a 17-year-old virgin, menstruating female could be nauseous is because she's pregnant. And she tried to convince me to get a confidential pregnancy test several times. Eventually I won, getting it through her thick skull that I was not pregnant - just sick - and I got my meds.

WTH? That's just messed up O.o I haven't had such problems with my GP or such since leaving college (they are mostly cool, and only once have I been asked by my dentist whether or not I am "possibly" pregnant when needing x-rays for dental treatment...but then again, if I were pregnant I'd be getting free dental care I suppose...), but when I was at school, the school nurse seemed fucking obsessed with it. Looking back now, I was probably suffering from anxiety or stress of some sort, because in nervous situations I would often start to feel very sick and then ask to see the nurse (I remember on one occassion, even though school didn't start till 8:30, an assembly had started at 8:15 and my bus hadn't arrived till 8:20, and I was late...but too scared to go into the assembly because my horrible year head used to shout at me. A school chairman saw me trembling and looking sickly outside the door and said I looked dreadfully pale and ought to see the nurse).

Everytime I saw her, I would come in and say I felt a bit poorly. She would always shut the door and ask if I was pregnant. I would get so embarrassed and say no, but she would always bloody ask. I can understand to SOME extent because there were a couple of teenager pregnancies when I was at school, but the fact I was turning up so often with a case of rattly nerves, had been sent to her after being attacked by other pupils and had such an aversion (at that age) to any mention of sex, you'd think after a while she'd realise that perhaps this little girl was suffering from stress or anxiety. Nope. My doctor had to figure that out and managed it really quickly lol :rolleyes:

Like I said, I understand that to some extent, she was concerned about this sort of thing happening, but it was every single time I saw her for...well...anything! Maybe she thought we were all precocious little slags!:confused: (And yes, I was a virgin at the time too).

[Sapphire Silk]

They don't just do this shit to pregnant women - basically, if you're a woman between the ages of 10 and 60, you might get denied treatment because you might be pregnant. My ENT pulled that shit with me as a teen; she almost didn't give me some potent antibiotics because they were known to cause birth defects. Where's this shit coming from? Because I had mentioned the last antibiotic I was on (that did not cure my sinus infection) made me nauseous and she claimed there was absolutely no possible way that med could have made me sick.

So of course the ONLY reason a 17-year-old virgin, menstruating female could be nauseous is because she's pregnant. And she tried to convince me to get a confidential pregnancy test several times. Eventually I won, getting it through her thick skull that I was not pregnant - just sick - and I got my meds.

To be fair to the doc: we have to be very very careful about the potential for pregnancy. People do lie about their sexual activity, esp if they are fearful Mom will find out. Any time you have a female of childbearing years (10-60 quite frankly), you really do have to ask the pregnancy question.

Still . . . any medication has side effects, and nausea is one of the most common. Your ENT should have believed you even while asking the pregnancy question just to be on the safe side.

[AquaGirl]

I understand the don't care about the mother only the baby. When I was pregnant with my second daughter I was scheduled to be induced the following Tuesday. Friday I slipped and fell breaking my tail bone and pulling/injuring several other muscles. They would do nothing for me. They wouldn't even examine me. They hooked me up told me the baby was ok and sent me home. I had contractions all weekend long and on Tuesday they induced. After she was born (I had an epidural) I asked for pain meds because it hurt so much to sit/lay in the bed. I was told that I delivered naturally therefore do not need pain meds. No c-section = no pain med :cry:

I had to wait to get out of the hospital and go to another doctor before I could get anything for the extreme pain in my legs and back.

Whereas I had completely drug-free labor and delivery (on purpose) and they tried feeding me all kinds of stuff that I refused-but I honestly didn't need it. Isn't that always the way?

[Sapphire Silk]

Whereas I had completely drug-free labor and delivery (on purpose) and they tried feeding me all kinds of stuff that I refused-but I honestly didn't need it. Isn't that always the way?

Which just highlights the importance of an open and frank discussion with the OB about what the birth experience should be like: what drugs can and can't be used, aka A Birth Plan. Too few people know about them.

If a patient wants drugs to control pain in labor, she should get them, within reason (ie, as long as it isn't overdosing you or the baby and creating a danger). If she wants an epidural, she should be educated on how soon she can get one (not before 5 cm dilation) and when it's too late (8 cm dilation), so she can ask in enough time for the anesthesiologist to come do the deed.

If she wants nothing, then acupuncture/pressure, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, and the like are perfectly appropriate.

I run a simulation exercise for my students on this very issue. The simulated patient (a computerized manikin I can speak through) goes into labor with a birth plan, but has unrelenting and unexpectedly severe pain from the contractions. Often, the students jump right into pushing narcotics (since the patient is admitted under standing L&D orders), and completely disregard the birth plan. It creates a great opportunity for me to highlight the need for nurses to collaborate with the patient and respect her wishes. :devil:

[Seshat]

To be fair to the doc: we have to be very very careful about the potential for pregnancy. People do lie about their sexual activity

Which is why for the last nine-and-a-half years or so, my standard response is 'only if my IUD has failed'.

Never fails to get a laugh, and reassures the medicos. (And yes, I'm due the replacement.)

[AquaGirl]

Thank you, Panacea, that is100% how I felt. To be clear, my L&D nurses were great and wonderfully supportive of my choices. It was the on-call doc that I saw before my midwife showed up and the nurses on the mother/baby floor who were the pushers. It hurt-more than anything ive yet experienced- to give birth, but for me it was manageable and after there was little to no pain. If I had needed/wanted them though, I hope they would have been as generous

[ShadowBall]

Funny thing is when I had to get an MRI for that sinus infection, the x-ray tech (I think) asked me once if it's possible I could be pregnant. I said no and she said, "Sorry if that was awkward. We have to ask basically anyone older than ten that question." Funny how I got the third degree over pills, but not over radiation.

And trust me, I know why doctors, nurses, and any other person in a medical field asks these questions. I guess it's just annoying when you know you're telling the truth and are pretty much being cajoled into admitting that you're a liar. But I know it's routine stuff, so I won't bitch at the doctor for doing his or her job.

I think I was more angry than usual with that infection because I had a splitting headache and I was going through a bottle of OTC painkillers in less than a week, every week. By the time I went to the doctor (after three months of head-aching), I was about to stick a drill into my head and drain my sinuses myself. Needless to say, I was beyond cranky and was in a mindset of, "Gimme pills or someone's going home with a concussion." I didn't lose it at the doctor's office, but I was pissed off in my mind. I did not want to fight for relief, not to mention an infection that close to my brain was not comforting.

[AccountingDrone]

Which is why for the last nine-and-a-half years or so, my standard response is 'only if my IUD has failed'.

Never fails to get a laugh, and reassures the medicos. (And yes, I'm due the replacement.)

I got pregnant 10 years after I had my tubes tied ...

[teh_blumchenkinder]

I got pregnant 10 years after I had my tubes tied ...

O_O wow, something/one wanted that baby to happen... did it? (how did it turn out if I may be so nosy?) >_>

[Seshat]

I got pregnant 10 years after I had my tubes tied ...

Yeah - I know IUDs and sterilisations and other such things can fail. And if they were giving me something truly serious they'd probably have me pee in a cup just to make sure.

OTOH, anything but a very very early pregnancy in a IUD-filled uterus would be non-viable, I would imagine. I have these nasty mental images of baby-bits growing through and around the IUD. :eek:

[SongsOfDragons]

Ow ow ow ow ow. I was wincing all the way through that. Have gentle shoulder-hugs. *hugs*

[laborcat]

I got pregnant 10 years after I had my tubes tied ...

:cry::cry::cry: don't tell me that... I'm so terrified of getting pregnant again. Two was really about two too many. Not that I don't love my children, but I am not a very good parent and am still not sure how the first two came about, given everything I was doing to prevent it.

[Sarah Valentine]

@ HFB: :eek: About the first part concerning your bf, all I can say here is wow. The rest I will save for somewhere else more appropriate. About the second part they really don't give a shit if your pregnant, my friend cut her hand open at work so she went to the hospital to get stitches and they still wanted to check they baby. Their excuse was "as long as your here", after that it became an argument over which of the 2 hospitals near us was better.

[Merriweather]

Friday I slipped and fell breaking my tail bone and pulling/injuring several other muscles. They would do nothing for me.
I had to wait to get out of the hospital and go to another doctor before I could get anything for the extreme pain in my legs and back.

Ow, you have my total sympathy. Broken tailbone and pregnant, ooh.

About half-way thru my pregnancy I began to ache badly around my tailbone. MY OB thought maybe arthritis til I remembered that just before getting pregnant I'd fallen off a snowmobile onto a very hard snow packed road - had hurt for a few days, then was ok.

By that point, he couldn't x-ray because of the baby, so had no idea if it was cracked, broken, bruised or what. By the time I was 7 months along, I couldn't walk across a large room or turn over in bed without crying. All those months, no drugs, no nothing. I firmly believe it was cause my body couldn't take more pain that I went into labour a month early.

I had planned on natural childbirth, and was ok til I had to push. Incredible pain, and I finally consented to a last minute shot of demerol, given so close to birth that it couldn't get into the baby's system. Turns out, my tailbone had been out of place, not cracked - and my new daughter pushed it back into place with an audible snap as she was born.

The next day I took one dose of painkillers, not for pain from childbirth, but for the pain in my tailbone (I wanted to avoid drugs because I was breastfeeding). After that, I was pretty much ok, though to this day I can't sit for really long periods, especially on hard seats, without aching and needing Tylenol.


OTOH, anything but a very very early pregnancy in a IUD-filled uterus would be non-viable, I would imagine. I have these nasty mental images of baby-bits growing through and around the IUD. :eek:

I think they can come dislodged or something (or at least the old ones way back when could), cause I recall a story someone I knew told about a friend who got pregnant when she had an IUD in - the doctor kept saying he just couldn't figure out what happened to the IUD. He eventually found out, as when the baby was born it was sitting ever so delicately on the baby's head, LOL.

[Dreamstalker]

So of course the ONLY reason a 17-year-old virgin, menstruating female could be nauseous is because she's pregnant.
This happened to me when I was home from school in 2004. Basically for half the summer I had what looked like morning sickness, but both mom and I knew it wasn't (I was on the pill and not sexually active then). After about two weeks of this we go to the doctor, the first diagnosis was pregnancy. The nurse was so sure until mom forced her to give me the urine test; when it came back negative the next guess was Hep C (also without a test; for that a doctor did examine me and ruled it out).

It turned out to be some strange minor bacterial thing caused by 'food poisoning' from a bad burrito...go figure, the day I got back to NM it cleared up (maybe my system was rebelling against what passed for Mexican food in town?).

[AccountingDrone]

O_O wow, something/one wanted that baby to happen... did it? (how did it turn out if I may be so nosy?) >_>

:cry::cry::cry: don't tell me that... I'm so terrified of getting pregnant again. Two was really about two too many. Not that I don't love my children, but I am not a very good parent and am still not sure how the first two came about, given everything I was doing to prevent it.

Trust me, it was a seriously odd occurence it will probably never happen to anybody again.

I had the old style tubal where they just sort of twist the tube yo and pop a rubber band around it. They now cut and cauterize them.

I had a tumor in the area in 1995, and rather obviously had it removed and a lovely course of chemo [great way to lose about 60 pounds, but I can't recommend it for fun] but I also picked up a proteus mirabilis infection that made the various tissues swell and the little band popped, the plug of scar tore and I had a functioning tube again, unbeknownst to me. I popped pregnant just after I stopped chemo. I found out because the Navy back then was in the habit of giving all women of the right age range bunny tests whenever they came into the base hospital. I was getting some bloodwork done post chemo, and the lab called me to give me the results. The poor lab tech was nonplussed, and probably slightly deafened when he said congrats it is positive, you are pregnant and I basically screamed "You have got to be shitting me, I had my tubes tied 10 years ago" into his ear. Back to Yale and my GYN Oncologist, and poof, gone and the tubal repaired. I made him put it in writing that he cut and lasered both tubes. [At that time the Navy wouldn't pop for a hysterectomy. I had to wait for an ovarian tumor this time.]