Thursday, October 05, 2006
Trip to the hospital
Subject: Trip to Hospital
Dad's pager went off, summoning him to the hospital, where he is an anesthetist. As he raced toward the hospital, a patrol car sped up behind him--lights flashing. Dad hung his stethoscope out the window to signal that he was on an emergency call. Within seconds, came the police officer's hand in response, dangling a pair of handcuffs out the window.
----------------------
The above joke brought back memories of the day I went to the Hosp. to supposedly have one of my babies.
For months I had told my Dr that there were two sets of feet kicking me and first he tried to tell me they were just two feet and two hands. I told him " Dr Joe, if they are just one set of hands and one set of feet so low that I am having trouble bending my legs to climb even one step up or down the porch stairs, then what is under my ribs making it so hard for me to breath. He still insisted there was just one baby and one set of hands and feet, which sure kept me scared thru most of the nine months. Finally at one office visit I tried again to tell him there were two sets of feet kicking me. Dr Joe pointed to his head and said " Dottie, it is all up here in your head". I should mention that thru the months there was only one heartbeat the Dr could ever find. I pointed to my stomach and said " No Dr Joe, it is all right here in my stomach rather you believe me or not. I was feeling a bit irritated with him for not taking me serious.
Well, the day finally arrived- just a couple weeks early, so I wasn`t worried about being early, but what was happening was very scarry. My Husband was then working at the General Electric Co. in Schenectady which was about an hours drive from where we then lived in the old family farmhouse. My husband usually got home between 5 and 6 in the morning. Luckily it was on one of his days off that the problem occured or I would have been alone with just my 2 1/2 yr old daughter and my 7 yr old step daughter. I awoke, started to get up to head for the bathroom, but thats as far as I got when I knew something was very wrong. After flooding the floor, I hurriedly laid back on the bed, woke up Hubby and told him to call the Dr. He said he would call my mother. I again told him to call the Dr and to call my mother after. But he called my Mother , who woke up my father to bring her over. They lived in the next house down the same road a ways. Once she saw what was happening, she called back home to wake up my bro to come watch my other two kids and had my youngest sister awoke so she wouldn`t oversleep for school since she knew she wouldn`t get back home in time. So, I not only woke up Walt, but all of my family that still lived back at home.
My Mother called the Dr from our house and he told her to get me to the Hosp fast and that since he couldn`t operate he would have a surgeon and the op room ready and waiting. He also said to keep me laying down on an incline with my feet higher than my head -to slow down the slipping out cord. As most know, this cord is the babies means of oxygen and at the time I was having a very hard time breathing for myself. Walt helped me out to the car and my mother got into the back with me, while my Dad climb in the front with my Hubby. Hubby kept stalling the car. He was so nervous that he couldn`t keep the car running. We had a standard ( I still do today). Finally, my Dad told Hubby to slide over and Dad drove us to the hosp. He never stopped even once in that half hours fast ride. He held down the horn all the way and we were lucky because all the other cars allowed him thru- even thru the red lights. Back in those days, no one blew a horn and held it down unless it was an emergency and we didn`t have an ambulance in our town at the time.
My Mom kept telling my dad that he was going to be caught by the police -speeding so fast and running red lights that way. I still remember my Dad`s reply. He said " I wish they would hurry up then so they could get me there faster."
I`ll never forget how scared Walt was and how his foot kept shaking so bad he kept stalling the car. My Mother held my head in her lap and cried all the way to the hosp. I kept trying to tell her I would be ok, but actually I wasn`t sure I would live to get there and kept silently praying that God would protect my baby or babies since I still knew there were 4 sets of feet. Well, we finally arrived at the hosp. As soon as we pulled up to the emergency entrance, the door opened, a nurse yelled out asking " Is that --- she gave my last name.", my Dad yelled back "yes". Out they came pushing a stretcher and carrying oxygen. As soon as my Dad opened the back car door, the nurse connected the oxygen on me - right there in the back seat before they ever moved me out of the car and onto the stretcher. They took me straight up to a room on the 4th floor where the operating room was. They didn`t even take time to fill out any papers.
For months I was so scared what was wrong with my baby since the Dr insisted there was only one heart beat, while I knew there were two babies.
Shortly after they put me on the bed, this surgeon showed up. After examing me, he told me that if I was his patient he wouldn`t operate. He told me there was no way I could breath enough oxygen for both me and my baby. At the time I was breathing so hard for my babys sake that it was causing great pain in my chest . But, the pain wasn`t my worry, my babys life was. This Dr told me my baby wasn`t going to live and if he operated on me he would surely lose me on the table. He then said he was only operating because my Dr ordered it. Then he walked out to get the op-room ready for me.
A few minutes after he left the room, my own Dr showed up. I told him what the surgeon said and asked him if my baby was going to die. His reply was " Let me examine you first". Then he told me " The baby`s heart beat is weak, but as long as it is beating we still have hope- So Don`t you give up on me now Girl." I can still hear him saying that. That got my hopes up and I continued to fight to breath as hard as I could.
When they removed the oxygen to connect the anethesia, I went immediately unconsious and that was the last I remembered till I came to in the recovery room. My first question of course was if my baby was ok. Then the surgeon showed up to talk to me. He told me that he had lost me when they removed the oxygen and they had to work to bring me back alive before they could do the cessarrian operation. This scarred me because I thought he was leading up with the excuse for why my baby ( or babies as I still thought) didn`t make it. WOW!! was that thinking way off. Then he told me that this was the first in all his many years of Doctoring that anyone had twins without him knowing it ahead of time. He told me that both babies were taken to the nursery Dept. That was when I finally felt I could really breath free again. They kept me in the hosp for 2 full weeks, didn`t even allow me to sit up the first three days, and it was over a week before they allowed me out of bed and then was just allowed to walk from the bed to the chair a few feet from the bed. I spent Easter in the hosp that year and missed being with the girls , seeing their excitement while they searched for Easter eggs. They were staying at my oldest brothers home at the time.
The smalled baby- only 5 pounds 1 1/2 ounces was in the incubater with oxygen till he was about 5 days old ( noone told me this at the time). I never saw him till he was three days old and they kept telling me he was ok. His bro weighed 6 pounds 11 1/4 ounces and was real healthy, and they brought him in every day. Finally on the third day I started to get out of bed and was caught by a nurse who asked me where I thought I was going. I told her since they wouldn`t bring my other baby in to me, then I was going to the nursery to see what was wrong with him. The nurse helped me back under the covers saying she would bring him in for me to see that he was ok. She came back with him, pulled back the blanket, said- see he has all 5 fingers and all 5 toes and I have to hurry back to fix the milk bottles for the babies and out they went. I still hadn`t held him. All the nurses gave the same excuse. They told me that the bigger baby was always crying because he was hungry while the smaller one would lay quiet till they got back to feed him. They said they didn`t want to have the bigger baby`s stomach all upset from crying so he couldn`t eat. So. thats why they kept bringing him in . Finally, on the 5th day, I was feeling a bit better and more determined to get up and go to the nursery. They finally brought him in and left him for about a half hour to convince me he was ok. He had lost weight and was under 5 pounds by then, but gained back enough so that at the end of the two weeks he weighed an even 5 pounds and could be discharged when his bro and I were. His bro could have gone home after the first week, but the Dr felt it best to keep him there with me.
Now for a funny story that had to do with the babies. We were raising rabbits at the time and one mother rabbit was expecting. Hubby used to tell everyone that if I didn`t have as many babies as this rabbit did, he wasn`t going to bring me back home from the hosp. He was always kidding and teasing me. Well, that mother rabbit had 5 babies, but lost three of them, so she had two babies when I went to the hosp. I was still half groggy from all the meds they kept giving me when I started telling my mother that I guess Hubby was stuck bringing me home since I also had two babies. I never knew that my Mother left the room and the Dr came in while I was telling her that joke. My mother later told me the Dr got a big laugh from hearing it. My Mother also told me that Dr Joe said he felt there was something wrong and wanted to have an ex-ray to find out, but he didn`t want to have me worrying thru all the months. My Mother then told him how scared I had been for the last few months. Dr Joe said he wished he had known I was scared as he would have had the ex-rays and relieved both our minds. I told my Mother, why did he think I kept arguing so much with him about being two babies - not the one he kept insisting on.
One thing I can say is that after having over 36 needles that first week , I never even flinch thinking about getting a needle today. It got so bad that the Nurses started asking me where I wanted the next needle as they told me there wasn`t a spot that wasn`t already black and blue. Don`t think they needed to tell me that as I was feeling every spot. But, the beautiful baby sons were more than worth all I went thru. They are 51 years old today. They were the beginning of requiring ops for each new baby we had.
One more thing you might get a laugh out of. I first met my Husband when I was working as a nurse and he was an orderly at this same hosp. So we knew most of the workers who were still working there at this time. A friend who was also an orderly stopped in to the recovery room to see how I was doing. He told me that he had already gone downstairs to tell my husband that I was doing good and he had a beautiful baby girl. I then told him I had twin boys. He checked and found that a woman in the other op-room had the girl. So, he told me he would have to go back down stairs to tell my hubby that he was the father to two bouncing baby boys. To this day I still wish I could have seen my husbands face when he heard he didn`t have a girl, he had two boys. We already had the two girls at home. I know my Mom and Dad wouldn`t have cared how many there were as long as we were all going to be ok. But, I still wish I could have seen the expression on my husbands face.
Just an after note. Sassy is still coming inside and keeps putting her head under my arm making my arm jump up and down so I have to stop printing and play with her for a while. Been over a week now, so maybe things have changed and I won`t need to worry like I did last winter. Could be like Mr Haney said, could be my son coming in with her last month. That got me thinking that maybe Sassy is picking up the same scent from this son as she did from my Husband. She still acts a bit scared whenever she passes the doorway to the living room where my Husband passed away and I keep hoping that also passes in time. I did a real stupid thing a few days ago. I have some bounce fabric softener sheets for use in the dryer and I can`t use them because they start up my allergies. I read on the net that they are great to remove the wet odor of a wet dog. I was thinking that I could use them for that and they wouldn`t be a total waste of money. How stupid was that. After rubbing one bounce dryer sheet down Sassy`s back, she did smell better. But I have spent the past three days taking my allergy pills and finding it harder to breath, eyes smarting, already used up a box of kleenex, coughing and feeling lousy. If I had used my head, I would have know better than to use them. Guess I better find which of my kids uses bounce and get them out of my house.
Dad's pager went off, summoning him to the hospital, where he is an anesthetist. As he raced toward the hospital, a patrol car sped up behind him--lights flashing. Dad hung his stethoscope out the window to signal that he was on an emergency call. Within seconds, came the police officer's hand in response, dangling a pair of handcuffs out the window.
----------------------
The above joke brought back memories of the day I went to the Hosp. to supposedly have one of my babies.
For months I had told my Dr that there were two sets of feet kicking me and first he tried to tell me they were just two feet and two hands. I told him " Dr Joe, if they are just one set of hands and one set of feet so low that I am having trouble bending my legs to climb even one step up or down the porch stairs, then what is under my ribs making it so hard for me to breath. He still insisted there was just one baby and one set of hands and feet, which sure kept me scared thru most of the nine months. Finally at one office visit I tried again to tell him there were two sets of feet kicking me. Dr Joe pointed to his head and said " Dottie, it is all up here in your head". I should mention that thru the months there was only one heartbeat the Dr could ever find. I pointed to my stomach and said " No Dr Joe, it is all right here in my stomach rather you believe me or not. I was feeling a bit irritated with him for not taking me serious.
Well, the day finally arrived- just a couple weeks early, so I wasn`t worried about being early, but what was happening was very scarry. My Husband was then working at the General Electric Co. in Schenectady which was about an hours drive from where we then lived in the old family farmhouse. My husband usually got home between 5 and 6 in the morning. Luckily it was on one of his days off that the problem occured or I would have been alone with just my 2 1/2 yr old daughter and my 7 yr old step daughter. I awoke, started to get up to head for the bathroom, but thats as far as I got when I knew something was very wrong. After flooding the floor, I hurriedly laid back on the bed, woke up Hubby and told him to call the Dr. He said he would call my mother. I again told him to call the Dr and to call my mother after. But he called my Mother , who woke up my father to bring her over. They lived in the next house down the same road a ways. Once she saw what was happening, she called back home to wake up my bro to come watch my other two kids and had my youngest sister awoke so she wouldn`t oversleep for school since she knew she wouldn`t get back home in time. So, I not only woke up Walt, but all of my family that still lived back at home.
My Mother called the Dr from our house and he told her to get me to the Hosp fast and that since he couldn`t operate he would have a surgeon and the op room ready and waiting. He also said to keep me laying down on an incline with my feet higher than my head -to slow down the slipping out cord. As most know, this cord is the babies means of oxygen and at the time I was having a very hard time breathing for myself. Walt helped me out to the car and my mother got into the back with me, while my Dad climb in the front with my Hubby. Hubby kept stalling the car. He was so nervous that he couldn`t keep the car running. We had a standard ( I still do today). Finally, my Dad told Hubby to slide over and Dad drove us to the hosp. He never stopped even once in that half hours fast ride. He held down the horn all the way and we were lucky because all the other cars allowed him thru- even thru the red lights. Back in those days, no one blew a horn and held it down unless it was an emergency and we didn`t have an ambulance in our town at the time.
My Mom kept telling my dad that he was going to be caught by the police -speeding so fast and running red lights that way. I still remember my Dad`s reply. He said " I wish they would hurry up then so they could get me there faster."
I`ll never forget how scared Walt was and how his foot kept shaking so bad he kept stalling the car. My Mother held my head in her lap and cried all the way to the hosp. I kept trying to tell her I would be ok, but actually I wasn`t sure I would live to get there and kept silently praying that God would protect my baby or babies since I still knew there were 4 sets of feet. Well, we finally arrived at the hosp. As soon as we pulled up to the emergency entrance, the door opened, a nurse yelled out asking " Is that --- she gave my last name.", my Dad yelled back "yes". Out they came pushing a stretcher and carrying oxygen. As soon as my Dad opened the back car door, the nurse connected the oxygen on me - right there in the back seat before they ever moved me out of the car and onto the stretcher. They took me straight up to a room on the 4th floor where the operating room was. They didn`t even take time to fill out any papers.
For months I was so scared what was wrong with my baby since the Dr insisted there was only one heart beat, while I knew there were two babies.
Shortly after they put me on the bed, this surgeon showed up. After examing me, he told me that if I was his patient he wouldn`t operate. He told me there was no way I could breath enough oxygen for both me and my baby. At the time I was breathing so hard for my babys sake that it was causing great pain in my chest . But, the pain wasn`t my worry, my babys life was. This Dr told me my baby wasn`t going to live and if he operated on me he would surely lose me on the table. He then said he was only operating because my Dr ordered it. Then he walked out to get the op-room ready for me.
A few minutes after he left the room, my own Dr showed up. I told him what the surgeon said and asked him if my baby was going to die. His reply was " Let me examine you first". Then he told me " The baby`s heart beat is weak, but as long as it is beating we still have hope- So Don`t you give up on me now Girl." I can still hear him saying that. That got my hopes up and I continued to fight to breath as hard as I could.
When they removed the oxygen to connect the anethesia, I went immediately unconsious and that was the last I remembered till I came to in the recovery room. My first question of course was if my baby was ok. Then the surgeon showed up to talk to me. He told me that he had lost me when they removed the oxygen and they had to work to bring me back alive before they could do the cessarrian operation. This scarred me because I thought he was leading up with the excuse for why my baby ( or babies as I still thought) didn`t make it. WOW!! was that thinking way off. Then he told me that this was the first in all his many years of Doctoring that anyone had twins without him knowing it ahead of time. He told me that both babies were taken to the nursery Dept. That was when I finally felt I could really breath free again. They kept me in the hosp for 2 full weeks, didn`t even allow me to sit up the first three days, and it was over a week before they allowed me out of bed and then was just allowed to walk from the bed to the chair a few feet from the bed. I spent Easter in the hosp that year and missed being with the girls , seeing their excitement while they searched for Easter eggs. They were staying at my oldest brothers home at the time.
The smalled baby- only 5 pounds 1 1/2 ounces was in the incubater with oxygen till he was about 5 days old ( noone told me this at the time). I never saw him till he was three days old and they kept telling me he was ok. His bro weighed 6 pounds 11 1/4 ounces and was real healthy, and they brought him in every day. Finally on the third day I started to get out of bed and was caught by a nurse who asked me where I thought I was going. I told her since they wouldn`t bring my other baby in to me, then I was going to the nursery to see what was wrong with him. The nurse helped me back under the covers saying she would bring him in for me to see that he was ok. She came back with him, pulled back the blanket, said- see he has all 5 fingers and all 5 toes and I have to hurry back to fix the milk bottles for the babies and out they went. I still hadn`t held him. All the nurses gave the same excuse. They told me that the bigger baby was always crying because he was hungry while the smaller one would lay quiet till they got back to feed him. They said they didn`t want to have the bigger baby`s stomach all upset from crying so he couldn`t eat. So. thats why they kept bringing him in . Finally, on the 5th day, I was feeling a bit better and more determined to get up and go to the nursery. They finally brought him in and left him for about a half hour to convince me he was ok. He had lost weight and was under 5 pounds by then, but gained back enough so that at the end of the two weeks he weighed an even 5 pounds and could be discharged when his bro and I were. His bro could have gone home after the first week, but the Dr felt it best to keep him there with me.
Now for a funny story that had to do with the babies. We were raising rabbits at the time and one mother rabbit was expecting. Hubby used to tell everyone that if I didn`t have as many babies as this rabbit did, he wasn`t going to bring me back home from the hosp. He was always kidding and teasing me. Well, that mother rabbit had 5 babies, but lost three of them, so she had two babies when I went to the hosp. I was still half groggy from all the meds they kept giving me when I started telling my mother that I guess Hubby was stuck bringing me home since I also had two babies. I never knew that my Mother left the room and the Dr came in while I was telling her that joke. My mother later told me the Dr got a big laugh from hearing it. My Mother also told me that Dr Joe said he felt there was something wrong and wanted to have an ex-ray to find out, but he didn`t want to have me worrying thru all the months. My Mother then told him how scared I had been for the last few months. Dr Joe said he wished he had known I was scared as he would have had the ex-rays and relieved both our minds. I told my Mother, why did he think I kept arguing so much with him about being two babies - not the one he kept insisting on.
One thing I can say is that after having over 36 needles that first week , I never even flinch thinking about getting a needle today. It got so bad that the Nurses started asking me where I wanted the next needle as they told me there wasn`t a spot that wasn`t already black and blue. Don`t think they needed to tell me that as I was feeling every spot. But, the beautiful baby sons were more than worth all I went thru. They are 51 years old today. They were the beginning of requiring ops for each new baby we had.
One more thing you might get a laugh out of. I first met my Husband when I was working as a nurse and he was an orderly at this same hosp. So we knew most of the workers who were still working there at this time. A friend who was also an orderly stopped in to the recovery room to see how I was doing. He told me that he had already gone downstairs to tell my husband that I was doing good and he had a beautiful baby girl. I then told him I had twin boys. He checked and found that a woman in the other op-room had the girl. So, he told me he would have to go back down stairs to tell my hubby that he was the father to two bouncing baby boys. To this day I still wish I could have seen my husbands face when he heard he didn`t have a girl, he had two boys. We already had the two girls at home. I know my Mom and Dad wouldn`t have cared how many there were as long as we were all going to be ok. But, I still wish I could have seen the expression on my husbands face.
Just an after note. Sassy is still coming inside and keeps putting her head under my arm making my arm jump up and down so I have to stop printing and play with her for a while. Been over a week now, so maybe things have changed and I won`t need to worry like I did last winter. Could be like Mr Haney said, could be my son coming in with her last month. That got me thinking that maybe Sassy is picking up the same scent from this son as she did from my Husband. She still acts a bit scared whenever she passes the doorway to the living room where my Husband passed away and I keep hoping that also passes in time. I did a real stupid thing a few days ago. I have some bounce fabric softener sheets for use in the dryer and I can`t use them because they start up my allergies. I read on the net that they are great to remove the wet odor of a wet dog. I was thinking that I could use them for that and they wouldn`t be a total waste of money. How stupid was that. After rubbing one bounce dryer sheet down Sassy`s back, she did smell better. But I have spent the past three days taking my allergy pills and finding it harder to breath, eyes smarting, already used up a box of kleenex, coughing and feeling lousy. If I had used my head, I would have know better than to use them. Guess I better find which of my kids uses bounce and get them out of my house.
# posted by Dotm @ 10/05/2006 12:40:00 PM 
Comments:
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wow, you had a real hard time, but I am glad you lived to tell the tale, and that your boys lived to celebrate their 51st birthday.
I had c-sections with all my kids, I was only stuck in the hospital for a week tho, now I believe they don't even keep you a couple days after one.
I had c-sections with all my kids, I was only stuck in the hospital for a week tho, now I believe they don't even keep you a couple days after one.
Thanks Deni. Yes deni, they only stay 2 or 3 days now, but they also don`t have the old style ops either. I was 2 weeks the first time, 10 days the second time, 1 week each of the last two times and all were the old style ops.. All c-sections except for the first daughter.
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