Monday, May 12 …
The day starts rather unremarkably. I shave, shower, dress for work, and kiss the girls goodbye. All pretty standard so far. At work, I actually get a chance to sit down and eat some breakfast & scan the JS because my first patient cancels.
Then around 9:30 or so, it begins.
L&D calls my office as I’m seeing patients. One of the nurses needs to talk to me about a C-section. That’s never good. The nurse’s description of the situation makes me cringe … this could be bad. They really need me there at noon. Schedule rearranging ensues due to the C-section, knowing I’ll likely be up there for 2-3 hours, depending on how things go.
Then the wife calls. Little Dragon #5, still in utero, is misbehaving. She’s heading to the OB’s office to get checked out.
I finish my morning patients and head up to L&D for the C-section.
While I’m up preparing for the C-section, the wife calls from the OB’s office. She’s getting admitted for observation at OSF because she’s 28 weeks gestation and the OB thinks he might see a small abruption on the ultrasound.
*&#%!
The C-section goes better than expected, and after a long wait the OSF transport team finally arrives. I head out to meet up with my wife at St. Francis, all my office appointments now rescheduled.
On my way out my secretary tells me that Little Dragon #1’s school called. LD#1 was struck in the face by another kid swinging a racket around. It cracked off about a quarter of one her left maxillary central incisors … one of her adult, permanent front teeth.
*&$%!!
The wife likes Starbucks – iced mochas, to be exact. M’lady requests one. Since she’s in antepartum hell, stuck in bed on a monitor, I dutifully spend $4.10 on a gigantic cup of iced coffee and hit the road to Peoria.
My vehicle has despicably shallow cup holders, and those are really big cups of coffee. Kinda top-heavy, too … the cups flare up from the bottom, and all the ice makes it heavy. Thus, given this marvelous day, the coffee is now decorating the floor of my car after a sharp turn getting on the highway.
*&$%!!!
Fortunately my string of misfortune for 5/12/2008 ended with the coffee spill, but what a day!
I should count my blessings, though. My wife is stuck in the hospital, but at least she’s stable and not contracting (and no abruption per the perinatologist … phew!) . The C-section I attended went about as well as could be expected given the circumstances, and the baby was transferred safely. My daughter only has a chipped tooth … not a broken nose or a skull fracture.
It could be have been a lot worse. However, I must say that I’m not anxious to have another day like this one … and my car reeks of coffee!!!
6 responses so far ↓
1
Michael
// May 13, 2008 at 5:20 am
My condolences for the bad day and congratulations for everyone surviving it without permanent trauma. The bright side may be that you have run through a week’s worth of bad luck and should have clear sailing for a while!
2
Jennifer
// May 13, 2008 at 8:12 am
I’m with Michael, hopefully that was your dose of bad luck for a good long while.
Congrats on LD #5, hopefully the rest of the pregnancy will be smooth sailing!
3
diane vespa
// May 14, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Your wife will need lots of help being on bedrest with 4 little dragons runnning around. Trust me, its hard for Mommies to sit still… no matter how dire the circumstances are. Good luck…now go rub her feet
4
Shannon Sandoval
// May 20, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Congrats on the LD#5… hopefully you’ve gotten the bad luck vibes to go away!
5
Knight in Dragonland
// May 20, 2008 at 4:55 pm
We’re approaching 30 weeks and she’s still pregnant … and out of the hospital since Saturday.
6
Jenny
// May 20, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Wow .. that is a very eventful day!! I am glad things worked out relatively well. As you said, it could have been worse. We were one of your ‘rescheduled’ patients but I am glad to find out things are going ok with your wife and little one. We will be in soon and I hope you and the Mrs. have an uneventful week!!
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