Don't they realize I am pregnant?
Today I had my consultation with my Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist. You know, the one I was supposed to have last week but mixed up the days. But today I managed to keep my head out of my ass and show up on the right day at the appointed time.
He congratulated me on No. 3 and I joked that I just couldn't stay away from their office. After exchanging pleasantries about the two children he safely ushered into the world, we got down to the details of my cervix and it's incompetence.
He said in the last two years, since the last time I was assuming the position in the stirrups, there has been some new research and recommendations. He said they now take a "wait and see" approach with women who present with shortened cervixes (cervixi?) and don't perform cerclages right away.
Now I know doctors have gone to school for god knows how many years and see hundreds of patients a year, but I strongly disagree with this idea. I can't tell you how many stories I have read about women with IC who go from short cervix to bulging membranes in a matter of days with no symptoms at all. Awesome idea. Let's wait and see if your shitty cervix will hold your not-yet-viable baby in. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. In fact, let's start an office pool on the exact date and hour you end up on hospital bedrest!
But. In my case, because I have had two successful cerclages, he said the choice was up to me. I could wait and see or I could have the cerclage. I went with Door No. 2 because, as I told him, with two kids at home, I don't have the luxury of lying around waiting to watch my cervix shorten and dilate at 20 weeks only to end up flat on my back in the hospital with no one to watch my children as they run naked around the neighborhood with popsicle stains around their mouths and messy hair. He agreed that was the right choice for me. That way the kids can just run naked around the house with popsicle stains around their mouths and messy hair.
So my surgery will be next Tuesday. I am to arrive at 11 a.m., which is all kinds of awesome because I don't have to get up at the asscrack of dawn to have a needle stuffed into my back and a speculum the size of a dinner plate inserted into my girlie parts. But then the nurse gave me the instructions for the pre-op and I heard the words, "No food after midnight, no liquid either."
I'm sorry, what did you just say? I thought you just said "no food after midnight" to a pregnant woman who isn't having her surgery until 1 p.m. That would mean in a best-case scenario, I get to eat an hour afterward, meaning 2 p.m. So no food for 14 hours. Let me repeat that: no food for 14 hours. For the pregnant lady. I wake up starving in the mornings. How in the hell is this going to be any good at all?
Maybe I could convince them to give me a feeding tube when I get there. Or I could just shove a Ranchero Chicken Soft Taco into the IV tube. I bet that would work.
He congratulated me on No. 3 and I joked that I just couldn't stay away from their office. After exchanging pleasantries about the two children he safely ushered into the world, we got down to the details of my cervix and it's incompetence.
He said in the last two years, since the last time I was assuming the position in the stirrups, there has been some new research and recommendations. He said they now take a "wait and see" approach with women who present with shortened cervixes (cervixi?) and don't perform cerclages right away.
Now I know doctors have gone to school for god knows how many years and see hundreds of patients a year, but I strongly disagree with this idea. I can't tell you how many stories I have read about women with IC who go from short cervix to bulging membranes in a matter of days with no symptoms at all. Awesome idea. Let's wait and see if your shitty cervix will hold your not-yet-viable baby in. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. In fact, let's start an office pool on the exact date and hour you end up on hospital bedrest!
But. In my case, because I have had two successful cerclages, he said the choice was up to me. I could wait and see or I could have the cerclage. I went with Door No. 2 because, as I told him, with two kids at home, I don't have the luxury of lying around waiting to watch my cervix shorten and dilate at 20 weeks only to end up flat on my back in the hospital with no one to watch my children as they run naked around the neighborhood with popsicle stains around their mouths and messy hair. He agreed that was the right choice for me. That way the kids can just run naked around the house with popsicle stains around their mouths and messy hair.
So my surgery will be next Tuesday. I am to arrive at 11 a.m., which is all kinds of awesome because I don't have to get up at the asscrack of dawn to have a needle stuffed into my back and a speculum the size of a dinner plate inserted into my girlie parts. But then the nurse gave me the instructions for the pre-op and I heard the words, "No food after midnight, no liquid either."
I'm sorry, what did you just say? I thought you just said "no food after midnight" to a pregnant woman who isn't having her surgery until 1 p.m. That would mean in a best-case scenario, I get to eat an hour afterward, meaning 2 p.m. So no food for 14 hours. Let me repeat that: no food for 14 hours. For the pregnant lady. I wake up starving in the mornings. How in the hell is this going to be any good at all?
Maybe I could convince them to give me a feeding tube when I get there. Or I could just shove a Ranchero Chicken Soft Taco into the IV tube. I bet that would work.
Labels: Incompetent Cervix, Pregnancy
posted by Amy at
9:06 PM
4 Comments:
I'm so glad you get your cerclage! After a while, you figure out what works to keep you pregnant and don't see any appeal in being on the cutting edge of medicine, right? :D
oh the sacrifices you make for your cherubs. It's all worth it though in the end.
isn't it nice how much more willing the doctors are to listen when it's not your first baby? My doctor absolutely would not listen with my first child when I told him my family history of super fast labors. he was convinced it would be 12 hours at least, and actually almost missed the delivery because he went home to have dinner. He did miss the delivery of my second baby, but by my third he was right on board with a fast delivery. Duh. I'm glad that your doctor let you make the choice as to what was best for you - good luck with not eating anything!
I'm with you on the "wait and see" approach. Erm, that's what I did the first time and I ended up flat on my back. Good times.
I can't imagine going 14 hours without food and I'm not even pregnant, so big fat "boo" to that!!!
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