Hospital Tour turns to day spent in ER

Today Tristan and I decided for our family night activity we would take a daytime tour of the labor and delivery area where we would be having our little one. We wanted to get it done before Tristan heads back to school and before I start working more. It started off bad when we got there and everyone else on the tour looked like they were ready to pop. Here I was in the midst of 12 other pregnant women and I looked like the odd ball. They probably thought I was eager beaver just finding out she is pregnant and way too excited to wait for her tour. Since I still have not gained weight or started showing yet I really stuck out and felt uncomfortable.

We were about half way into the tour and just finishing up in the labor room. I started feeling dizzy. I saw a chair in the corner of the room and wanted to go sit down in it. I had had this same feeling last week at work and sat down for 15 minutes and ended up being fine the rest of the day. But with all these other pregnant women and me looking not pregnant at all, I felt like a loser going over and sitting in a chair. I might as well say, "Oh sorry you are all about to explode any day now but I am going to sit down now while you all stand." Well it started getting worse, I was fanning myself and sweating. I started shifting my weight and telling myself we are almost out of this room then you can walk around and will be fine. NOPE! The lady in charge had the marvelous idea to just stay in this little cramped labor room with 25-30 people to continue to talk about the post partum area. Then she would walk us over there. Oh wonderful! I was in the middle of telling myself I will be ok when it started. The jello leggs, the tunnel vision that is starting to blacken, and the blood leaving my head. I turned to face Tristan and had enough time to say I don't feel well as I made my descent down to the floor. Tristan caught me and my cute volcum purse helped to cushion me as well. Boy do I know how to get attention in a crowd.

Turns out one of the perspective dads is a respiratory therapist at CHOC and recongnized me and came to see if I was ok and wanted to put oxygen on me. I did not know him but you can imagine how embarrassing it was to have someone who knew I was a nurse practitioner and that I fainted during a hospital tour. How am I going to go back to work, and will everyone know my secret now? Hospital policy is you must go be seen in the ED. So we spent the next 4 hours waiting to be seen while everyone else walked right in. Apparently being pregnant and maybe having something wrong with you or your baby is not urgent. I also learned that I will be treated better and quicker if you don't speak english and/or dont have insurance. But that is for another blog. (Trust me after 4 hours you new everyones address, type of state/federal aid insurance and their chief complaint. They were practically playing it over the loud speaker). We watched 4 cycles of groups come and go (about 30 patients all of who had coughs or runny noses only). I could have a dead baby in me by now for all they know. Finally we got in. They checked my heart out which I have had done a billion times cause I like to pass out 1-2 times a year. But I have done it about 3 times already this pregnancy. Then they tried to find the baby's heartbeat. No luck, they tried for a long time. I was getting teary eyed, and they finally decided to do an ultrasound. It was a cheapy little machine that was so unclear, but we could see enough. The baby was of course moving around like crazy, does this kid ever stop? The heart was beating and everything looked good. So after 4hours of waiting I spent 45 minutes as a patient. No IV, no blood test, and I will have a lovely $50.00 bill from my insurance in a few weeks.

I am just so glad the baby is ok. We have an OB appt on Thursday. Can't wait to really get the baby all checked out. The hospital tour will have to wait until I look like all the other mothers who were there today, ready to deliver.