Where have I been?

WORK! The hospital has been super busy lately! After only my second night of call I've already been in five times for nine ultrasounds. Sunday night was by far the strangest night I've had in my career. Labor and Delivery called me in (immediately after the ER paged me) for a 25 week'er that had no prenatal care. She was having contractions and wanted an ultrasound to check everything out. Usually I'll stop at the store on the way in and get a soda or fill up my gas tank but I went on in that night. I'm glad I did! When I got up there I wheeled my machine into the triage room where my patient was supposed to be. One of the nurses yelled at me to go to the OR. "Ummm.....okay?" I got the 411 on the girl when I got in there. She was having TWINS and never, ever had seen a doctor. One of the routine tests they run on a "no prenatal care" patient is a urine tox screen. Her test was positive. I'm not sure what she had been on, but they were trying to find out how long it had been since she last used. It was in the babies best interest for her to fess up, but she said it had been at least a month. So sad. Anyway, I was in there to determine the position of the second twin, and they had her in the OR in case the second baby had to come out cesarean. I was literally held hostage up there for two hours. I did my initial scan and then the doctor wanted me to stay until the first baby came out to scan again (making sure the second one didn't turn breech). Due to respiratory, the neonatologist, two incubators, a team of nurses from the nursery, anesthesia, scrub nurses and ultrasound....I ended up with the WORST seat in the house. I tried every way possible to obscure my view of her va-jay-jay. I saw enough to do me for a lifetime. It was real-life "A Baby Story". Screaming, puking, crowning....EEW! Now giving birth can be a beautiful thing, and I usually get teary-eyed when watching a movie/television show about it. Something about not knowing her/middle of the night/empty stomach that has just warped me for life. I'm not sure how the babies are doing. They sent them to Vandy for some much needed care, but keep them in your prayers! They have a long road ahead of them!

Wanna hear something freaky weird related to the above story? Well, our church started a campaign to collect money for the Pregnancy Crisis Center here in the 'boro. You can pick up a baby bottle and fill it up with change or a check to help out babies like I saw that same night. I've been dropping in change over the past couple of days, but the experience that night just made it very "real".