Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The Business of being born

Today I watched the documentary "The business of being born" and it's something that I feel strongly about... I don't necessarily think that every woman should have a home birth - but I certainly think that less intervention during labor and birth should be done.

Birth is a natural process IMO - and though I believe in a woman's choice to pain control - I also believe that birth takes time and as shown in this documentary, many hospitals don't give women the time it takes to have a baby. I agree with the documentary that hospitals have time lines, and if laboring women don't stick to them, interventions occur.

I know that in this day and age, we want immediate results and as such this has affected how labor and delivery occurs. What is too often seen is a pt getting pitocin or being brought back for a c-section, which isn't always necessary. That's not to say that c-sections aren't required for some circumstances, but I often think that these are being done too often because establishments (hospital policies, doctors, etc) are saying that it's unsafe for a woman to be in labor without change on a regular basis (cervix dilation, baby dropping into pelvis, etc).

I postulate this - approx. 20-30 yrs ago - my mother's generation, how likely was it to hear that women had labor that existed for DAYS???!!! And this was alright with physicians!!! I think that a page from yesteryear should be brought back. That's not to say that babies should be let to go a month without delivery - as my mother did with me!

It's ALRIGHT to let women labor, and to deliver without interventions like vaccums and pitocin augmentation. There is a time and place for these things but it shouldn't be a majority like it is currently.

I also think that doctors need to move over and give space to midwives. Physicians have a place in labor and delivery but they don't provide the same kind of care that midwives do, plain and simple. How many OB's do you know that stay the entire length of a woman's labor AND deliver them??? Probably less than 5% if there were stats done on this! Physicians mainly come in to provide interventions, whether that be epidurals, breaking of the water, etc and at the VERY end, just prior to crowning and simply deliver the baby (on most occasions).

I have had two children - with my son I used an OB. At that time, there were NO midwives in my city (that I knew of anyways), and I'm thankful that I had an OB because my water was meconium stained, we had difficulty with pushing (managed it without vaccum OR forceps) which caused oxygen issues with my son and I required an episiotomy in order to help get him out fast enough. His APGAR scores at birth was 3!!! At one minute it was 5, and at five minutes it was 7! Pathetic really! He required resuscitation. Little did I know (at that time, I learned this later) that a code pink was called for my son!

For my daughter, I used a midwife. I LOOOOOOVEDDDDDD the entire experience.... UNTIL I developed PIH (Pregnancy Induced Hypertension) and was on the verge of developing HELLP which is a DANGEROUS form of preeclampsia. I was hospitalized for 5 days for close monitorring and almost delivered my daughter at 30 weeks. YEEKS! (For those interested in reading all about my crazy whirlwind pregnancy I have another blog for that - just ask and I'll give you the site). Now because this happened, I lost the ability to use JUST a midwife - instead, my midwife and OB developed a relationship - for MY benefit where I could go for appointments with my midwife unless there were issues, and my OB was simply her back up. That worked for a couple of weeks until things changed on the home front and we decided that we were going to move south - figuring that we were going to move there eventually and that's where all the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) level III & IV were found - because I was told the likelihood of me making it to full term were NIL (HA, little did they know!!!).

I think OB's rrreeeeeaaaaalllllllyyyyyy should ONLY be used for higher risk or complicated pregnancies. There is a shortage of OB's and I think that they should be utilized in the best possible way - NOT for low risk pregnancies. Keep them for the people who actually DO need them. Thus in turn, utilize the available resources out there - MIDWIVES!!! They go to school for a reason, and it's not for a short period either.

Something funny the little tyke said...

So lately my darling daughter has been cursing, like a truck driver, or a sailor. Either one is a fitting description. And she will do it at the ODDEST times! And it has us giggling up a storm.... which doesn't help to curb it but seeing it from such a cutie is difficult to stifle oneself from laughing.

Take this evening for instance....

I was sitting on the couch, and I've been trying to potty train the dear darling for the past week. Some success I might add. And today happened to be a trying day as far as peeing on the potty goes. So when she had told me that she had peed NOT on the toilet but in her pull up I told her (in no uncertain terms) that she HAD to go sit on the potty.

And WHAT is the responsible from my not even three year old???..... "that's BULLSHIT mommy"

OMG!!!! I couldn't believe she had said it (she's only said it once before - cuz it's not something she hears of much). And the fact that she had said it in a manner that would totally apply to this situation. Oh yeah, the whole room of ppl started giggling as mommy tried to be stern (with not much luck) and mutter "little tyke that's not nice, we don't say those things and you HAVE to still sit on the potty" and of course I included the "mommy" look for good measure and off she went to sit on the potty.

WOW - what am I going to do with this one?!

More on her growing antics another day tho! I shall leave you with a couple of pics of her....

She was telling me that she was going to go "bye bye" - in her PJ's with sandles on and it was snowing outside - oh and it was like 11pm at night!!!! YA NO!


My little sassy girl - quite the diva she is... hope it's not indicative of what I should expect in 10+ yrs!

Monday, February 20, 2012

I need to live somewhere else!!!

Living in this house is starting to make me depressed. Can you believe that I actually escape TO the gym???!!!! I thought that THAT would never happen but alas it does! I wish I could have tonight but unfortunately, today is "family day" for those of you Canadians - "President's day" for those American folk who read this blog, and with that comes early closure times or not open at all.... and my gym closed aat 3pm today. And of course when I wanted to escape, it was after that time.

The next best thing... a bubble bath, BY MYSELF!!!! I locked myself in my in-law's bathroom for an hour and a half and caught up on Pan Am and just enjoyed the quietness. The awesome thing about their bath tub is that it has jets... which is UBER fun with a bit of bubble bath.... INSTANT bubbles. And when the bubbles get too high, you turn off the jets for a bit and the bubbles go down. When they get a little too low, turn the jets back on and voila bubbles again!

Now of COURSE hubby tried to come into the bathroom.... which I wouldn't let him - he'd just interfere with my serenity. Then came little tyke- who OF COURSE insisted that SHE needed a bath. And I mean, who could blame her. So I let her in after listening to her bang on the door and whine for about three minutes. She LOVES baths now so it was fun watching her enjoy the bubbles. Of course hubby could hear that I let the billa (nickname for her) into the bathroom so he had to come and bug us. It was fun while it lasted and seemed to poop out the little tyke .and once bathtime was done I put lotion on her (with her help and insistence of course) and pajamas then off to bed she went.... without much of a fight either I might add!!!

Sometimes I just hate being in such a small house with sooo many ppl in here. It's cramped and we don't have a viable living area for just us. It sucks!!! It makes me frustrated and angry and depressed many times. It also sucks that when stuff happens around this house that I am not included in ANY of the communications because it's done in Urdu and I certainly don't understand enough of it. Of course none of his family (incl. hubby anymore) takes this into account because they're selfish (IMO) and could care less that I don't understand.

Many times I wish that I could fast forward a year and a half and be in Texas already!!! I want to be finished school, I want my RN degree to be completed and I want my OWN house with hubby SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!!!!!!!!! Where it's JUST US (and kids of course).

I know this is probably not the lightest of posts but there it is... my REAL life!

Thursday, February 9, 2012

My dinner BLEW UP!!!!

Last night when I was at work, I brought my dinner with me. My MIL had made palau - a rice dish with chicken. VERY yummy. Was VERY VERY much looking forward to eating it. So when I went on break I put my dish in the microwave, as I've done a million times!

I put it in for TWO minutes, and when the microwave said ONE second, I heard it go KABOOM. When I opened the microwave I saw this.....................


OH MY GOODNESS!!! I could barely imagine it so I took a picture - cause WHO would actually BELIEVE that this happened?!

Thankfully the cafeteria was still open, UNFORTUNATELY I ONLY had my credit card available and at the cafeteria you HAVE to buy $10 or more in order to be able to even USE it!!! Crappy part is that I'm on a diet and so it's not like I can buy pop, or chips or dessert.... they have unhealthy stuff there. So I had to buy two soups (delicious tho- butternut squash) and two vitamin waters (at $3 each which SUCKS!). I had my dinner and then went back to work.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Need my own house!

Don't know if I explained this before but we have a multi generational home. This means that there is 8 people in this house!!!


This picture pretty much shows how I feel about being in this house.... squished!!!

Now if we all actually ate at the dinner table - we would probably look like this....

I can't wait til I'm done my RN degree and we move to Texas!!!! Bring on a GIANT home, where only the husband and I with the kids live. Oh to dream of the peace and quiet!!!

I suppose it wouldn't be too too bad if we had a living room and a den or seomthing where hubby and I could escape the drama that ALWAYS ensues in this house!!!

My husband was born in Pakistan and therefore the majority of talk in this house is Urdu - the main language in Pakistan. So just imagine yourself surrounded by people who don't speak the same language talking at the same time, or as my MIL does - raise her voice, talk REALLY fast and often yells. UGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH I just want some peace and quiet!!!

THAT is why I can't wait to have a big house alllllll to ourselves!!! For now, we're just biding our time.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The "types" of doctors we have

At our hospital, we use hospitalists. They're considered MRP's or Most Responsible Physician. Frankly, I could do without several of them! Let me tell you of a couple of the ones I dislike....

Dr. A - Anything us nurses have any concerns or issues to bring up to her, she directs us to her "board" where she wants us to write them down - 3/4 of the times she doesn't even deal with the issues. She's rude and rather abrupt and does NOT come off as caring or sympathetic. VERY poor bed side manner. ANY time you need to get a urine specimen, she will ALWAYS refuse a request for an in & out. Difficult to get to speak to families.

Dr. B - Type of doctor who comes into the unit, deals with VERY little, doesn't check in with his patients and if you don't catch him while he's ON the unit, he's next to impossible to get a hold of via telephone or pages. Patients and families feel out of loop in terms of communication and doesn't tend to get a hold of families to answer questions.

Dr. C - Thinks that she's superior to nurses simply because she's a doctor (not unusual) and ANY suggestions in care go unheeded, even if it IS in the best interest of the patient. Patients and nurses alike feel that she speaks AT them.

A couple of the ones that I DO like...

Dr. D - Handsome and approachable. Too bad he and I are both married. LOL. He will actually takes nurses' suggestions, even if he thinks that it won't help (ie. lactobacillus acidophilus for a pt with C-diff). Is on the ball in terms of patient care. Spends HOURS on our unit to make sure that his patients are spoken to as well as families.

Dr. E - Just like Dr. D - is wonderful and approachable. You can tell that he cares about the well being of his patients. Will listen to nurses and implement suggestions from nurses. Is the "guru" in the physician's group - not the oldest of the doctors but nurses and doctors alike speak about him and his care, as well as his approach (in excellent terms). The running joke is that he's the ONLY doctor who orders flushes for his foleys (that works AWESOME btw at reducing the days that a patient has a UTI, and reduces the chance that a person will need CBI [continuous bladder irrigation]).

Dr. F - The ONLY female doctor that I like. She tries to talk to every nurse and seems to have a genuine interest in those that take care of her patients. She will ask for input from the nurses on the care of her patients and whether they think that her patients need anything. If you put something on her "board" you can rest assured that she WILL deal with it. ALWAYS sees her patients. ALWAYS returns pages and phone calls promptly. Is just a lovely person and doctor. She's the type of doctor that you WISH you have if you have to be admitted to a hospital.

Dr. G - wrote about him yesterday. I think that he'll be a good doctor but we'll see for sure in the upcoming weeks and months.

I have a story for you about Dr. A - I'll try to write about it later tonite or tomorrow.







A new doc - interesting one too!!!

I hurt all over from my personal training session today. My trainer's name is Megan - and man does she know how to make me hurt! I guess that's a good thing, I suppose it means that I'll build up muscle and trim down the fat. Now to just see the big changes!!!

On a different note... we got a new doctor to our unit/hospital. I like him! I like that he's down to earth, that he's willing to ask a nurse what they think about a treatment plan, that he's not afraid to ask questions when he's unsure about something, that he's a fellow muslim (though you would NEVER know that since he has a GERMAN last name... like SERIOUS german last name!). When I was talking to him, I found out that he was born in Pakistan and was adopted by a german couple - when I asked if he was christian/catholic or muslim (>95% of the population of Pakistan is muslim so the odds are good that he would be as well) and he indicated that He was muslim, and when I asked what his parents were, he indicated that they were also muslim. INTERESTING!!! I wasn't quite prepared for that one, but like I said, he is a VERY interesting person.

I'll try to write another story tomrorow... an interesting one about a doctor actually doing what is good for the patient, even if they aren't the MRP (Most Responsible Physician/GP).