Hospitals Part 2

Make sure to read Hospitals Part 1 first.

So I do as the nurses told me and I go home, take Tylenol, and use a heating pad. I wake up the next morning in even more pain. I called my doctor and he tells me to get to the Roswell labor and delivery as soon as possible.

I have to drive myself the 80 miles while in pain because my husband had to go to work. I get to labor and delivery and of course the first thing they have me do is pee and hook me up to the monitors. By then my contractions had stopped but my heart rate would not go under 135. They placed an order to get labs done and my urine comes back with blood and protein right away plus I have a 100.4 degree temperature. I was lucky my doctor was on call and in there at the time because he was doing a delivery. After the delivery he came and checked on me and started me on an IV and antibiotics right away. My blood work comes back and confirms I have a UTI. He explains this is why my back is in such constant pain. He said blood in your urine is very painful. Just like if you have cysts on your ovaries that bust, it isn't the cysts or the burst that hurts but the blood that comes out. It can also cause preterm labor and that is why I was having the contractions.

Baby was doing fine the whole time. The staff were extremely nice and never made comments or complained even when I had to go pee every 45 min and they had to help me. They were so busy that I was in the triage room with 2 other girls, one whom had her baby that morning, but never did they try to rush me to leave and they still constantly checked on me. The nurse even searched the hospital for a fan because I was so hot. My fever was already down but my face stayed red. Around 3 in the afternoon my husband got to the hospital because he left work early since I was in so much pain. The whole time I was in the hospital the baby was doing great but my heart rate wouldn't go under 135 and would spike several times at 265 and I was just laying in bed not moving. They believe this was the cause of me being so hot and red. At the end of the day around 6:30 my doctor came and I let him know I was still in extreme pain. He said he figured so and because it was pretty bad he wanted to keep me over night. As soon as a room opened around 7pm it was time to move me but the nurse let me know they were able to give me something for the pain. They had given me Demerol and Phenergan. I was on cloud 9 right away. I felt good, maybe a little high but so good. I couldn't feel the pain.

I finally got to the room and my husband was able to get us something to eat but I still wasn't too hungry. I also was falling asleep this whole time because I didn't really sleep the night before or that day. For once I was comfortable even though they had to come in throughout the night to check vitals and change medicines. I got such a good nights sleep and felt so much better the next morning. They did more blood work and found my iron was really low. I didn't get released until about 5 pm that next night but they took really good care of me.

All of this could have been prevented at the first hospital I went to if they just would have gave me antibiotics at Carlsbad Medical Center and did blood work but they refused to treat me because I wasn't seeing their doctors.  No wonder people here spend the extra time and money to go to see hospitals and doctors out of town.