Tuesday, January 10, 2012

My Nightmare Hospital Ordeal & Emergency D&C

When I started the misoprostal on Wednesday to help me begin to miscarry I thought my whole ordeal was about to be on the way to being over.  I was bleeding, passing clots, all normal in a miscarriage.  Then on Saturday evening, things went horribly, horribly wrong.

I began vomiting around 10pm.  And I mean violently vomiting.  By 3am, I had vomited 20+ times and had a fever of 100.  It was time to go to the ER.

We made the mistake of going to our local little emergency room at a small hospital around the corner.  HUGE mistake.  We waited for 30 in a room before anyone would even bring me blanket.  No one took my temp.  I explained that I knew I was miscarrying but started days prior and had no idea if this was related.  6 hours later, I can barely walk, I am painfully feverish, vomiting nonstop, worst diarrhea of my life.  They tell me there is nothing they can do for me there and are transferring me via ambulance to the large Orlando hospital that my Ob/Gyn office is affiliated with.


2 hours later they finally take my temperature and it's almost 104.  I am STILL at the crappy little hospital.  Let me also say that at this point I have not received one single iota of compassion from any doctor or nurse.  When I couldn't walk anymore I begged for a bedpan to urinate it.  Nurse refused because she didn't want to clean anything.  I finally flip out and tell them that if they don't transfer me within 30 min I am going home and whatever happens to me is on them.  The doctor is rude and horrible.  All I want to do is go home. 

The ambulance finally arrives and I am buckled into the stretcher.  Right before they have drugged me up so much that I barely have an idea of where I am.  Some thirty minutes later we arrive at the hospital.

At the larger hospital everything is different.  I am put in the high risk perinatal section and the nurses are kind, sympathetic, and compassionate.  I see one of the doctors from my practice and he disappoints me very much.  He is not my regular doctor there but I HAVE seen him and he in fact did my last two ultrasounds and put me on the misoprostal.  He is convinced my sickness has NOTHING to do with my miscarriage and that I am either sick with the flu or food poisoning.  Well, I test negative for the flu.  And there is no way it's from food poisoning.  Everyone in my family ate the SAME exact things I ate.  No one else was sick.  It was like he was ignoring me.  He said he'd order an ultrasound.

8 hours later I am STILL waiting for my ultrasound.  Finally at 10:30pm I am brought down to get my u/s.  It shows there is still a little tissue remaining in my uterus.

At 11:30pm another doctor from my practice comes on duty and comes to see me.  This is when things finally began to change.  Before Dr. Hill in, he obviously read my file.  He sat on the end my bed, patted my knee and said how sorry he was for my loss.  Do you know that is the FIRST time any doctor told me that since I found out I would miscarry?  He said he reviewed the u/s and there is some tissue left but not a lot.  But then he said he wanted to do a pelvic exam and if he could actually feel the tissue he wanted to do a D&C because he was worried about how sick I was.  He found my cervix closed and felt tissue stuck in there.  Because of all my symptoms, he said he thinks I have an infection due to an incomplete miscarriage.  My fever at this point is 103.

One hour later I am being prepped for surgery.  My husband is standing beside me and right before they roll me into the room and I begin sobbing.  He looks at me with tears in his eyes, tells me he loves me, and that he'll be right there when I get out.

I wake up about an hour and a half later.  Already my fever is down to 99.  I am groggy and out of it but so glad it's over.  My husband stays with me until I am brought back to my room to sleep for the night.  I was up to Dr. Hill checking on me at 6:30am to tell me that since my fever has continuously gone down immediately following the operation that it obvious to them it was infection.  Part of the placenta was still inside me causing it.   But he said the surgery went well and there should be no reason I can't get pregnant again.  I just want to say I am extremely grateful to Dr. Hill.  His kindness and compassion makes him a wonderful doctor.  Instead of making me wait longer, he took me seriously and acted immediately.

At 5pm the next day I am finally discharged.  My fever has stayed at 98.6 since surgery.  They tried to make me stay the night for more observation, but I refused.  I was done.  I was ready to go home.

I am so utterly exhausted by everything I went though.  It's so hard to heal emotionally when you're going through such crazy stuff physically.  All I can take from this is that I am a stronger person for getting through it.  I refuse to let all of this keep me down.

I will get pregnant again.  We will get our take down home baby and that family we want so badly. I have faith.

1 comment:

  1. Wow. Just... wow. First- I'm glad you're ok. And relieved that things are ok-enough for you to still try again. I'm sorry for all the things your body and those terrible medical people have put you through. No one deserves that.
    Second- I seriously recomend you send a copy of this post to the hospital board of directors. Seriously. Dont send it to a head doctor. Dont send it to a manager. Send it right to the board of directors. Working in health care, I can tell you thats the best way to make sure the problem actually gets acknowledged and not covered up by doctors protecting each other.

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