I don't know how long after that the lady resident came back and said they were going to do a chest X-ray & I said "no, no X-rays". She said she'd be right back & started telling me that I needed it because they needed to rule out pneumonia and it wouldn't hurt the baby at this late stage of development and because Dr. Rand had ordered it. I told her I wanted to talk to my husband about it so she finally went & brought him back there. He said it had only been 30-45 minutes since they first took me back there. It sure seemed a lot longer than that. By the time they got back there, she'd convinced him that I needed it & he started talking me into it. I really didn't want to have one but he said all the stuff she'd said. I just kept saying I didn't want to hurt the baby. He kept saying they wouldn't do it if it would hurt her. So I finally agreed. The X-ray lady came for me and the man next door to me. She asked if I could walk & I said I didn't think so, so she put the rails up on the gurney & wheeled me down there. It was quite a ways so I wouldn't have been able to walk there. It took her awhile to get things set up. Instead of putting the shield around my waist, she hung it over a little stand & pushed it up behind me. Once she finished I had to sit & wait on the gurney in the hall while she developed it. It was getting drafty & cold out there. Guy unfolded the sheet all the way that I'd had over my legs & I covered up with it. I was still sitting up though instead of leaning back, even though the head of the gurney was still up I think.
I asked the girl if I could go to the bathroom & she said I'd have to wait til we got back to the emergency room & ask them if it was ok.
When the lady resident came back to see me, there was a male resident with her. I can't remember what all he said then but he put me on oxygen with the thing under my nose. I told him I was breathing more through my mouth than my nose. He said that was ok cause some of it would get through. When he was getting ready to leave I asked if I could go to the bathroom & he said he'd never tell a pregnant lady she couldn't go. It was on the far side of the central desk so it took awhile for me to get there even with Guy's help. They had separate men's & women's rooms.
We went back to my space to wait. The male resident had turned off the oxygen for me to go to the bathroom & shown Guy how to turn it back on. It seemed to help me breath better after awhile even though I was breathing mostly through my mouth.
At some point, the girl brought the ultrasound machine and checked my blood pressure. Then we just waited & waited. They'd left the curtain open & we could see the central desk. It didn't look like much was going on though most of the spaces were occupied. Guy had brought my medical records with us & the man had taken them and said they'd look over them & all their test results and talk to their boss.
I eventually had to go to the bathroom again. Guy had asked at some point for some ice water for me. We tried asking someone if I needed to wait til they did the ultrasound but nobody was coming our way. Guy finally went to the desk & asked & they said they'd have to ask someone else. Someone finally came & said it was ok. So we trudged on down to the bathroom again. It was a little while later the two residents came & did the ultrasound. It wasn't a very clear picture but we could at least tell that the heart was beating very well.
Then they left again & we waited some more. We were both about to fall asleep. The girl came back & told us they'd ruled out the pneumonia and kidney infection. But they weren't sure if I'd just sprained a muscle or slightly fractured a rib. They'd have to take more X-rays to check the rib & they didn't want to do that. They were going to give me some Tylenol with codeine before I left & a prescription for more for the pain. She said to just rest & use moist heat. I started crying cause I didn't want to have to take the codeine. That's what they gave me after the D&C after the miscarriage and it gave me nightmares. So I was saying all this to Guy & he told me that I needed something to take the pain away so I could rest because that's what I & the baby needed most right now - rest. I asked what effect if would have on the baby & she said it wouldn't hurt her. So I finally agreed. While we were waiting on the medicine, the male resident came by & went over what all she'd said. If I had any more problems I was to come back there. I think it was about 6:45 when we got to leave. We asked if we got a copy of everything for my records & they said we could request it through the dr. later.
There were six tablets in the bottle, I think, & I took two before we left. They were starting to take affect by the time we got home. Guy called work to let them know what was going on. (I think I mentioned he was supposed to have duty weekend.) He told them to let him know if he had to come in Sunday so he could get someone to stay with me. But they didn't ever call him.
I was pretty much out of it all day & night Saturday. Guy slept with me some when we first got home. But he made sure I ate enough through the day, even though I didn't have much of an appetite.
He called Mark (& had to leave a message) so they could announce it at church Sunday. He tried calling Carole but she was at work. He had to go to Farm Fresh to get a few things & got the medicine at their pharmacy.
Sunday he made up the sofa bed & I spent the day downstairs & we caught up on some tapes. I kind of drifted in & out from the medicine. Carole stopped by on there way to work (her babysitter lives over on Edwin). I felt a little better about the codeine after talking with her. I can't remember who called when but the ones who did call were Jill Lowell, Kathy & Mercedes.
I was gradually increasing the time between doses but had to take some to sleep at night. I didn't have a lot of nightmares like I expected. I had one pretty bad dream about Mom having a heart attack & insisting on driving us all to the hospital & she was driving very recklessly. Nothing like the nightmares about the first baby, but bad enough.
Guy had to go to work that Monday. He said he'd try to get off early but he wasn't able to. I got up & ate breakfast with him & came back to bed. He left the sofa bed out so I could stay down there to let Chief out.
Oh, he'd put the gate up overnight to keep Chief in the kitchen because Sunday he discovered a hold in the carpet next to the dining table. There were a few fibers laying around, still intact. He must have pulled them out with his teeth and eaten most of them. It was about a 1 inch, almost perfectly circular bare spot - the backing was still there cause you couldn't see the padding. We haven't gotten around to patching it yet.
I just took it easy all day Monday & Tuesday. Wednesday I had appointments all afternoon. Guy thought he'd have the afternoon off because of a small security exercise they were doing that morning. But we'd made plans in case he didn't get home in time. Barb took me to the drs' office & I was supposed to call & let her know whether or not I needed her to come pick me up.
I had an ultrasound at 2:00, non-stress test at 2:30, Dr. Rand at 3:00 & Marian McCoy at 3:30. Everyone was running behind. I told them at the front desk that Guy was supposed to meet me there & they said they'd send him back when he got there. After the girl did the drs' part of the ultrasound, she called to see if Guy had shown up & he hadn't. She was training a new girl & had her do the part for our tape. But I found out she'd had the tape on the whole time.
Anyway, it was harder to tell what was what because she was so big, she more than filled up the screen. They still say it's a girl. And they figured her weight to be 5 lbs. 11 oz. They also said her head was down.
Teri weighed me while I was waiting for the non-stress test & I'd gained 2 3/4 lbs! Exactly the same as the week before. I was really surprised & relieved about that. I was afraid I'd lost some because of hurting my back.
It was the little humpbacked nurse that did the non-stress test again this time. She's just not very friendly. She didn't say how it went but Dr. Rand said it was ok.
