Telephone Line. 12-27-11

The decision to seek care is a tough one.  I’m here on my couch with my dog, debating. Yesterday, I called about the swelling in my foot. Then, I went to Labor and Delivery for contractions. I bled from the exam. They told me to expect some residual bleeding this morning. They told me to call if I had new bleeding. So, here I am. It’s past noon, and I’m still seeing blood, still in pain, still having contractions. What do they mean by new bleeding? It’s past noon; they said to expect some blood in the morning. Do I call? Folks typically have these exams once a week at this point in their pregnancy. I can’t imagine that they would respond like this. However, and more importantly, I don’t want to abuse the system and be a pest, taking time away from someone with more important problems.

The consequences of not calling are variable. There’s the possibility of infection setting in, which could harm my little Boop. I could become even more anemic. And other problems, I don’t know. I’m just trying to keep matters from getting worse. It could be nothing. I took a shower, and that helped a bit. But then, after I went to the bathroom, it started to get worse. By that time, it was about 4pm. So, I called the office to speak to the nurse, and she called the midwife on call at the hospital in Labor and Delivery. Of course, then, I started to do better and talked myself out of going in. A little later, I got a call from the midwife in the hospital, and she thought I should come on in for a check.

Another evening in L&D. Boop started moving right on when we arrived. They put the monitors on us, and another exam—grrrr… I was between 3-4 cm dilated this time. And Boop’s head was stage 0. Actually, Boop’s head was in the way of getting a good estimate of my dilation. Come to find out, the midwife explained that she noticed that I was having a contraction as she did the exam, which made it even more painful. After monitoring me for a while, she said I was having contractions every few minutes. However, she said the key for me would be that the contractions would last longer and be more intense. I double checked on my goal dilation; I had heard 10cm. She said that was true, but that I should probably be back in L&D at 5-6cm. She told me if that if I continued to have bleeding to come on into the office tomorrow.