Another new and confused Canadian

[fiona]

Adri,

I'm glad to hear the nurse explained things so clearly. Not being able to drive is inconvenient, but makes perfect sense: if anything's likely to put up your BP it's road rage!

Is your OB a long way away? I took cabs when my husband wasn't able to give me a lift. A few dollars well spent, I'd say.

Please keep us updated - and take that rest seriously!

[alessels]

Hi Fiona,

Nope, my Doctor is close by, I will take a cab.
The thing is that my blood pressure has not been that high, I guess I am just a little confused about why they diagnosed me with PIH-Borderline PE.
I will take it easy though, only a couple of weeks left.

Thanks again for checking in on me.

Adri

[missgamecock]

Wow that's great Adri! I think I would have felt more comfortable having home nursing care too. But my ob was only a mile away, could get me in at a moment's notice and was always accessible by pager if needed.

[thw75]

Do what they say :)

I'm glad your doc and nurses are on the ball. You're just around the corner from a full term baby!

[alessels]

Hi Guys,

Had my Doctor's appointment today, I can't stand her.
While I was at the hospital I saw a High Risk Pregnancy Doctor who suggested that I get an ultrasound and a cat scan, but my idiot Doctor doesn't think it's necessary.
Apparently she know better than the Doctor that specialises in high risk pregnancies.
My head is still killing me and she basically told me to deal with it since I don't want to be taking Codeine.
The Doctors that I saw at hospital I really liked, they were more concerned with me and seemed to care more.
I already asked at the hospital to see if I could change Doctors and they said no.

Hope you are a having a great day!

Adri

[jen44]

Hi Adri,

Oh my gosh, that's really brutal that your GP is being this way. If I were you, I would force my way into the right doctor's hands, too many horror stories about bad doctors not taking us seriously enough -- I am sorry you are having these troubles.

One question - how did you arrange for the nurse to come see you at home? I think that is so great since all the activity of going to a doctor's office in your situation can be difficult especially when you are to be resting -- !

[missgamecock]

Yeah I was curious about at home nursing care. It has GOT to be easier than be on bedrest and constantly dragging yourself to the ob's office. Did they give you a reason as to why you could not switch?? I would ask. Who was it that said you couldn't switch, was it a receptionist, nurse, or the dr. I find that most of the time when I call my ob's office, he is in line with what I am thinking although his nurses are not. He usually gives different advice when I call in than the nurse. If it was a receptionist or a nurse, I would call and ask to have that dr call me back personally. They can't possibly be so busy that they can't talk with you for 5 minutes.

Your dr has the right to say no to tests they think are unnecessary because the report that they get from a peri is just suggestions and guidelines. But you can ask him to please mark it in the file that you and the peri requested these tests and he declined them. The only reason that I know that the final decision is up to your dr is because my peri warned me before she made the call that the decision to deliver was up to my ob because he was my primary care giver. She actually said let me think up a good reason to induce. But turned out Sara gave her a very good reason any way. I personally couldn't see my ob going against the peri's advice.

[alessels]

Hi Jen and Sabrina,

While I was at the Hospital I saw a high risk pregnancy Doctor who was wonderful, she was the one that discharged me and said that she was going put me in the home care program, I asked if we had to submit it to our insurance plan and she said that Alberta Health Care Plan would cover it.
I arrived home on Wednesday night, Thursday morning I got a phone call from a nurse confirming my address and telling me that she would be here at noon.
I have to say that has been one of the things that I am very impressed at from our health plan, I have lived in the States and had a really good coverage, but I know for a fact that it wouldn’t of cover this.

She came here again today, she usually looks at my chart to see what I have recorded, puts me in a monitor, answers all the questions, etc.
She asked today if we had a chance to finish the Child Birth Classes, I said no, then she said that she can loan us any videos that we would like to see and that she actually teaches Child Birth Classes and could go over anything we wanted her to.
This part of it I am very satisfied and impressed.

About the Doctor- When I asked if I could switch or not, they said that there is a pool of Doctors and you get whichever one is accepting new patients. There is a shortage of Doctors and you basically should just be grateful that you have one. Apparently there are women who just see their Family Doctor the whole time and only see an OBGYN when they walk into the hospital.
That part is scary, I keep on thinking if a family Doctor would be knowledgeable enough to deal with something as serious as PIH and other problems.

Jen- Where in Canada do you live at?

Sabrina- you were induced early because Sarah had de-cels, right?
I would hate for them to just make sure that the Baby is ok though.
I would hope that a Mom’s well being is just as important, at least I feel like my Doctor doesn’t care as much about my well- being.

Apparently the next step is to keep me on BP medication is if it doesn’t stay down, personally I don’t want that.
I feel like if I can hold this Baby until 38 weeks, it will be ideal for the baby and I can live with that, but 40-42 weeks is a lot, I am already so miserable at home and I am still not well.

I am a little concerned today because I was at home resting all day and my blood pressure has been in the lower 90’s, I hope that it doesn’t stay like this and it will go back down again. Protein wise, I have been having 1+, which I guess it is small.

Talk to you guys tomorrow.
XO, Adri

PS- Your kids are ADORABLE btw.

[missgamecock]

Well with Sara, it was the icing on the cake. My peri said as soon as she saw me that I was done. She came into the waiting room to bring me back and she said I looked awful and I told her I felt awful. She asked what my bps were and I told her. She said those are stroke level my dear. Today is the day. I told her I had been in contact with my ob. That's when she said let's find a reason to have a baby today. Then she told me it would be up to my ob for the decision. Quite frankly I think he knew I was done but he wanted the peri's advice and he absolutely wanted that last US done. When he had seen me the day before, he said that if anything changed, the peri would call him. He told me DO NOT MISS that appt. ummm, I hadn't missed one yet, I don't know why he would think I would all of a sudden start. So I don't think he was too suprised to get the call during lunch. He had my appts with him and the peri memorized. It just ended up when they did the NST, she had already left a message for him but it was lunch time and his office closes, that Sara had decels on the NST. It was after I got my medical records when I found out that they were late decels. Late decels are a bad thing because it means that something is seriously wrong. Every piece of research I could find called it omnimous. Meaning bad and she was starting to go into distress. Early decels are not as bad as late. I saw the decels on the strip at her office and thought, I have never seen that on a strip before. But everything happened so fast and she was like you have to go to the hospital NOW. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, just go. Your ob is waiting for you. She never mentioned the decels. My ob when he came over from the office to check me in said, Today is the day! I understand baby had some decels but that is ok cause she is coming out today. I was like WHAT? Then he started giving the nurse her orders for me. My OB cared about my well being, but I didn't want to be transferred like I was with Kirsten. I wanted MY doc that I had had the entire pregnancy. Unfortunately, I live in a small town that has a small rural hospital (only 126 beds). They have no advance care for sick infants and no NICU. I thought that they could care for a RSV baby cause Sara had RSV in January. Nope they transfer them by ambulance or air to Childrens. So my ob was trying to abide by my wishes but also trying to make sure that Sara could breathe on her own. When it came time to induce, the first thing I asked the peri besides asking if Sara was ok was can I go back home and have her. She said yep, but let me check with Dr XXX first because you are preterm and they may want you to go to Children's.

If your bps are high, they should not be allowing you to go overdue. I think the most my ob was willing to keep me pregnant period was 37 weeks. I am dying to know how long for next time. I figure that way I can just tell myself I am due at 37 weeks. I have a thing about not getting through the last month.

Anyway, if I ever get pregnant again, my Primary Care Dr will NOT touch me with a ten foot pole and she has already told me that. She said I was too high risk for her and that if I got pregnant I am going immediately back to my ob, no ifs, ands, or buts. I meant to ask my ob the last time if he would be taking over my total care. Meaning if I get a sinus infection, do I call him or my pcp. Last time, I saw my pcp (different one, I changed after Sara was born for bronchitis and stuff). But this pcp is clearly not comfortable with caring for me as a pregnant woman. I know that a lot of OBs will totally care for the patient while pregnant. They are also trained as pcps too. It was the mw who put me on bedrest when I came in for an appt when I had severe bronchitis. So I imagine he can do it. It would probably be easier because the pcps ask what meds can you take while pregnant, ummmm your the doc! My pcp is also not comfortable with complicated GYN issues either. She can do regular exams and some issues but I have been having awful GYN issues since Sara was born and she is like go talk with Dr XXXX about that. That is his specialty. But if it is primary care, no problem!

I can't imagine being seen by a family doc and then being delivered by someone you don't know at the hospital. Well ok I can because my ob with Kirsten dumped me and left me to rot in the hospital for 9 days before she came to see me. That was only because I called the base and said I was leaving the next day. She thought she should be the one to try and convince me to stay. HAH. I was like done with you, I want to see an American dr. So I had a dr that I did not know and drs that I did not have a clue as to who they were caring for me. It was like a dark curtain and not knowing anything. The only reason I know I was passed from each oncall doc was because I finally got my medical records. There were only four times that I remember talking with a dr in the days before and after delivery. Once when they came in and said that they were terminating the pregnancy (sounds like I was having an abortion or something, it was awful to hear that), once when I crashed and the dr on call said I was really sick and they needed to start another iv line (mag sulfate, ick), when Kirsten was born, and when my original ob tried to talk me into staying a few more days. Kirsten was born in a Belgian hospital because we were living overseas at the time with the military.

Being on bp medicine, while it is awful to be on is probably for the best. I certainly didn't want to be on it and every time my ob raised it made me think My goodness if this is hard on me what is it doing to my baby. However my ped says that is what allowed Sara to grow and be healthy. I wasn't nearly on as much meds with Kirsten (27 weeks, 750mg of Aldomet a day) vs Sara (17 weeks, increased with frequency to 2000mg of Aldomet and 60mg of Procardia a day). My ped says that that made all the difference for Sara that I had good prenatal care.

Wow this got long. Sorry. You are going tobe fine. Just stay on top of things and head on in if needed. Let us know how things are going.

[fiona]

Adri,

I was just reading about the situation in Alberta in the paper this week. It seems that there's a major crisis in maternity provision due to the booming economy - and a booming birthrate.

Still, I'm surprised you can't get a referral to a high risk OB - most regular Drs don't want the responsibility of a difficult pregnancy. Can you be signed over just to the Peri?

I think it's great that the nurse is coming in and you're being closely monitored.