March 29,1999 was supposed to be one of the greatest days in our lives. We were to have our first baby this day. Unfortunately, I had to be induced because of the size of our baby boy. It started at 6:00 A.M. I was to check into St. Francis Hospital to have labor induced. Everything was fine for the first few hours.
The pill that was administered to induce labor didn't work so the next choice was a drug called Pitocin. This is a very strong drug. They started this at 8:30 A.M.in an IV drip. Labor started about 10 minutes later and the so-called Dr. I had decided to break my water, too. Funny thing, his named is Dr. Poore. Things got going and were very painful.
They decided my labor wasn't going fast enough for them so they upped the Pitocin levels to as high as a person is allowed to have it dosage-wise. The contractions were coming every 20-30 seconds with no intervals to breathe and I was panicking at this point.
I opted for an epidural to control the pain. However, the Dr. Schumacher that administered the epidural didn't do it correctly and it ended up only taking on one side of my body; the left side. Therefore, I felt the labor all the way through it anyway on the right side. There was a nurse named Martha that was supposed to be the labor and delivery nurse assigned to me. She was rude and very rough when doing checks to see how far along I was.
When it came time to do the pushing she wouldn't let me push in any position that I wanted to. Folks, gravity helps when you are pushing a baby out and they made me do it ALL on my back! This was awful as the baby couldn't get under the pelvic bone far enough to get out.
After three hours of pushing and MARTHA telling me I was failing at having a baby and calling me a "whimp" most of the time they said I had to have a cesarean. I was relieved actually as I was dead tired and ready to have this kid out. They prepped me for the operating room adding more painkiller to the epidural in order to have surgery required.
Once in the operating room the procedure began. My blood pressure started to drop so instead of increasing the IV drip to add more fluid to my body they rolled up the bag and blew my vein in my arm where the needle was. Of course, I asked later why my arm was almost twice the size of the other one and they couldn't believe that had happend. Oh me!!! They moved the needle to the other arm. I asked them to NOT put me back on IV drip as I was fine.
Half way through the procedure of getting the baby out, guess what happend??? My epidural wore off on the right side and I was feeling everything from some cutting to sucking me out with a vacuum hose, the internal stitching and the stapling. I was screaming and yelling at them and they told me it was "just a sensation of pressure and pulling." I know my body and it was not "just a sensation of pressure and pulling." It was worse than the labor pain itself!
They told me I had had the limit for anesthetic in the epidural itself so I had to wait until they put the 24-hour "Duramorph" (morphine) in the needle site of the epidural. At one point I grabbed Dr. Poore's arm and he screamed at me to move my hand due to infection that could be present on my hand (the surgical site was still open).
I got all done and into my room. The next day nobody told me I had to ask for my pain medicine so I was hurting most of the day. I finally asked for some and they said, "we do not offer it regularly, you have to ask for it." I also found out I should have been up an walking and nobody had told me that.
The nurse I had in post-partum was surprised I hadn't been up yet. She said, "you are to be discharged tomorrow so you need to be able to walk this corridor at least once around with no help." EXCUSE ME!!! I had never had major surgery before and like I am supposed to figure this out on my own. It hurt like hell to try to do this myself, but I made myself because I wanted out. MORONS!!! Not one nurse gave me the same information twice on the ward regarding lactation, post-surgical care, etc.
They all gave their opinion which was very confusing to me. Finally, I asked to speak with a lactation consultant and they complied with my request. I asked for help with taking a shower and they said they do not do that.
Fortunately, my husband was there and he helped me. What happened to nurses that used to "help" their patients? I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER use this hospital again. We have been there after this for other medical needs to have crummy rude nurses and doctors and to have their billing all screwed up as well!!! Think twice before you pick a hospital supposedly rated in the "Top 100 in the nation." That's a joke!!!
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