07-7-2009 - I'm no prisoner! Ugh! Doctors!

My mood while writing this blog: Ahhhhhh!

Well, I just got home from the hospital. I'm furious! Okay, so between the office and the hospital, the dr took 3 samples of urine to test for protein. NO PROTEIN IN ANY OF THEM! She finally decided I don't have Preeclampsia but my real doctor says I do. Oh, this is the on call doctor by the way as mine is on vacation. Soooo.... The first night, she tells me if I have no more headache and no more pains in my right side that I can go home in the morning. Well, the next morning she comes in and I'm expecting to go home since I feel great. Nope. She want to see my urine culture since 1 urine test says I might have an infection. So she says the pain in my side is from the UTI. Says that she'll come back in the afternoon and let me go as soon as she finds out what bacteria I have growing. So this is the 2nd time I've been told I can go home. My blood pressures look great, no protein in my urine, my swelling is way down... At 2:00 in the afternoon the nurse comes in with a 24-hour urine specimen jug!!! I asked if that meant I'd be there for another 24 hours, she said yes, and I just cried. I mean, really the 24 hour urine really should have started once I was admitted. Especially since she said I could leave! I asked the nurse if she thought I could take it home and do it at home. She said maybe she'd ask the doctor. The doctor FINALLY said I could take the urine home. I was so releived. So then after a while, the doctor comes in and she doesn't want me to leave! After she said I could for the 3rd time. Finally, she agreed to let me go on a few conditions... no visitors, bedrest, 24-hour urine, and I have to check my blood pressure every 4 hours and call her every 24 hours with my bp readings. I agreed. So, I sent my husband out to buy a few groceries and buy me an automatic blood pressure cuff. Before he even comes back, the nurse comes in with papers for me to sign out against medical advice! Along with discharge instructions. I told her I was under the impression that the doctor was going to write the order for me to leave. I'm ready to explode! If I sign out, insurance won't cover my stay. I told her I wasn't signing out. Nothing about this was discussed with me! How can she write my instructions and no order for me to leave??? She called the dr and asked if it was a mistake and the the dr said no. She didn't want me to leave. I cried again. I was so frustrated. I mean, this is like the 3rd time I'm told I can go and then she basically changes her mind. The nurse called her again and she FINALLY agreed to write the order. I literally felt like I was imprisoned.

She wanted me to stay in the hospital so that I could be induced at 37 weeks. She wanted to induce me over 2 or 3 days! I mean, I would have been there for over a week! Racking up a nice huge bill. My real doctor on the other hand does NOT want me induced before I am 39 weeks. I've never felt so stuck. I was not about to let her induce me anyway. She's a nice doctor and good at what she does, but she's a bit of a worry wart. I dont' know how many times she diagnosed me with preeclampsia and the said it wasn't that at all. She doesn't know my baselines. She doesn't know my history. I think it's basically stepping on my doctors toes to try to induce me before he said he wants it done. I wanted to get in touch with my doctor so bad. i was getting kind of scared. But there was no way to speak to him since he was on vacation.

All my tests came back fine. Nothing was wrong. She eventually told me that my urine culture was negative. So my urinalysis says infection and the culture says nothing is growing.... And no wonder my blood pressures were up and down. She got me all worked up so many times! And my doctor thinks I'm okay just to stay home...

Mike was getting mad too. The whole situation was crazy. I will say thought that the nurses went way beyond what they had to to make sure I was happy and taken care of. I honestly don't want to go back though. It would have been worth it to have my baby. But I honestly think I'd be fine at home. She's so afraid of me having seizures... but can't diagnose me with preeclampsia because I don't have all the symptoms. My doctor says I have it, she said I don't... then I do... then I don't. I just don't know!

I am sooooooo glad to be home. I think I'll do better here. All I wanted was to come home. I will do what I told her. I'll check my BP every 4 hours and remain on bedrest with limited visitors. I'll do the 24 hour urine which will probably say I'm not spilling protein like the rest of the specimens. My dr said i had trace protein. But preeclampsia isn't diagnosed until there is +1 or +2 protein.

I never expected all of this just because I had a pain in my kidney area... The nurses at the hospital even say that this dr is pretty intense and worries a lot. I'm just glad I'm home.