Hospital visit

First, everything is fine. I got home from the hospital yesterday and used the doppler and found Boh's heartbeat quickly. I also found it quickly this morning.

I ended up at the hospital yesterday afternoon because I hadn't been able to pee since 11pm on Thursday night. Everything was normal when I went to bed. I got up at 2am and took my prenatal and got up to pee and could only get a few drops out. I went back to bed, hoping things would be different when I got up again. I got up at 4am and still couldn't pee and it was getting uncomfortable. This happened when I was pregnant with Jacob too and resolved itself within a few hours, so although it was really frustrating, I hoped that I would be able to pee a few hours later.

I got up around 6:10am and tried again. Nothing. I leaned backwards and forwards and from side to side while trying and nothing. I even stood in the shower in case standing would relieve pressure on my urethra and I didn't get a drop.

I decided to go to work because I figured that I would be able to pee a few hours later. I was uncomfortable on the way to work, especially when I had to stand up or sit down or walk, but I got to work. I wanted to look up causes of problems urinating, but my internet was down which increased my frustration. Sheila came to my desk around 9:30 and asked if I was ok, saying I looked really pale. I told her the problem and she said I better leave and see my doctor, that the baby is my priority and I better go. Around this time Ted called and I said I still hadn't peed and he said that I had to do something about it too. So I called my doctor's office and got an appointment at 2:20pm, which seemed like really far away but I figured I could stand it (I hadn't had anything to drink since 2am because I didn't want to make the problem worse).

Ted found out the time and insisted I call back and ask for an earlier one and said maybe we should just go to the hospital. I really wanted to avoid the hospital because there are so many people there with coughs and colds and flu. I called my doctor's office back and they said I could see someone else at 11:40, so we left work right away and got the next train. I had tried peeing about 4 times at work, and on the train (in a tiny bathroom - wasn't pleasant) and it hurt so much every time I tried. I felt like I was bursting, but not a drop would come out and the pressure and pain got worse when I tried and I was so frustrated and in tears. Ted was so sweet and supportive. While on the train, he said that if I think I can pee, just wet my pants, it doesn't matter and it will be our secret. I wish I could have.

It got so painful on the train, that I thought putting my legs up would help, but it was too painful to lift them up myself, so Ted lifted them up and down. I cried in the car on the way to the doctor's because the bumps in the road had me in agony. We got to the doctor's office, I checked in and they told me to sit down in the waiting room. Ted went up and told them that it's an emergency, that I'm in a lot of pain and that I'm pregnant. They asked if I could provide a urine sample and handed him the container. We said that is the problem, I can't do it. So they led me back to a room and the nurse practitioner came in shortly after and said I looked like I was in pain right away. She wanted me to lie down on the table so she could feel my belly and they both had to help my down because my belly hurt so much. I told her she couldn't press hard and she didn't, but said I had to go to the hospital, that I need a catheter and they don't do it there. I was so desperate for relief I felt like crying but didn't.

So we got to the hospital and I signed in and was sent to another waiting room quickly. I thought that I just might be seen quickly since I didn't have to wait in the general waiting room at all. But the second waiting room was busy and I cringed everytime a person with a cold or cough walked by me. I couldn't sit back in my chair because the pain was too awful, I had to sit on the edge, hunched over and I could barely move my legs around. Ted went in after 45 minutes and asked how long it would be, said the pain was getting worse and reminded them that I'm pregnant. I kept hoping my OB would walk by since she had OR time on Friday's and I would run after her begging for help, but she never did (well, there is no way I could have followed her quickly - Ted would have had to do it).

The pain was terrible, but we were really worried about Boh.

About 10 minutes later, a nurse came out and said "Can't pee?" and looked at me. I didn't even care that the whole waiting room heard it, relief was in sight. She took me to a bed and I changed into the hospital gown and she asked me to lie back. I said I couldn't, so she put the bed back a lot, but not completely and scanned my bladder and found that I had about a liter of urine in there. My belly looked weird and so abnormal. I have a good baby bump now, but it was like there was a balloon on top of that that was extremely tight and huge. She said they would drain it, but I had to see the doctor first, which thankfully didn't take very long for him to come in and go through my history.

The nurse, Mona, came back in and said she could do the catheter now and I was so grateful to her. I had to lie back again, but the pain was worth it because I knew that relief would come soon. It didn't feel great having the catheter put in, but it was nothing compared to the pain in my belly. It wasn't instant relief, but gradual and I felt better after about a minute and the change in the size of my belly was amazing. I could actually move without pain again.

The catheter was left in for 2 hours and I drank a huge cup of water (I wanted to drink it fast so it would work its way through while I still had the catheter in). It was one of the best glasses of water I've ever tasted (even though drinking ice water so fast gave me the chills for awhile and Ted got me another blanket). While waiting for the lab results, we listened to the stories of the people in the beds on either side of us, looked at xrays on the computer on the nurses station, and tried to figure out the system of the
panel on the wall across from the bed where they keep track of patients (there were flashing lights on different buttons to say what the status was. For me, it was flashing on Lab).

Ted had to pee the whole time, but wasn't going out of sympathy. He finally went around 3:30, 1.5 hours after I got the catheter. In total, just over a liter of urine was drained (1300cc) and I felt like a new person.

Mona came back in after a while and said that my urine came back negative for bacteria and that they would run a culture on it over the next 48 hours and call me if anything shows up, but most likely it is just one of those crazy pregnancy things. She said sometimes the muscles just forget what they are supposed to do and that it probably won't happen again, but if it does I will have to come back and have a catheter for a few days. I'm so happy to say that I've been able to pee about 5 times since I got home and I will never take peeing for granted again. It hurts a little when I go, but it is getting better and better and likely just hurts because of the catheter.

Ted was so great throughout it all. To think that at first I told him he didn't have to leave work and come with me, that I could just go to the doctor's alone. Later he told me that there was no way he was going to take the chance on getting another phone call at work with bad news (which is what happened when we found out Jacob had died).

They didn't check the baby at the hospital. If I didn't have a doppler at home I would have asked them to do it there, but I got home and checked and Boh's heartrate was great. I checked again this morning and found it right away and it was great again.

So that is our first, and hopefully last, hospital trip before Boh is full term and I'm in labour.