We made our first L&D run last night. Nope, I'm not in labor and nothing's wrong with the baby. See, the Mister and I have had this Damn Cough for the past, oh, month or six weeks or however long it's been. Forever, basically. Besides some congestion and the nasty stuff we cough up, there are really no other symptoms. Just a Damn Cough, but a particularly bad one -- deep and painful while it lasts. Wakes you up in the middle of the night (as if peeing every two hours and jumping out of bed multiple times a night to walk off leg/foot/shin cramps isn't enough!)
I've also had tenderness towards the lower back part of my left rib cage for the past few weeks. It was mildly annoying, but I figured it was just my ribs stretching out because the baby is growing. Last night, while we were driving to our last birthing class, I coughed once. And, as the Mister told me later, I sprang forward like someone hit me with a baseball bat. Apparently, the baby wasn't causing my tender ribs -- it was actually inflammation of the cartilage between the ribs, caused by the Damn Cough. And that one cough pushed my poor cartilage over the edge -- it tore. Who knew there were so many nerves in rib cartilage?!
I sat through our class in excruciating pain, then we drove home, with me whimpering and wincing over every bump and jounce. While the Mister paid the sitter and put Squeaker to bed, I called the OB advice nurse. Funny how once you mention you're 30 weeks pregnant, things move along speedily! They told me to come in. By this time Squeaker was asleep, so we loaded him, his blankets, and some snacks in the car and off we went.
The L&D nurses were very nice, got me set up on the monitor (painful, because they made me lie down), told me who the doctor on call was.
And then things got weird.
I looked at the Mister. "We know her." "Yeah, her name is familiar. Who is she?" "We dealt with her 3 years ago." "Ohhhh ... yeah ..." The nurse was listening to this with great interest. I didn't give her the details, but told her that the doctor would probably remember me and that it might be awkward.
Soon the nurse came back in. "Time for an honesty talk. She definitely remembers you! She said 'She doesn't like me.' and offered to send for another doctor. There's one in the hospital. She said she knew you were pregnant and would love to see your family, but will understand if you'd rather see the other doctor." The nurse was clearly intrigued by the drama.
I thought about it for a moment, but my back was hurting so badly that the thought of any delay while they hunted down the other doctor was too much to handle. "Nope, it's fine. Send her in. It was 3 years ago, and has nothing to do with tonight. It's fine." And pretty soon, the doc came in, wearing that same half-apologetic expression that drove me nuts when she was my OB. I could tell she didn't know what to do, so I reached out my hand and shook hers, told her it was nice to see her. She realized we were going to play the "let's be professionals about this" game, and I could almost see her heave a sigh of relief.
She asked us lots of questions about Squeaker (who was snoring on the Mister's lap) and then got down to business figuring out what was wrong with me and how we could treat it. We considered a chest x-ray to check for a cracked rib, but I decided not to go down that road unless things get worse. Once she said "torn cartilage", I thought yeah, that's exactly what it feels like. No need to expose Sister to radiation if we don't have to. So, other than pain management, the main thing that I need to do is avoid inflaming my battered ribs more than they already are. They gave me a narrow wrap to wear around my ribs (and above my belly) to help keep the area immobile, then ran some tests to make sure I didn't have a urinary tract infection and called down to the pharmacy for some meds, which took freaking forever.
In the meantime, Squeaker woke up and was more than a bit surprised and upset to find himself in a hospital. We explained that mommy had an owie and was waiting for the doctor to bring her some medicine. He was still upset, so we held him and fed him crackers until he calmed down. Finally, at 2am, they let us go.
I still don't like that doctor and I would never trust her with a pregnancy that wasn't completely normal and low-risk. But, bless her heart, she sent me home with a prescription for Vic*odin and cough syrup with codeine. By the time we got home, I was feeling no pain and ready for bed. This morning I'm tired and sore, and called in sick. The knife-like pain only comes when I cough. I'm going to try to avoid picking Squeaker up for a few days, but he has his surgery next week, so ... here's hoping I've healed a bit before then.