November 29, 2006 | Filed under: un-vlogged
Me: Unfortunately since you might be in preterm labor, you can’t eat anything from this point on. You can suck on some ice chips, though, or your Mom can go downstairs and get you a popsicle if you want.
Pt: I can’t eat anything?
Me: Sorry, hon. Just ice.
Pt: Nothing.
Me: Nope.
Pt: Nothing at all?
Me: No.
Pt: Really nothing? Like nothing?
Me: Nothing.
Pt: Not even a salad?
Me: …
(because this is what converations with 15-year-olds can be like, even when they are pregnant and about to become adults-by-default…sometimes I forget)
11:09 pm
November 30, 2006
@ 7:04 am
Pro teen pregnancy, anti teen pregnancy — it’s not really for me to judge.
But, I will say this …
I don’t care what anyone says, it must be really difficult to raise a kid when you’re that young. I honestly hope that woman ( … um, sorry … *GIRL*) has a loving and supportive family to help her out with the long road that most definitely lies ahead.
December 1, 2006
@ 9:48 am
COMMENT on comment…Girls used to use husbands for that purpose.
December 1, 2006
@ 5:29 pm
Oh, but I wasn’t letting him off of the hook …
I was making the assumption (perhaps, incorrectly), that the guy who got her pregnant would see it as his *responsibility* to take care of the kid.
“Helping out with the kids” is a phrase that I reserve for people who didn’t actually have a hand in creating the kid. For example, when I’m in Illinois, I sometimes help my sister out with her kids. Her husband, on the other hand, isn’t “helping out” — he’s being their father.
December 4, 2006
@ 1:11 pm
Interesting points: in this case, this kid’s family was so wildly enthusiastic about her having this baby that it occurred to me more than once that perhaps they had made a deal to sell it to someone for upwards of $100,000. I’ve never seen anyone so truly elated at a 15-year-old being pregnant. Ever. It was very surreal. The only one not particularly jazzed was her. The father of the baby was on-hand, which is a little unusual in a case with a mom that young–often older men are the impregnaters, and the girls’ Mothers don’t go for that at all. I found it fairly encouraging that he was there, taking responsibility (or at least expressing interest)but I became deflated when I came into the room and found him keeping busy with a coloring book instead of offering support for his babymomma.
A coloring book.
December 6, 2006
@ 8:12 am
me oh my…
coloring book…
December 7, 2006
@ 12:43 am
The other side of the coin:
Patient: I’m in transition.
Nurse: You just get into bed; I’ll tell you when you’re in transition.
…exam takes place
Nurse: GET HER TO DELIVERY NOW!!!!!
…birth
Patient: When a mother who is delivering her 5th child tells you she is in transition, BELIEVE HER!!!
December 13, 2006
@ 10:41 am
Oy.Freakin.Gevalt.
January 10, 2007
@ 10:25 am
I must do this on a daily basis with my patients. It’s almost like they think I’m depriving them of food on purpose, or that I’m lying to them about being NPO or ice chips only.
I even have some patients who will ask every time I come in their room if they can eat, after explaining about why they are NPO/ice chips only.
February 3, 2007
@ 8:49 pm
This is where you bring in an ice-chip salad, with water dressing.