Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Jan
31
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Don’t You Think It Was Nice How She Was Making Up All Those Sensations
“Don’t you think it was nice how she was making up all those sensations?” – OB to nurse in the OR after a cesarean section, where the mother needed general anesthesia due to pain. The mother regained consciousness and this was the first thing she heard.
There are 31 comments to this post.
road2vba2c had this to say,
Jan 31, 2012 @ 5:28 am (Quote)
And that would be the last thing he said in my presence! FIRED!
OP, I’m so sorry about your idiot doctor, and that you had to have a c-section, and that you missed your baby’s birth! 
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but during a c-section there is a big sheet that is obscuring the mom’s view. How would she know to react at the exact moment that you’re cutting into her when she can’t see it?
And score me another reason to fear the hell out of doctors.
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My mom had problems with feeling her c-section. The doctors took a bit to figure it out since the epidural had been working fine at first. Turned out someone was standing on the tubing and blocking the medication from getting to her. Just because it was working doesn’t mean it is now! And sometimes they never can get them to work properly. Why would they assume the mom was faking it?
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Beth had this to say,
Jan 31, 2012 @ 6:34 am (Quote)
This sounds to me like the OB was happy she ended up with general so he didn’t have to deal with her during the surgery. No reason to talk to, or comfort or explain things to, an unconscious woman.
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Mom of One Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 11:09 am (Quote)
They don’t need to put her to sleep for that. I was awake and no one bothered to talk to me, comfort me or explain anything anyway! (But I agree with your point 
)
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My friend had to have a C because of Meconium and her laboring to long (they called it at 29h), and she told the OB she was transferred to that she was allergic to Stainless steel so he would have to suture and she preferred a double layer. He rolled his eyes at her and when he went to close he attempted to use staples after she has explicitly told her not to. Her Doula and midwife started yelling at him to stop and the doula ran out to get her father-in-law who is a dr to confirm she was actually telling the OB the truth. The OB really wasn’t happy with her after that.
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Jane Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 9:25 am (Quote)
I hope she filed a report with the state over that!
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Me Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 10:23 am (Quote)
Well I hope the OB had his ass chewed out for that. But that would be hopeful thinking.
You would THINK that when someone says they have an actual allergy (not a sensitivity, not a preference, but an ALLERGY) that doctors would take that seriously… =(
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Lexie Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 1:25 pm (Quote)
He just thought she didn’t want the extra scarring from the staples and that was what her midwife coached her to say. He didn’t realize that she was also a doula and knew what was going on in the first place.
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Isella Reply:
February 2nd, 2012 at 2:36 am (Quote)
I just have to say sensitivities can be very serious, too. I have to lie a lot and say ‘allergy’ because no one takes ‘sensitivity’ seriously. Expose me to the wrong thing and I WILL get very sick even though it’s technically not an allergic reaction (I have MCS).
That’s kind of another topic though… I just had to cringe at the thought of dismissing sensitivities like they’re nothing, too.
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Heather had this to say,
Jan 31, 2012 @ 9:41 am (Quote)
Those darn women. First they doubt your authority over routine ultrasounds and testing, then they come in labor and want to defy your authority again by declining pit and wanting to actually walk around in labor, and then when you finally jump onto doing a csection, those women complain and pretend they could still feel when all the machines state she is paralyzed.
When will those darn women jut lay down and take it like a good patient?!
One of the many reasons I dislike doctors. I am not afraid to question your authority over me and my child.
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Alyson Miers had this to say,
Jan 31, 2012 @ 10:06 am (Quote)
What exactly is Dr. Douchewaffle’s logic here? Does s/he think Mama was faking the sensations because she wanted to be put under general? Sure; any woman would actually prefer to be unconscious when her baby takes its first breath! *eyeroll*
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This happened to my sister as well. They started to cut her, which she felt, and she screamed. At first they said she couldn’t possibly feel anything as they’d tested her; however, they’d only tested her left side, where the epidural worked, but not her right, where she felt everything. Finally, her blood pressure went up so high they realized she wasn’t lying. Freaking out, they put her under general. Now, that is where things get really great as they did this knowing she has apnea; when they tried to wake her up later, she didn’t breathe on her own and they had to call a code blue and intubate her. She spent 7 days in ICU without once seeing her baby (he was not allowed there). They never apologized for anything.
Now, I don’t believe this is anything to do with C-sections=bad (because I had to have one and it was actually not that bad) but rather more to do with some doctors=thoughtless, incompetent douchebags. Perhaps my sister’s and the poster’s doctors went to medical school together and took How-To-Treat-Patients-Like-Crap101…
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Jane Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 10:40 am (Quote)
Ugh. How awful for her.
Sometimes when I want to cry after reading the horrible things on this site, I comfort myself by pretending they’re all about *only one doctor,* only one doctor who said all these awful things, only one nurse, only one midwife, only one lactation consultant…. And we’ve all just been unlucky enough to see this one bad doctor. *sigh*
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Rebecca Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 12:03 pm (Quote)
I console myself with something similar. I figure that some of these doctors, it was also *their* worst day and they said something stupid or things didn’t go well and they didn’t handle it as well as they could have.
I also figure at least some of these doctors learned from these experiences. I know many didn’t, but every one who does is a victory. I know of a number of birth professionals who have read the site, and it makes them aware of how some of the things they have said/done were perceived.
Get enough of them to change and we’ll have to change it to thoughtful through the week and make thursdays thoughtless
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Leah Spencer Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 12:32 pm (Quote)
Unfortunately, it’s probably a lot more common than we are aware of. My aunt was having a surgery to remove a tumor and woke up in the middle of the surgery. But because they had also given her a drug to prevent her from moving, she couldn’t even open her eyes to tell them what was going wrong. Her blood pressure was shooting WAY up, and about 15 minutes later she finally was able to whisper “help”.
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Oh mama! I’m so sorry!
My doctor didn’t believe me either when I was screaming that I could feel being cut open. He told me I was just feeling pressure! I screamed that I had had a section before and I know what I felt wasn’t pressure! Then I blacked out for about 30 minutes. I don’t think they ever believed me and I still have panic attacks and nightmares from the memories.
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Oh geez, at least when my mom had a c/s in ’81 with my younger brother where the spinal didn’t work and she had bronchitis so she couldn’t have a general, they believed that she could feel it! And by all accounts, were very respectful and good-humored about the whole thing.
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I had spinal for my c-section, and I’m so glad it worked, one of my fears was having to be unconscious. I knew if it came to the point where it was a choice between my child’s safety and GA I’d say knock me out now and I’ll sign papers later. It almost came down to that,but thankfully the spinal worked.
I’d be willing to guess probably 99% or higher would prefer being conscious but unable to feel pain over GA for a surgical birth. There’s not anything appealing to me about GA at all.
The techs were really kind, they talked with me about little things like birth dates or whatever to help me keep my mind off the bizarre sensations of having my internal organs rearranged. An emergency surgery doesn’t HAVE to be nightmarish, all it takes is remembering that the person under the blue sheets is a human being, a mother, and quite possibly very worried/terrified for her baby. A little kindness goes a LONG way.
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Aunt4God Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 3:08 pm (Quote)
I totally agree w/the fact that most mothers want to be conscious during their baby’s birth, even through a c-section. I do, and I wish, if it came to a section, that a spinal/epidural was feasible for me. The only thing is, they scare me much more than GA….I have what’s called hypermobility, and spinals and epidurals can be more ineffective for me than most people. I have been under GA before and I know it works for me, but have never had a spinal or epidural, so they scare me spitless. I’d have to make the heartbreaking decision to have GA if I needed a section.
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Thanks for all the responses ladies. I’m both sad that other women had the same thing and relieved I’m not the only one. My OB that day was a man I’d never sen before, my regular OB, when I asked at my postnatal checkup, agreed that 10% of patients she gets can still feel her cutting – he had been grumbling about how it was impossible. He would poke me and I would tell him I felt the poking sensation, not just pressure, so he did the topical analgesic (Backstory: 2 failed epidurals after confining me to bed with pitocin and a moniter, and then the spinal medication on the table before the dr. began poking to test.) After the topical, he did the same thing, and when he would poke the edges of the site, I would report pressure, but in the middle it was still a sharp, poking pain – I know the difference between pain and pressure, but apparently I was too stupid to have possibly known that, because he muttered something at the anesthesiologist and the anesth. raised both his hands like *I give up.*, and the dr. just proceeded merrily into the operation. I scared the crap out of my husband (that is hard to do, he’s a firefighter) because it hurt so bad I couldn’t keep from yelling. I have a vague memory of my daughter’s MEH MEH MEH and them holding her up for a few seconds before the pain began again – it scared hubby so much he didn’t even go with our baby, he stayed with me. The dr. was ignoring me, and my husband finally turned to the aneshtiologist and asked him if there was anything he could do, and that’s when he put me under. I woke up as the dr. was finishing the staples and I heard him say ‘…And don;t you think it was nice she was making up all thos sensations?”, he wasn’t even bothering to mumble it. (Hubby by this time, since I was no longer in pain, had left with our baby so he was not in the room.)I’m also overweight and thought I heard a muttered complaint about having to lift me between the tables, but I don’t USUALLY mention that because I don’t remember the exact words, and I definately do remember the OB’s. >.>
So, still reeling from the medicine and nauseous, as they were getting me setup back in the room, I turned to the nurse that had been with me for the past few hours, and asked, ‘I’m sorry…I think I’ve been a bad patient?’ and she looked shocked. She said, ‘Oh, no, that’s not true at all.’
(Ha – on the same subject – this is my first child. SO this was my first pitocin, first epidurals – the nurses acted like it was REALLY improper for a woman to be yelling in pain during contractions, and then let me scream for two hours during the second epidural’s hotspot – it was on my right belly/hip side and it felt like I was being stabbed. TWO HOURS later, they called the anesthesiologist back in and he put stronger medicine in – THEN the nurse says, ‘Well, why didn’t you press your button to put more medicine through the tube?’ and I was like, “I HAD A BUTTON??” …She picked it up from wherever it was below the mattress and gave it to me then. THEN, all she tells me is I can press it every 15-20 minutes to keep the dose higher, and out of manic fear of being stabbed again during a hotspot, I pressed that button like a junkie for the next HOUR. Yes HOUR. When she came back in, she looked at the machine and snapped, ‘Why didn’t you call me? You were only supposed to press that three times.”
….Yeah. Sad thing is, there were three other people in that room NOT at the tail end of 22 hours of labor and overly medicated who should have chewed her a new one. Grrrr, now I’m all mad, time for some pushups. 
)
(Oh, yeah, and how about the day before, a cervical check is INCREDIBLY painful, so bad I started crying – when she pulls her hand out, the nurse *a different one this time* brightly chirps, ‘There. I stretched it a little for you.’ …Later, the OB said my cervix was bruised and that wwas why it was not dilating properly. He thought it was from the baby’s head, though, so maybe the two are not related. Man, looking back on it now, I think I would have been better off holing up in a cave to have my baby all my myself. >.> LOL!)
Sorry, that was a LONG PINK LINK. Thanks for letting me rant.
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Add Your Comment.
Translation: I need to believe I’m not a bad doctor, so clearly the woman had to be making up anything that would make me a bad doctor.
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Crystal Reply:
February 13th, 2012 at 1:31 pm Crystal(Quote)
Score. Love this comment.. ^___^
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