Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Nov
23
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“You Can’t Undo Pregnancy.”
“You can’t undo pregnancy.” -Emergency Department doctor to mother who was being seen for unexplained blacking out at 15 weeks.
There are 27 comments to this post.
Yeah…cuz randomly ‘blacking out’ is such a common, assumed side effect of pregnancy that seeking medical help for it is just ‘complaining about being pregnant’.
Even if a mom was asking the doctor about (normal) weight gain, this would still be a jerk thing to say, but here it’s both jerkish *and* completely nonsequitor.
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and, um, at 15 weeks, you CAN “undo” pregnancy.
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pittsburgh mama Reply:
November 23rd, 2012 at 6:25 am (Quote)
Well, yes, a pregnancy can be terminated, but even then it doesn’t turn back the clock like it never happened. At the very, very least, even barring all moral and medical questions, it will need to be disclosed on future medical history reports.
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I am thinking this guy is saying that blacking out is just a normal part of pregnancy and there is no point looking for a different root cause. A terrible brush-off, since blacking out can have all kinds of causes, some benign, some dangerous, and it is his JOB to figure it out, not be all superior and dismissive.
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Stephanie Reply:
November 29th, 2012 at 8:56 am (Quote)
Yeah…I’ve been pregnant three times and only came close to blacking out once. And that was with my first pregnancy, which was ectopic, and that’s when it ruptured.
My point being–you’re exactly right. Blacking out definitely can be a sign of other problems.
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Proginoskes had this to say,
Nov 23, 2012 @ 7:36 am (Quote)
Well, I suppose that’s why Ctrl+Z didn’t make that second pink line disappear. Genius.
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Mama Wrench Reply:
November 23rd, 2012 at 11:53 am (Quote)
I thought you were supposed to turn it upside down and shake it, like an Etch-a-sketch.
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Proginoskes Reply:
November 24th, 2012 at 9:05 am (Quote)
XD I’d find my old ones and try, but I don’t want my children to disappear! LOL
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Mama Wrench Reply:
November 24th, 2012 at 9:06 am (Quote)
Maybe turn the kid upside down and shake? 
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This little gem is mine. I blacked out at my 4 year old’s gymnastics school. On the advice of my OB’s office (who said the hospital would have access to more testing to figure out the cause), I had a friend watch my daughter while my husband took me to the hospital. After sitting for hours in the waiting room with a painful needle catheter in my arm (“just in case”), we were ushered to a room and I was told to get undressed. The doctor came in, basically told me nothing was wrong with me, and smirked disdainfully at my (logical and sane) questions. As he walked out the door less than 5 minutes later, he said over his shoulder, “You can’t undo pregnancy”. I am normally quick with a comeback, but this one left me speechless (and my very mellow husband furious). Like our first child, we had tried for about a year for this baby– we didn’t want to “undo” her!
On a side note, I fired my OB because she refused to do any further testing on the unfounded grounds that I must have GD, and that that was the reason for the black out. ( was suspicious that the anemia I had in my first pregnancy was back.) While waiting for my first appt with my new OB, I went to see my (amazing) PC because I kept having near-blackout episodes. She was alarmed to discover that I did indeed have severe anemia and extremely low blood pressure to go with it- a perfect explanation, according to her. She ordered me a Rx for my iron and advised me to monitor and log my blood pressure. Just goes to show that, while we might not be doctors, common sense and basic knowledge can go a long way!
PS- Some of the comments cracked me up!
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Ellen Reply:
November 27th, 2012 at 2:50 pm (Quote)
Is “PC” “primary care physician” here? (I looked through http://www.acronymfinder.com/Science-and-Medicine/PC.html, but couldn’t find a match.)
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Melody M. Reply:
November 27th, 2012 at 6:25 pm (Quote)
Yes, sorry- I’m one of those people who randomly abbreviate occasionally.
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*blinkblink*
Huh?
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pittsburgh mama Reply:
November 23rd, 2012 at 5:49 am pittsburgh mama(Quote)
Yeah that was my thought too. Unless he thought the mom was blacking out because she was drinking? Still horrible.
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Melody M, Reply:
November 25th, 2012 at 5:56 pm Melody M,(Quote)
Nope, no drinking– unless you count that giant refillable bottle of water I tote everywhere! (But you know, sometimes I get crazy and add Crystal Light packets…)
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Melody M. Reply:
November 25th, 2012 at 5:58 pm Melody M.(Quote)
Not unless you count the giant refillable bottle of water I tote everywhere (although sometimes I get crazy and add Crystal Light packets)!
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Melody M. Reply:
November 25th, 2012 at 6:41 pm Melody M.(Quote)
(Sorry if this double posts, it wasn’t showing up.)
No drinking here, unless you count the giant refillable water bottle I tote everywhere (although sometimes I get crazy and add Crystal Light packets to spice things up)!
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Melody M. Reply:
November 28th, 2012 at 8:15 pm Melody M.(Quote)
Wow… Talk about a delay of game, those posted three days later. Now I look crazy, lol.
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