my final day

For my final day on OB, I decided to visit my favorite patient. I met her my first week on OB--originally from Peru, she married a Boston man 5 years ago, decided it was time for kids, and signed up for in vitro fertilization (IVF) after she attempted to get pregnant. She is carrying triplets and because of her "incompetent cervix" she is stuck in the hospital until she delivers by c-section. The plan was to cut her at week 30, but now she's there and doing so well, the docs are pushing it back to week 35. She is excited that she is doing so well, but sad that she will remain in the hospital through the holidays and into next year. (understandably!)

Her story for this week, though, sounds like it came straight out of a movie. Apparently a 60-something year old woman walked up to the nurses station, stated they were there to speak with the pregnant lady with triplets and they pointed her directly to my patients room, no questions asked. This woman walked in and told my patient how she had triplets too, showed her pictures of five year old kids, which supposedly looked like they came right out of a catalog, and said she was there to offer my patient help once she had her kids. She gave my patient her contact info and said she must call her once she delivers. Luckily my patient started to catch on and began questioning her about who her doc was, who her in vitro doc was, etc. Somehow the lady could not remember the names of either one, but dodged the questions. Instead she tried to scare my patient into needing her help and then left when she wasn't getting anywhere. Subsequently, my patient's laptop was stolen the next day. (which is probably unrelated)

Now my patient is having nightmares of someone coming into her room, in the dark, cutting her open and stealing her babies. I thought I was stressed!

I gave her my contact info today. She said she would call me when she delivers. I hope she does. I would love to visit with her again. She's made quite an impression on me--OB moms are of a special breed of patients. Most of them like going to the doc and are happy while there. Even through all of this mess, my patient said to me "You just have to think positively. I still have the babies and thats what counts."