Contractions

Labor and delivery is always kind of crazy on Fridays.  The residents disappear to school leaving the attendings to do all the work.  Most of the attendings aren't used to doing work because the residents do it for them, so triage patients don't get orders entered in a timely manner and there's a general backup in getting patients in and out.

There are several groups that deliver at the hospital.  Some days, there are barely any patients from my practice on the unit, but this past Friday was an exception.  Nearly every patient on the board was mine.  I ran and ran and ran on Friday, getting patients triaged and moved out or admitted as need be.  I didn't have much time for sitting or drinking water.

I left work and started the 3+ hour drive to western Maryland to meet my friends who were already out at the ski resort Wisp.  They had been there for a few days and I was just meeting them at the condo to relax and go in the hot tub and pool and watch tv and play games.

Even before I had left the city limits I noticed that my lower abdomen felt tight.  At first I thought it was my seat belt or pants.  It happened again a few minutes later and it suddenly dawned on me that I was having contractions.  I started timing them on my iphone app and over the next hour and a half I had a contraction every 2-5 minutes!  I know what a 24 week old baby looks like.  It's not pretty.  I drank a ton of water (which necessitated that I stop every half hour to pee!) and called a doctor in my practice.  We agreed that if I was still contracting when I got to Wisp I should pick up Lucas and drive back to the city to be seen at the hospital.

The contractions slowed down after the two liters of water I drank and by the time I got to Wisp I was only having one now and then.  On Saturday and Sunday I had just a few.  Yesterday I had my cervix checked by that doctor when were on Labor and Delivery together and my cervix is still closed.  So all is good.

It's definitely a lesson to take things more slowly no matter how busy it is at work.