More 2010 Luck

Well, my lucky streak for 2010 has continued.  There was no surgery for me last week and at this point I really don't know when it will happen.

After waiting for 8 weeks for the surgery date to arrive, I was so excited to finally have this thing out of my eye!  Then to be able to take a few days for myself to rest & recover and then start preparing for the baby.  The Friday before the surgery I went to the hospital for my pre-op appointment and took care of all the insurance and health history details.  The Monday before I stocked the house with groceries, cleaned, did laundry, everything I could think of so I would be able to just rest afterward.

Tuesday morning we sent the girls off to school.  They were both a little nervous for me but I kept telling them there was nothing to worry about and that I was actually excited to have this done.  After I arrived at the hospital and finished getting prepped & ready the nurse tells me that the anesthesiologist wants to talk to me about the pregnancy.

The anesthesiologist then tells me that she did not know about my pregnancy until that morning and she really didn't think that we should do the surgery this close to my due date.  My blood started to boil.  I was counting on this.  She said that chances are very high that it would put me into labor while I was asleep.  I told her I knew that but my OB said it wouldn't be very likely since it was only local and not anywhere near the baby.  This is where things got ugly...

I argued & I argued with her.  My OB had given his permission.  I was far enough along to be considered full term so it was OK if I went into labor.  Basically the problem was that the surgeon scheduled the surgery at Boswell Memorial Hospital in Sun City, a retirement community.  They don't have an OB unit there and they didn't want me going into labor there.  I told them that if labor started I was fine with heading over to another hospital, which there are several only a short distance away, to have the baby.  I've done this before and knew I would have time.  I just wanted this thing out of my eye now!  I had waited long enough! 

Side note:  I worked at Boswell for almost 8 years (many years ago) and in that time I KNOW they delivered a few babies.  It wasn't something they encouraged but they could do it.  So when I was told the surgery would be at Boswell, I wasn't worried.

She also told me that they didn't have the equipment needed to monitor the baby while I was "under the influence" and that was too risky.  She wasn't going to allow it.  She said I would have to reschedule after the baby was born.  I was SO furious with the surgeon who knew I was pregnant and had told me back in June when I had my first appointment with him that he would clear this with the anesthesiologist before setting a date.  I knew back then that I might have to wait until after the baby but when I got a call a few weeks later that the date was set, I had no reason to doubt that he had cleared it.  So to find out minutes before I thought this was finally going to happen, after spending so much time preparing, getting my kids taken care of, and not to mention fasting and raging with pregnancy hormones.....I lost it!

I couldn't understand how I could have gotten this far and then still not have it taken care of.  I knew that 3 weeks really wasn't that much longer to wait after all this time but I just couldn't handle another let down.  L.J. took me to get something to eat at Cracker Barrel and my Mom kept my kids for the day.  I was able to sleep and finally calm down.

The next day I got the nerve up to call the surgeons office and request his next available surgery appointment.  The lady who handles his schedule has been a huge pain to deal with the entire time and it was no different now.  She told me I would have to wait until after I had the baby to even schedule it.  I told her that was not necessary since I had waited 8 weeks before and now we're only looking at 3 weeks at the most so any day she can give me would be fine.  She refused!  Said she had to talk to the doctor first to see when he wanted to see me and then she would let me know.  It's been almost a week and I've heard nothing.  I have had it with them.  There is only one other ocular plastic surgeon on our insurance but I've requested a 2nd opinion and hopefully can get an appointment soon.

So this post turned out much longer than I intended and I'm sure anyone reading it has given up by now.  That's OK.  I'm just venting anyway.  I really don't like self portraits but I decided to throw a picture on here at the end.  Just before leaving the house for the surgery I had L.J. take a picture of the bump, so we'd have some kind of documentation.  It's not pretty that's for sure.

Thank you to everyone who has us in your prayers right now.  We do feel the blessings

and know we are loved.

This too shall pass.  :)