LTE 2.0

[Bostondevil]

Damn, I forgot to do something yesterday!

[DukePA]

Remember that huge grant we were writing back in September? The one that made me cancel my trip to the Alabama game? I found out yesterday that we got the grant. Now it's a matter of waiting for Congress to approve the federal budget so we will know how much $ we will get. Less than 10 proposals were selected for funding, so this is a big deal.

Thanks, wilson!

Congratulations, AD!!!! Well done!

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Damn, I forgot to do something yesterday!

What?

[DukeUsul]

I've got lower level seats to go see RUSH tonight in Greensboro. I'm very excited. The tickets were my xmas present from wifey. I'll be going with some co-workers. I'm trying to convince them to hit Stamey's before the show. Last time I hit Stamey's I wasn't too impressed, so I'm going to give them a second chance.

I'll be there as well, with Son of and the First Mate in tow. Son of, bought the tickets quite some time ago. They are at the far end, away from the stage. I don't know if upper or lower. It just doesn't matter. It'll be a surprise to me.
The most important thing is...I are there! Neil Peart will be there, too!

Any word on why the postponement? Glad it wasn't an April fools thing. That would have really sucked.

I'm not sure why it was postponed. I'm just glad they didn't move it too far or cancel and come back, since I'm moving out of the area in three weeks!

Capt I'll be looking for ya!

[DevilAlumna]

I'm not sure why it was postponed. I'm just glad they didn't move it too far or cancel and come back, since I'm moving out of the area in three weeks!

I had tickets to see U2 here in Seattle, concert was for last June. Thanks to Bono's back surgery, it was rescheduled to this June. In the meantime, I will have conceived, carried, and given birth to a child. Kind of peeved, b/c I'm guessing I won't be all that up for doing the whole stadium concert thing so soon after becoming a new mom.

DukeUsul, hope your wife is doing well! Enjoy the show!

[YmoBeThere]

I never understood the Rush thing. I had tickets to U2 down in Nashville, DA. I took advantage of the Vandy alum offer they sent out a while back. I sold them however, but I may still try and pick up a single and make it into the show.

[Turk]

I do medical and health care policy reseach myself. Yes, there are often complications as the result of anesthesia. There are a lot more complications as the result of surgery. Because of Tommy's emergency situation, Ronnie was a scheduled C-section. Thank god I didn't have to have 4 C-sections is all I can say. I doubt I would have had 4 kids. And I recovered relatively quickly from my surgery.

I agree with everything you said 100%, BD, except my wife's experience was the opposite. The doctor refused to proceed without an epidural. He insisted that ALL his patients had to get them. He didn't inform us of this policy beforehand, so we were pretty angry, especially after all the problems afterward. The irony is that he's one of the highest rated OB/GYNs around, written up in an article in the Washington Post magazine as a doctor that other doctors wanted to go to. We were not such big fans. The problem was that he was part of a group of seven doctors, and there are three of them that my wife thinks are AMAZING. Luckily, she can see only the ones she likes for appointments. With the other two, we had scheduled inductions and she picked days when the doctors she likes were on duty at the hospital.

My wife similarly says that Stadol helped prevent her from having to have a C-section. She was stuck at 3 cm for almost nine hours (total labor time to that point was a little over 15 hours) with our second little guy. Then she got the Stadol injection and went from 3 cm to pushing in 45 minutes. It was during a shift change, and we had about every nurse on the floor in there scrambling to get the room ready. With our third kid, she got stuck at 3 cm for two hours and when it became clear she wasn't going any further, she said, "hit me with the Stadol." They did, and she was pushing in 30 minutes. This time, we warned them and they had the room ready when they gave her the shot. Not nearly so much scrambling, though the doctor was stuck with another patient in an emergency c-section and almost missed the whole thing. Without the Stadol, she just couldn't seem to relax enough to proceed past 3 cm. As she likes to say, the Stadol took the edge off so she could relax. We probably should have known, since she was pushing within an hour or so of getting the epidural, too. It was just all so crazy with the first kid that we never thought about it.

[/quote]

Sorry for being AWOL for awhile. I think more of it is blind stupid luck than most of us are comfortable to admit. Here's our story:

1. Young Turk #1: Due date +10 days: "I think I have gas - I hate that Chinese take-out but you keep saying it's great." After the discomfort increased to the point where we decided to head in with the expectation of getting laughed at and told to around and come back when it really hurt, they told us, "It's go time, sister, no drugs for you and by the way, cross your legs until the doctor gets here." We had a new baby 35 mins after we got to the hospital and my car was still in the fire lane with the hazards blinking.

2. Young Turks #2 and #3. Twins!! Closely monitored once we found God gave us that little lottery ticket. Everything fine, and they said, "If we get to Due Date -3 and they're still hiding, we're going to go get 'em. It's a Friday before a holiday weekend and we don't want to get paged while we're out of town." So they hit Mrs. Turk with Percocet or Percodan or Purolator or whatever. Later that afternoon, we had a pair of 8 pound keepers, afterward, Mrs. Turk said, "I feel great! Let me know when it's time to start pushing!!" They had some battleax nurse who had been there since the dawn of time who claimed that was the hospital record for twins using the standard exit door.

3. Young Turk #4: Not so good. Mrs. Turk is fighting the flu when the youngest Turk decides to show up. "Been there, done that, let's not play hero here and gimme the drugs." Well, it turns out they nick the spinal column and I wouldn't wish epidural headaches on your worst enemy or even the most obnoxious Tarhole you can think of. We get the hell out of Dodge with a healthy 10 pounder and field a few discreet (?) inquiries from the staff about whether we were thinking about getting in touch with any personal contacts in the legal profession... Everything sorted itself out just fine, so no worries... But they weren't getting any repeat business, either... <snip>

YMMV

[Bostondevil]

Turk, tell your wife I hate her. ;)

Funny how it's the guys reporting on the problems with epidurals.

But if you go back to my original advice to DA, it was to have the drugs, I didn't specify which ones, so, Stadol counts. Unfortunately, so does pitocin (that's the one that speeds up labor) and good on Turk's wife that it worked so quickly. I know all about pitocin, thank you very much. That's a drug too, so if you're going for 'natural childbirth' and you're getting pitocin, it's already over so why not try to make it easier?

DA, I hope we haven't scared you too much. Epidurals saved me from having C-sections. My fourth was a C-section because number three was an extreme emergency situation and we're lucky nothing bad happened. I will repeat my advice to avoid surgery if you at all possibly can. Epidural headaches will go away a lot sooner than the after effects of having surgery plus you can never go back to being pre-surgery. Cutting through the abdominal wall weakens it permanently. (There are other lingering issues but they go into the TMI category.) On the other hand, if you get to a point where a C-section really is the safest, best option for you and baby, I choose not to argue with good results.

[DukeUsul]

Funny how it's the guys reporting on the problems with epidurals.

Ok, well just to balance things out. Epidurals are WINNING! Mrs. DU loved hers. After waiting for it for about 3 hours (not a very pleasant time), the next three (taking her from 3cm to 10cm) were much much better for her. And for me too. She was able to relax quite a bit. I actually was able to sleep and she didn't beat me over the head for it, so she must have been feeling not too bad. The nurses came in around 6am and said whoa! 10cm! Time to start pushing, and Lisa really had no idea that it had progressed so well.

No issues, no side effects. Katie came out all happy and perky.

[bjornolf]

Turk, tell your wife I hate her. ;)

Funny how it's the guys reporting on the problems with epidurals.

But if you go back to my original advice to DA, it was to have the drugs, I didn't specify which ones, so, Stadol counts. Unfortunately, so does pitocin (that's the one that speeds up labor) and good on Turk's wife that it worked so quickly. I know all about pitocin, thank you very much. That's a drug too, so if you're going for 'natural childbirth' and you're getting pitocin, it's already over so why not try to make it easier?

Yea, my wife had to have pitocin with all three. Not a big fan. Being A- and having three A+ kids, she also had the pleasure of getting Rhogam with all three, which I later found out can cause jaundice, and all three of ours ended up with jaundice.

[captmojo]

'RASH' was fantastic last night!
Usul, we were in the upper cicle, on the rear stage-left corner. Right behind the drunk, lonely chick from Winnipeg, dancing alone right at the rail. I was worried all night that she would fall over.

[Bostondevil]

Rhogam though, isn't a choice. You don't get it, you might not be able to carry any more children to term.

I'm O-, my husband, we think, is A+. He doesn't know his blood type. He doesn't like needles. My oldest is A+, the other three are A-, that's why we think Mr. BD is A+.

[Bostondevil]

Damn, I forgot to do something yesterday!

What?

You can figure it out, I'm sure!

[TillyGalore]

I let someone else birth all my kids. But I'd still like an epidural, and I'm not even pregnant.

[CathyCA]

I let someone else birth all my kids. But I'd still like an epidural, and I'm not even pregnant.

[DevilAlumna]

I let someone else birth all my kids. But I'd still like an epidural, and I'm not even pregnant.

Didn't mean to start the "internet holy war" of birthing options, sorry! I do appreciate everyone's comments, but I also recognize that every pregnancy & outcome is unique. I'm pretty comfortable about my choices for how I would like labor & delivery to go, but I also recognize that shit happens and we may have to play it by ear. I trust my doctor (and her colleagues) to respect wishes as much as is medically reasonable.

We go in tomorrow for the 36-week check, and to see whether a May 1 due date is still on track. I'm starting to come close to the "get this kid out" mindset, but am trying to remain cognizant that it could be as much as another 6 weeks (doc says no inducing - unless medically necessary - until post-42 weeks) before we meet future DA!

[DevilAlumna]

I admit, I'm a little curious about the situations for those whose doctors INSISTED on an epidural. What YEAR was that??

[Bostondevil]

I let someone else birth all my kids.

There are days when I wish I'd done the same thing. Many, many days. ;)

[Bostondevil]

Didn't mean to start the "internet holy war" of birthing options, sorry! I do appreciate everyone's comments, but I also recognize that every pregnancy & outcome is unique. I'm pretty comfortable about my choices for how I would like labor & delivery to go, but I also recognize that shit happens and we may have to play it by ear. I trust my doctor (and her colleagues) to respect wishes as much as is medically reasonable.

Good attitude. Number 3's birthday is May 1. It was his due date.

[bjornolf]

I admit, I'm a little curious about the situations for those whose doctors INSISTED on an epidural. What YEAR was that??

2003. As far as I know. he still does.