The Anesthesia Options Class
We initially though we were "in" when we were greeted by quite possibly the most congenial anesthesiologist ever. Super personable, super chatty... yeah, well, that last part ended up being the undoing of the class.
We got lots of great information, however, the most important of which is that there is such a thing as a PAIN RELIEF COCKTAIL. Well, of course, you only had to say the last word within earshot of me and I was all over it. The cocktail in question consists of an intrathecal injection for fast-acting (5-7 minutes) pain relief followed by (immediately or after the intrathecal has gone to work) the epidural which takes longer to work (25 mins) but lasts longer (indefinitely if they insert the catheter vs. 4-5 hours for the intrathecal.) The intrathecal is also a smaller needle (can I get a "woop woop"?).
Of course, we also got to hear about the down-side or possible side effects of pain relief medication. Yes there are instances of nerve damage, infection, or even death but more common (estimated at 1% of all cases) is the Spinal or Epidural Headache. Aparently these can pack quite a punch! Because of the nature of the headache (I'll spare you the medical/physiological details) it goes away when you're lying down but is like the mother of all migraines when your head is at all elevated, and can last for up to 7 days!!! I can imagine this is extremely helpful when you're trying to nurse and care for a newborn. Fingers (toes, legs, arms...) crossed I don't fall into that 1%.
Back to Mr. Chatty. All was going well until we hit the 8pm mark (when the class was supposed to end) and for 30 minutes he continued to insist that we asked more questions. Maybe he didn't want to go home, maybe he really liked us, I don't know, but he must have said "Come on, I know there are more questions out there!" about 30 times, I kid you not. For the first 10-15 minutes, some of us in the room seemed to take pity on him and pulled some random (often irrelevant to anesthesia) question out of our asses just to fill the awkward void. Then, when even the stupid, unrelated questions dried-up, he started picking on people in the room (me and Hubby included) one at a time and saying bizarre and actually quite disconcerting things like "Ahhh... I see that look on your face. I can tell you have a question in there. I know there's a question in there!" (You'd think it was because he was concerned that we were a bit shy but I had already asked several questions so that excuse doesn't jive.)
In a very significant way he was failing to recognize that the look on our faces was one of pure confusion and amazement about his behavior. He obviously is not very good at reading non-verbal cues because Hubby quite literally had his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, rocking back and forth and trying with all his might not to tell this guy to go to you know where, and Mr. Chatty still picked on him! "You look like someone with a question," he said. To which I almost replied "You look like someone my husband is about to smack in the face."
We got out of there just after 8:30pm and the last 30 minutes were literally unneeded and unecessarily uncomfortably.
Today's ObGyn Appointment
33 weeks and 2 days, 172.2lbs (2.2lbs more than 2 weeks ago), baby firmly head-down. My blood pressure good- 110/65. Baby's heartbeat on-track - 135bpm. Next appointment 2 weeks from now. NEXT!
Actually, I did get a referral to schedule my ultrasound at about 37 weeks. This is the one that will help us determine if the baby is too big to fit through my little pelvis.
Walking out with the referral in-hand, however, I couldn't stop laughing. The "reasons" for the ultrasound were listed as follows: "Size greater than dates, android pelvis, evaluate for EFW" (EFW = estimated fetal weight).
Android pelvis!!!!???? What the heck? I sound like someone from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.
The minute I got back to my desk I had to Google it. What I found was actually quite interesting (extracted from http://www.brooksidepress.org/Products/Military_OBGYN/Textbook/LaborandDelivery/labor.htm) :
There are four basic pelvic shapes:
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Gynecoid
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Android
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Anthropoid
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Platypoid
A gynecoid pelvis is oval at the inlet, has a generous capacity and wide subpubic arch. This is the classical female pelvis.
A platypoid pelvis is flattened at the inlet and has a prominent sacrum. The subpubic arch is generally wide but the ischial spines are prominent. This pelvis favors transverse presentations.
An anthropoid pelvis is, like the gynecoid pelvis, basically oval at the inlet, but the long axis is oriented vertically rather than side to side.Subpubic arch may be slightly narrowed. This pelvis favors occiput posterior presentations.
An android pelvis is more triangular in shape at the inlet, with a narrowed subpubic arch. Larger babies have difficulty traversing this pelvis as the normal areas for fetal rotation and extension are blocked by boney prominences. Smaller babies still squeeze through.
So, that explains some things. At least there's not 2 types - normal and abnormal/android - which makes me feel a tad better. I guess it's no surprise to anyone that I don't have a "classical female" anything.
Either way, it's a recipe for a pain relief cocktail baby!
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