Shopping Around

Some women don't deal with not hearing exactly what they want to hear very well. Some cry. Some curse. Some throw things at you. (I have learned to watch my back and am getting better at dodging monitor parts.) Other just leave and try another hospital, hoping that maybe there, the magic of labor will begin.

This of course means that we too get our fair share of women that have previously been seen at another area hospital and now we are their second (or third, or fourth) try. Not surprisingly, they don't like to admit that they have been somewhere else first and were sent home although we almost always find out about the time we start calling other hospitals for their prenatal.

Last week, a young woman came in with an obvious spot on her arm where a band aid had been removed. There was a bruise and it was obvious she had blood work drawn.

"Did they draw your blood somewhere?"

"Yeah."

"What did they draw it for?"

"Oh no, nobody drew any blood."

Upon further inspection it became obvious that she had been stuck in many places and looked like someone had opened an entire box of band aids on the girl. Of course, in an effort to conceal her previous whereabouts they had all been removed so all you could see was the sticky outline of each one.

"So why do you have all these band aids?"

"Oh, those aren't band aids. I fell asleep in a room full of Mexicans and they taped me up with duct tape."

At least she gets points for creativity.