Diary of UK parenthood from a father's perspective
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
The adventure continues...
Well, Another day and the excitement grows.
Something else that has struck me during this pregnancy is how much guesswork appears to be involved in doctoring.
Leela has had her fair share of problems throughout the last nine months. I mean, if something can go wrong, it has done! Firslty she was diagnosed with SPD, where the tendons soften too much in the pelvis causing the bones to grind together resulting in PAIN, sometimes incapacitating. Then the baby was lying transverse for a few weeks in the last couple of months, which means he was sideways in the womb and if he doesn't move into his engaged position this can result in a c-section.
Also, she has been suffering with prolonged and painful runs of Braxton Hicks contractions almost constantly for the last 3 months.
In recent weeks, however, these contractions have intensified further and left her almost unable to move sometimes, when combined with the pain from her SPD. Why should this be? Surely there's a reason for so much discomfort? Are we really so poorly designed as a species that we find it this difficult to procreate? Can this not be diagnosed?
In comes the doctor's faithful get-out clause: 'pregnancy aches and pains'.
Never have I known such differing symptoms to be diagnosed as the same thing. Headaches? Joint pain? Indigestion? Stomach cramps? All the same thing!
Why not apply this practice to everyday medicine?
- "Doctor, I have been waking up with severe pain in my left side"
- "Ah, that'll be sleep aches and pains"-"Doctor, I fell down and now my leg bends the wrong way, it's excrutiaing"
-"That's the old walking aches and pains, I'm afraid"-"Doctor I am no longer able to breath and my body has been slowly rotting
at the extremities. And my skin is falling off"
-"Ah, that's just life aches and pains"
Surely there must be more reasons for the sudden onset of severe painful contractions that last for four straight days and then stop altogether. A different diagnosis for back pains, and for general sickness.
It just shows how much we still have to learn about our bodies our suppose. The doctors and midwives have been reassuring and supportive throughout, but it still leaves you in doubt sometimes about just how much of the medical profession is knowledge, and how much is conjecture!
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4:28 AM