Stink Week.

Greetings. Another week has passed and to be perfectly honest....I am THRILLED this week is coming to a close.

This week was in the top ten of poop-weeks. It wasn't one particular incident that occurred, but several heavy occurrences that made me want to throw in the towel....but alas, God got us through and the towel is still currently wiping the sweat from my brow.

I had the horrible experience of being scheduled for prenatal duty and not showing up. Yup. I felt HORRIBLE. The worst part was, Tim was sick and I had promised to take care of the Bird and keep her outta his way for the day...alas, I got a text from the director at MMC asking whether I was coming into work or not. Shocked that I was supposed to work, I re-read the schedule. Yup...I was on there. "SHOOT!" I hate being late and even moreso, I hate not reading the schedule correctly and inconveniencing all my co-workers and peers!

Then I lost a diamond out of a special ring....now, I have very little jewelry and I don't wear much anyway, but the two special pieces I never take off are my wedding ring and a ring I was given by my mom for my high school grad. It's extra special because it was a ring that my dad had bought her in Bethlehem. It has a blue stone in the middle that represents Jesus and two tiny diamonds on either side of the blue stone representing each member of our immediate family. So one of my family members in diamond form disappeared. Awful feeling and I can't replace it...at least not for quite a while. Blast.

I was told by my director that there were too many people scheduled for Wednesday's shift and that if I wanted to stay home, I could. Eager at the chance of being able to stay home with the Bird so Tim could get some work time in, I stayed home and only dropped by the clinic to do a prenatal exam. Upon entering the birth room I noticed the patient board full. Labors, births, and baby checks seemed to line the walls. Perhaps it wasn't a good day to stay home afterall. So I did my prenatal, did a baby check, got a patient's newborn screening result, a birth certificate, and was a gopher for a few minutes....then I heard that one of my peers had just delivered a baby boy and in the process of this difficult delivery, broke the baby's arm. What a HORRIBLE situation for baby, mom, and midwife! Heavy...you could feel the heaviness in the birth room. While it's better that the baby's arm break than suffer asphyxia as a result of shoulder dystocia, the cries of a newborn in pain is overwhelming for everyone.

I ended up getting a text from Tim right at that moment saying, "Come home now, Promise is wigging out!" My short prenatal visit ended up being a couple hours and Promise was hungry, tired and wondering where I was! I raced home feeling very sad and somewhat guilty....

Lunch time also bred some bad news. Our sister-in-law in Canada was miscarrying and hemorrhaging. She was taken to the hospital for a D&C and had lost a lot of blood. We were told to pray. Everything in us wanted to be home. As a midwife, being so far away from her was very difficult.

Thursday I headed to shift 30 minutes early in order to make sure I wasn't around when Promise woke up so that she wouldn't freak out when I had to leave for work so early in the morning. Fortunately, I entered the birth room to the sound of, "Hey, B, wanna catch a baby?" The patient in bed 5 was pushing and I was the first one on duty. Shift starts at 6:00 am and I delivered a healthy baby girl named Leisa at 6:07 am to Theresa, a 20 year old first time mom. I sutured her slight labial tear and enjoyed a fairly busy shift...the baby with the broken arm was still in transition as MMC was trying to find an orthopedic doctor in Davao that could help him as soon as possible. The baby had also developed a fever. We had a time of prayer for him, his family, his midwife, and the doctors who would soon be treating him. His midwife, despite many other patients she had to tend to, worked tirelessly to help his family out.

The week started to get a little better. Then Friday night came. Promise threw the MOTHER OF ALL TANTRUMS for over an hour in the middle of the night. Thrashing about and not responding to any comfort or touch, she screamed until her voice was gone, she was coughing and nearly throwing up. She has done this a few times before, but never in the middle of the night to interrupt her sleep....maybe a night terror...? Tim and I kept praying over her and her crib while trying to find clues as to why she was acting so erratic. She then slept in 20-minute increments waking with screams. We didn't sleep.

Saturday, exhausted, confused and weary, I started a long-awaited period which unfortunately confirmed I am not pregnant. Sigh. I waddled 30 minutes early to swing shift for another crazy shift. A full birth room, I jumped into admitting two patients, one I transported for fetal tachycardia, the other we sent home for early labor. Then I received Adith. She was endorsed to me at 3:45 pm and it was time to do another internal exam to find out her cervical dilation. She was almost 8 cm and looking very tired. Her cervix was a bit swollen, so we did a lot of position changes and focused on getting her well-hydrated. At 6:30 pm, she was ready to push and while she was 9+ cm, her cervix was not wanting to let the baby's head pass without a fight. So we fought back with position changes and me holding the cervix up during contractions to maneuver it over her baby's head.

After a meconium stained rupture of membranes, baby Carla Trisha was born at 6:47 pm, perfectly healthy and WIDE awake. Adith was amazing....patient and very controlled. She didn't tear and began breastfeeding immediately. We were all very thankful for a healthy delivery. And though she was very anemic, she only bled 50 ccs total. God is good. I was thankful that the week was closing on a positive note.
Adith and fam with baby Carla. :)

I was reminded of all the ways satan tries to steal our joy or get us distracted from the things that God is doing or the things that truly matter. For example, October starts a new chapter for Ate An-An, my dear friend, and me. We are starting a Bible Study specifically for MMC patients. Every Thursday, we are getting together to pray with, discuss and get to know the patients that come in everyday for their prenatals. We wanted to meet them on a very REAL and spiritual level.....and be able to show them the way to Christ....we will keep you posted, but please be praying for us as this is our heart....to give Christ impacting body, soul, and spirit.

What satan meant for harm, God was turning for good....our sister-in-law is healing well. The baby with the broken arm is being treated. Tim is feeling a bit better, though very fatigued. And Promise has been happier the last two days. AND, an old patient of mine came in with her six-month old baby, Bethany. Remember Ruby?
Well, here's Ruby and baby Bethany...growing up so fast.

So that was my busy week. We covet your prayers. Really, we do. Thanks for reading.

Be blessed.