Capture Your Grief: Day 22

Place of Care

The hospital building where Reid was delivered shut down a couple months after he died. All the patients and staff were moved into a new building, literally next door. It was good for me as it let me keep the same doctors who knew what we had been through with Reid, without having to go back to that place. The new hospital is beautiful, filled with art and light and I know it well after I spent 2 weeks there on bed rest on top of C.S.'s actual delivery.

 

This picture was taken a few minutes after C.S.'s delivery. I felt very supported and well cared for that evening.

On the left is Dr.K, who I first met the night of Reid's birth and who stuck with me all the way through C.S.'s delivery. She got me in for U/S's on short notice and offered me anything I needed to feel safe during my subsequent pregnancy. She came to visit me while I was on bedrest and came to the hospital on her own time to hold my hand through the c-section prep and actual surgery. On the right is the nurse who was my L/D nurse when they wheeled me into surgery on April 3, 2010. When the hospital moved, she switched to a women's surgery position. The day we delivered C.S., she was working the late shift, which she normally doesn't, and when she saw my name on the list for surgery that evening (we had been bumped back 5 hours due to emergency surgeries), she stayed even later to be there with us. The nurse who did all my pre-op paperwork for C.S.'s delivery had also been my first L/D nurse the night I arrived at the hospital in labour with Reid. (I didn't recognize her, but I blame that on the whole being in labour without drugs followed by having my world destroyed thing.) It was good to be surrounded by people who knew what we had been through and knew how hard/scary/exciting it was to be there to deliver our third baby. No one brushed off our concerns and everyone was genuinely happy for us.