November 9, 2016

Welcome to the world baby LaMacchia #3!!

Now let's start from the beginning...

I went to work on Wednesday 11/9 like any other day.  Hoping that maybe I would go into labor while I was there, I packed our Traverse with both mine and John's hospital bags and loaded the baby's car seat in, just in case.  After my uneventful shift was over (no baby/no labor) I headed home.

I was traveling north on Airport Road about 3 miles from our house when out of nowhere a deer ran out in front of my car.  I was going about 50 mph and without any warning, slammed head on into the doe.  In a split second I was stopped.  The airbags all deployed, the smell was like burning fumes.  I quickly unbuckled my seat belt, grabbed my phone from the cup holder, and climbed out of the car.  Something didn't quite feel right with my belly and I thought my water broke.  I immediately called John, I'm sure I know I was a hysterical mess.  I do remember telling him to hurry up, my water broke, and get there now.  As I was on the phone with him, a gentleman was slowly approaching my car and drove around me.  He had his window down as he passed and asked if I was okay and needed any help.  I told him that I thought my water broke, but otherwise I felt okay.  He pulled over in front of my car and stopped to help.  At the same time a husband and wife who lived about 30 yards away were running out of their house towards me.  The man literally took the shirt off his own back to have me sit down.  As the woman approached I could hear her say "Oh my god, she's pregnant".  I'm not sure if she was talking to 911 or just saying that out loud.  But in the process, someone called 911.  The man in the house said he heard the crash/impact and heard my squealing breaks.  I'm so thankful they were quick in responding.  A few minutes later, another car passed and pulled over to stop and help.  She was a nurse at Sparrow as well and offered to stay with me.  She said "I'm not an OB nurse but I can sit with you to help until the ambulance arrives."  It was reassuring to have her there as she talked to me and tried to calm me down.  Another man stopped and he was a paramedic, off duty at the time.  He began to assess me and make sure the baby was okay.  At that point, I felt like I may have been leaking more, but I wasn't sure because I was shaking, crying, and pretty much a mess :(

A few minutes later John arrived.  Even though it took him about 8 minutes to get there (as he says), it seemed like an eternity.  After John got the call from me, he immediately called our neighbors across the street, took the kids outside, and walked them over to their house.  In the car he called his parents to come over and stay with the kids.  They immediately left their house and were on their way.

John arrived a few minutes before the ambulance arrived.  At this point, my car and the ambulance were completely blocking the road.  No one could pass in either direction.  The EMS asked me some questions then had me get into the ambulance to assess me.  After a quick check, they informed me that I did NOT need to go to the hospital by ambulance if I felt safe to drive to the hospital with John.  I did feel okay and knew we would be going there for observation anyway, so I initially declined.  The EMS guy called ahead to the hospital to let them know that I would be coming.  As I'm still sitting in the back of the ambulance, the EMS hands me the phone and tells me that the doctor would like to speak to me.  So I answered, "hello this is Dana".
The voice I heard back said "Hello, this is Dr. McGowan"
Me- "Hello"
Doctor- "Dana, this is Jeff"
"Oh hi Jeff" ---
Talk about a small world...I knew this doctor very well.  I had just recently taken care of his premature twin babies in the NICU and they had been discharged just a few days prior.  Talk about a small world (although I did know he was a physician in the ER).  The Doc told me that I absolutely had no choice and I would be riding in the ambulance to the hospital.  I was just in a trauma-accident, pregnant, with possible injury to myself and the baby.  In no way was I going to take myself to the hospital.  Doctors orders, so off we went.  John followed behind the ambulance in his car.  At this point in the journey, I am starting to feel contractions.  They are about 4 minutes apart, but not terribly strong or uncomfortable, just enough to feel and actually time.

We arrived at the hospital and I was immediately swarmed by the trauma team of at least 15 people.  I was quickly hooked up to machines, assessed, asked a million questions, and was a shaking mess.  John parked and went upstairs to L&D because he wasn't sure where I was headed.  Eventually he made his was to the ER and was just as anxious as I was.

The OB, OB fellow, and one of the OB nurses made their way into my ER room amidst all the chaos.  The OB fellow assessed me and assured me that my water had not broken, I was dilated to 3cm.  I was hooked up to the fetal monitoring machine and baby was watched closely.  (along with my continuing contractions)

Once they had a good monitoring strip of baby and knew that baby was doing well, I had an Ultra sound to assess my internal organs.  I also had a full body CT scan to assess for any internal injuries to myself and the baby.  Thankfully all the tests came back negative and I was cleared from ER and the trauma team.  Next I was sent upstairs to L&D for a 24 hour observation period.  This is standard procedure for any pregnant women who has any potential injury or risk for placenta abruption.

Continued onto the next post....

Some frightening pictures of my car, which was totalled.