Round ligament pain

Thursday, April 17 at about 11:30 am I made it to the ER. They sent me straight upstairs the the third floor, labor and delivery. Didn't think I'd see that place for several more months. Had to fill out lots of paperwork at their nurse's station and finally they took me to their triage room. This is where they take moms who come in who think they may be in labor for initial observation to determine whether they really are ready to be admitted or to be sent home to wait. Again, was in shock to be in this room at this time.

Got hooked up to a monitor to determine whether I was having contractions, I wasn't. Had to pee in a cup to check for urinary tract infection or other things in my urine that shouldn't be there, was told it was all good. Had an ultrasound done to check on baby, baby was good. Had a vaginal exam to check my cervix to ensure I wasn't dilated or anything, was all good. Had the resident feel around on my painful tummy with excruciating pain felt when he hit my left lower abdomen.

Back to the ultrasound. We told this resident doctor about my previous ordeal with the cyst found on my left ovary and pointed out where the pain was before. Interesting that it coincided with where I was having pain now, no? Again, I told him that this pain felt exactly like the pain I was having before but now was worse. His response was, "well now that you're almost 20 weeks pregnant your ovaries are up nearly underneath your ribcage." What? OK sir. Whatever you say. He didn't even bother to swing the ultrasound 2 inches over to take a peek at where I was experiencing the pain. Had he and this whole ordeal could have been shortened by a day or two.

About this time is when he brought up round ligament pain. The round ligament supports the uterus and as the uterus is growing with the baby, the ligament stretches and becomes tighter and more painful. Could I be experiencing this pain? Sure. But deep down I didn't believe that was all that was really going on, after all he didn't even bother to really look at the area I was having pain with the ultrasound. He said he would call my OB doctor and chat with her to see what the plan was from there.

About 20 minutes later the nurse who had initially taken my vitals comes back and says, "It's round ligament pain. You're all good to go." WHAT? That's it? The doctor isn't coming back to talk to us? Handed us some papers and basically said Adios, good luck.

We left slightly pissed off about the way this was handled and kind of confused about what to do. How much were we going to be charged for that waste of time? Do I go back to work? By this point it was probably 1:30 pm. I called my boss and told him I was OK but just wanted to go home and rest basically after being emotionally drained from the 'excitement' of the last couple hours.

Did I feel better? Actually I kind of did. The pain had eased a bit and I called my mom to let her know about my field trip to labor and delivery. She was shocked but relieved that I was OK and urged me to just go home and rest. However, by the time I got off the phone with her and pulled up to our house the pain was back. I made it into the house, said hi to the kitties and then crawled into the guest room bed. Didn't think I could make it up the stairs to our room. Adam found me there an hour later and I think he was surprised and worried to see me in so much pain. This was worse than when I was in the ER. I couldn't get comfortable, I couldn't lay flat, I couldn't do anything. He brought me a heat pack and I think at that point I fell asleep for an hour or so.

This basically went on all night. I limped to the couch crouched over holding my stomach and we were both researching round ligament pain, pelvic pain during pregnancy, symphysis pubis dysfunction and anything we could find that would better explain what I was experiencing. I would try different positions that were suggested for different things with no relief. Pain kept getting worse. At one point I remember being on the floor in some odd position and couldn't get up. Adam had to hug me and lift me up and I screamed bloody murder. Tears came down my face and he said "this isn't normal."

Time went on and I found that being on all fours and kind of rocking back and forth was the most comfortable position. I literally looked and sounded like I was fighting labor pains with my rocking and deep breathing. And then, sudden nausea. Ran to the bathroom and vomited. This happened twice. I hadn't puked at all during pregnancy. Then came the sweating. Then chills. This really wasn't normal. This was when I told Adam we needed to go back to the hospital. We went back and forth, can we afford this? How much is two trips to the ER in one day going to cost?

10 or 11 pm: We called my doctor who thought this resembled kidney stones and urged me to deal with the pain overnight and to come to the office in the morning. If I really couldn't handle the pain, come back to the hospital. I couldn't deal. Back we went, back to labor and delivery where immediately once in a room I threw up again. Again, the shaking chills. A sympathetic nurse hooked me up to an IV with sugar water to help keep me hydrated and that's when the tears came. Lots of them. I think the stress of the day just bottled up and poured out of me once that IV was in as it felt like a signal that something was wrong but they were going to take care of me now.

First smile of the day after pain medication