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Monday. Do I need to say something else? I was going for a happy post today. I wanted to write about my “Bucket List”. I prepared my tea, loaded the washing machine, answered some comments and decided to catch up reading some blogs.
I read Mandy’s blog . That’s when I changed my mind. My happy post will have to wait.

I feel like crying now. Not only for me. Specially for all those women who don’t have the right to choose. Or those who are not listened. Or those who are mistreated. I know there are more… My mind is just blurry right now and I’m shaking remembering something that happened a few years ago. I’m not sure if it was because I was a foreigner, or a woman. I felt once more discriminated.

This is for me a horrible story, so please stop reading now if you feel you don’t need to know. I just want to give an example of how bad it’s when you are not listened.

While I was pregnant with my daughter, I got sick.
I got Preeclampsia (disorder of pregnancy characterized by high blood pressure and a large amount of protein in the urine. The disorder usually occurs in the third trimester of pregnancy and gets worse over time. In severe disease there may be red blood cell breakdown, a low blood platelet count, impaired liver function, kidney dysfunction, swelling, shortness of breath due to fluid in the lungs, or visual disturbances. Preeclampsia increases the risk of poor outcomes for both the mother and the baby).

Let’s just say that I’m alive because I’m too stubborn to die.

My daughter was born in August 2009. Around June that year, every time I was in the car with the man and he turned , I felt like someone had hit me on the head with a brick, I screamed. It took me about half minute to get back to normal because as soon as I opened my eyes again, I saw falling stars sparkling before my eyes.
I went to the midwife and explained what happened every time the car turned.
The answer I got: “That’s strange”.
I’m also anemic and at the time, I was tired beyond limits.
I went to the midwife: “You know I’m anemic and in my other 3 pregnancies I needed extra iron. I’m really exhausted and I think I should start taking the pills now”.
The answer I got: “You have 3 small kids, that’s why you are tired!”
After a few weeks, my body started getting swollen, specially my legs. My ankles had the same diameter than my thighs. And I’m not exaggerating here.
I went to the midwife: “I think something is wrong. I can’t walk and I’m tired, and I feel like crap and if I move my head to the sides, I see stars in front of my eyes”.
“Ok, let’s check your blood pressure… WTF, your blood pressure is too high. Let me talk about this with the other midwives and see what we can do”.

I was sent to the hospital, they took some blood and then they measured my blood pressure. I needed iron, of course. The normal level is 7.5 and I had 4.6. But the blood pressure was normal then. I had to do the tests every week.
First they took some blood and then they measure the blood pressure. So strange, it was always normal. Of course it was normal!! They had taken some blood before measuring so the pressure was not high anymore.

It was August already. I couldn’t walk. I looked like an elephant.
Blinking made my head hurt. I was crying every day and I was one week overdue. It didn’t matter how many times I complained about how BAD I felt. I wasn’t listened.

One morning I said to the man: “Drive me to the hospital. And I swear I will ONLY leave the hospital with my baby in my arms”.
It was the first school day. We dropped my other kids at school and went straight to the hospital. It was around 9.00am. The man had his “bolas llenas” with me. “Full balls”. That’s Argentinian slang for “he couldn’t tolerate me one more second because he thought I was spoiled and overreacting and that women get pregnant all the time and why you are the only one having all this problems and complaining?”.

I said to the nurse: “I’m one week overdue and I tell you, something is WRONG”.
“OK, we are going to run some tests and monitor the baby”.

I know as a fact that the hospital in Cowshitland takes 15 minutes to give you the blood test results if there is an emergency.
They had taken my blood at 9.15am. I got my results at 5.45pm.
The doctor entered the room and say: “I’m afraid I have some bad news. The protein level in your urine is too high. You are at the maximum tolerable. Your baby has to be born in the next few hours or your kidneys will start failing. But there is a problem, it’s almost 6.00pm and there are not surgeons until tomorrow at 8.00am. If your baby is not born tonight, you’ll get a c-section in the morning”.

My mom who was in the room, started crying and shouting in Spanish after seeing the doctor’s concern and my face. Son of a bitch.
I was speechless and trying to process all the information. I was wishing the man took the doctor’s neck, put him against the wall and said: “Don’t you dare to make her wait one more second”.

That didn’t happen, of course. I was offered an induction using some natural hormones. When the doctor left, the nurse whispered in my ear: “Don’t get your hopes too high, that works only the 10% of the times”.
I guess I was lucky. It worked for me that night.

When I got home after a few days, a friend visited me. I said I had preeclampsia. That the doctors never mentioned that to me but it was written in my report. That I felt mistreated and discriminated.
She said: “You can’t imagine how lucky you are. My neighbor had the same you had, nobody listened to her either and she’s now in a coma”.

source: wikipedia.org

~ by DotedOn on March 23, 2015.