Embarrassing/Aggravating Medical Procedures, how to deal?

I suppose since twins are high risk pregnancies that that is the reason for more drastic testing, and testing done more often. Since I have been hospitalized with this pregnancy, I have seen a dramatic increase in this testing--but even before that there was a lot. My main question here is how do other prego twin moms deal with the embarrassing tests like CST (contraction stress tests) where they (among other methods) make you stimulate your nipples to produce contractions within a certain time frame while monitoring both babies heartbeats...or the plain ole NST (non stress test) where just lying still is **** on my back and the straps are always digging into my side leaving rug burn like marks! And least of all should I mention when you get the opportunity to be in a teaching hospital and there always seems to be a crowd gathered for these events! Any funny stories, suggestions on how to deal?

 

The weekend before last one night I thought my water might have broken one night so I went into l&d to get checked. Two nurses came in, one of them had a badge that said "student nurse." Of course she was the one to insert the torture device (speculum) so they could look at my cervix. It's bad enough when a seasoned nurse or doctor does it...I was terrified as the student nurse was asking her mentor how to angle it, etc. I gritted my teeth and told myself that everyone has to learn somewhere, so I guess she was going to learn on me!

 

Nipple pinching to stimilate contractings.... that's wild I've never heard of that.

As for a student nurse practicing on a pregnant woman... i'd be a little concerned.

 

QUOTE(pdxpeach @ Jun 26 2007, 09:12 PM) [snapback]308052[/snapback]
Nipple pinching to stimilate contractings.... that's wild I've never heard of that.

As for a student nurse practicing on a pregnant woman... i'd be a little concerned.


Ditto on the student nurse. Not sure if it is was in her place to do that. I have never even had a RN put on in let alone a student. When I went into L&D for possible fluid leaking, the resident even seemed a little off on doing it.

April

 

One of my midwives creeps me out and this is why. My very first appt. with her a couple of years ago, she told me I had great BF nipples, and then when she did my pap in March she said the looked like they were sewed on....not cool with me at all. Gave me the creeps and I will not see her for anything. That is really about it I think so far.

April

 

I think you lose a lot of dignity while preggo . I've had 2 catheters in 5 days & about 9 cervix checks in 24 hrs last week. It seemed like a honor to keep my underwear on ! As for students, I'm now in a teaching hospital & FREAKED when I found out a resident would be doing my spinal for my csect (this was when we thought I was having one last Thurs). I told them I'd refuse, but would allow a resident to do the section itself (with the doc right there). I just wasn't ok with a student playing around by my spine. Yes, you need to learn somewhere...but there are certain times & places and I didn't feel that was one of them! As for the nipple stimulation, why would they WANT to bring on contractions???

 

I do'nt understand the nipple stimulation thing either. Why do they want you to have contractions? I've heard of BPP and NST, but not CST. Weird!

I was on hospital bedrest for almost a month and NOTHING was sacred anymore. I had 4 internal exams within an 8 hour period between my dr, then the on call dr, then 2 residents (one at night and one the next morning). Then, the Ffn test...that was nuts have your butt placed up on top of a bedpan so they could get the right angle and totally feeling violated. Then there was the catheter that was put in the ONLY time I had a male nuser. Then, there was the incident with the bedside commode (I was on mag and the cath and HAD to use the bathroom for other measures and I refused the bedpan, so they let me use the bedside commode...it wasn't pretty)....ahhh, the list could go on and on! But, in the end, you get your beautiful babies, so I guess it's all worth it!

 

Umm, CST? Never heard of that!

But, yeah, you lose all dignity. Just wait until delivery when some strange nurse or orderly starts shaving you in prep for your c/s (if you need one). Or, there's the catheters, cervix checks, bi-weekly cervical u/s measurements, the nurse coming in to check your pad after delivery. Just stay focused on the grand prize - 2 darling babies to bring more light into your life than you ever dreamed possible! And, honestly, that stuff never enters my mind since I've had the girls so you'll probably quickly forget all about it.

 

Never heard of CST either, can you please elaborate on the purpose of such a test?

Have you mentioned your discomfort during your NST's? Sometimes they will let you sit in a chair, sometimes they will let you lay one your side. All of the staff I encountered were more than willing to make me as comfortable as possible.

In regards to the teaching hospital, I would just take comfort knowing I was helping other women to come by giving the medical staff of the future all the hands on experience they can get not to mention they most likely have the best of the staff teaching the newbies which gives you the ultimate in care!

ETA: I just read about the CST, was something noticed of concern in one of your regular tests to result in having to do the CST?

 

I have never heard of a CST before either.

My friend a few years ago had a student intern insert her epidural. She ended up with a spinal headache.

I delivered at a teaching hospital and I know that student interns and residents are there to learn. However, since I was having twins, I made the decision to request that my OB deliver the babies and not a resident. (Even if my OB was standing there) One of the nurses did try to change our minds by saying that the future residents will be delivering your children's babies. My husband and I were not comfortable with that and stuck to our decision.

4 days after my babies were born, they needed to do the PKU blood test on the babies. 2 people came in to draw the blood. One appeared to be a student learning. Normally they ask if it's ok for a student to do something. This time around, the 2 people didn't even ask so we didn't know at first. You can tell that one was learning because one was teaching the other one how to hold the babies foot. Well the student learning did such a terrible job, my daughter was crying like crazy. I was so angry just sitting there so help less. When the student finished, the veteran lady showed the student again how to do it and instantly my daughter stopped crying. (Because she knew how to do it properly) After they were done with my daughter, the same student tried on my son and the same thing happened. My son was crying so hard that they had to hold him down. At the time, my husband and I didn't know what to say or should we have even stopped her? We sat there stunned. After the whole incident, I told my husband that we are never ever going to let people use our babies as guinea pigs. Not only that, my babies were tiny as well. 4'5 and 4'11. I fully understand that students need to learn. But my babies sounded like they were being tortured!!

My recommendation is that if you are not comfortable with a student intern or resident doing something, you should talk to your nurse/doctor about it before hand. Or speak up when it's about to happen!! I will always regret not speaking up the day they were drawing that blood from my babies.

 

Oh my! I have not had to undergo any of these things yet, but I am not sure how I would/will handle that! I am definately not comfprtable with the whole nipple thing! I would definately request not to have proceedures done by students. I don't think that is unreasonable! I realize they need to start somewhere, but it doesn't need t be with you!!! Let your doctor know and tell the hospital if you have to go in later on for something that you would rather not have students actually preforming proceedures although observation is ok (if it is).

 

Wow never heard of a CST! That sounds interesting!

I go in biweekly for NST's and at my last one I was having contractions so I ended up being there for 3 1/2 hours hooked up the the monitors, I had another fFN done, which hurt like heck (normally not painful, so this nurse was a little rough) and then she checked my cervix. I'll have to agree that NST are uncomfortable, especially after 3 hours! My monitors kept slipping cause baby A is soooo low and baby B is sooo high. It was such a pain to stay still so the monitors wouldn't slip like that.

I'm sure the whole privacy/dignity thing will just get worse when it's time for the babies to come! LOL

 

Personally I think that CST is ridiculous...as a patient you have the right to refuse tests...and that is one test I would absolutely refuse...there is no reason for them to require you to have contractions...that's absurd...if your body isn't having contractions why on earth would they care... if they are worried b/c the babies need to come out then they should induce or do a c/s...not just test to see how they are doing in there along with contractions...

as far as letting students work on you, you have the right to refuse that too... I had a recent trip to L&D and a resident did an internal on me..it was the most painful thing I've ever experienced...she did not know what she was doing...if I see her again over there I think I will refuse her care. She can learn on someone else!!

 

Never heard of that CST/nipple stimulation thing, and let me tell you, I was monitored for contractions A LOT. I just dealt with all the monitoring because it was done for the health of my babies.

 

I know about CSTs and I know there are reasons to perform them (not sure how important it is in the grand scheme of things though), but I understand them to be contraindicated in cases where PTL is a higher risk. A multiple pregnancy of course increases that risk, so why would they have you do that? THere's one I would have refused in a heartbeat, especially if I was already hospitalized!

How far are you?

As for modesty though, kiss it goodbye. After fertility treatments, pregnancy, 69 days of hospital bedrest, a complicated vaginal delivery, infants with neonatal herpes infections and a difficult start to breastfeeding...I can confidently say I have no modesty left!!!!! all you can do is take it in stride

 

Never heard of that CST/nipple stimulation thing

me neither

how ever.. i did have a spinal headache.. it stunk.. i had scholeosis..s p..
and they missed my spine..

in addition to that.. the dr left part of the placenta inside me.. and i had to have a dnc..

i went into have my c section.. and wanted to keep my undies on..
lol thats how nieve i was..

be proactive.. in your health care.. refuse..question.. debate.. consult.. just be proactive.

 

Found this link explaining CST....
http://www.ahealthyme.com/topic/contractstress

 

the cst sounds risky - why would a doc want to start contractions if you werent having them in the first place? i would def. ask what the reasoning is behind that

after having my son - i dont care who sees me naked lol - the nst isnt so bad, have them give you some pillows and raise the back of the table so you arent lying flat...

 

Thanks for the replies ladies!! To answer some of your questions, I am 35 weeks along tomorrow (Thursday)..and here I was thinking the CST was a normal everyday procedure; but I can't believe the number of ya'll who say even with twins, you never even heard of it! That's definitely making me think it's unnecessary, not that I wasn't thinking that already.
They've (doctors & nurses..both attendings & 3rd year residents) told me that it is a necessary procedure in order to see how the babies reacted to my contractions; whether or not they can handle them. I am not sure if it's due to my preeclampsia conditions or not; but that is what I was told! I am getting an amniocentesis tomorrow (Thursday) and am also having another CST..they said this one is also important since they want to make sure the boys are doing fine after having the amnio. Ugh...
I lost a lot of dignity with my first son, but it all went out the door in the delivery room...this is my first experience with having to be embarrassed on just a regular day of being pregnant!? Ya know?
And I feel a little lost-as one mom mentioned-as to who is a student/resident/doctor...and so on.
As for back pain during the NST or the CST...honey, I've tried pillows (I have six on my bed right now)...and I've tried begging everyone who walked through my door to let me sit up/get up/get off my back but they refused because they said neither baby would track if I was ANYWHERE but flat on my back..

 

One of my early OB apt, we were doing an internal ultrasound and right before he (my ob) asked if i mind if he brings in some students. They were all girls. At that point i figured that i would be having plenty of people looking at my whoooo haaaa so why not start now.

 

I don't know much about some of the testing you mentioned. However, with medical students and the like you can say you would rather they not come in. After all this is very personal and if you feel uncomfortable they can learn from someone who doesn't mind. When I was seeing an RE and going through the IVF process, I made this clear on more than one occasion. Good luck!

 

if they are considering delivering early, i can somewhat see the reasoning for the amnio, but me personally? I would refuse a CST after an amnio. You always have that right and privelige. And if you don't want to refuse but don't understand the reasoning, I'd encourage you not to consent until they take the time to explain it to you in whatever way they must so that you feel comfortable with it. Either way...almost done now!