With a boom and a thud I woke up two mornings ago. After a few seconds of realizing what had happened, I realized my wife was on the floor. In my awakening awkwardness and fumbling words I called out, “Are you okay, are you okay?” There was no response. We’ve been married for 10 years and 6 months. Jolene and I dated for 5 years and were friends even before. Needless to say we know each other all too well. So when I say my pregnant wife pushes herself too much, I know it’s not an understatement.
Jolene is now 26 weeks and 6 days pregnant. Our baby is now viable. Now I’m not campaigning for my baby to come any time soon, I’m only acknowledging if push came to shove our baby could still make it. However, that’s why I say Jolene is pushing herself to hard. On Saturday she was getting out of bed. Somehow she slipped and fell to the ground. Presumably her center of balance is way off as expected. On the way to the ground she grabbed what she could to brace her fall. In the process she created a 10 inch bruise on her back. Cut up her elbows and is in more pain than she was before. This isn’t the only time she has fallen.
Jolene’s Bruise
For the past week she has been in lots of pain. She had a doctor appointment last week, but unfortunately she had a different doctor this time. Someone who is not sympathetic to pain. The doctor asked on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad was her pain. Jolene said her pain was a 2. I asked her why she only said the number 2. She said, “compared to birthing a child it’s not that bad.” I can only feel empathetic with that statement, but pain can be a subjective thing. If you are complaining every step you make, then there is a problem. As a nurse she should know that if you are making faces with pain, then most likely the level is higher than a 2. The next day it got even worse. She now complains non stop of how much pain she is in, even more so after the fall.
When Jolene was pregnant with Johanna she worked all the way up to 38 weeks. Johanna was born at 39 weeks. She rarely complained of pain. Her profession is a nurse. As a nurse she works 12 hour shifts at night when everyone is in bed and is constantly on her feet. That makes it a little harder to work full term. This time though she is not doing as well as she did last time. She did have less nausea this turn, however the pain is far more severe. She now even shows signs of sciatica. I could go on but I digress.
Seeing on how much pain she is in, I’m hoping that she stops work soon. However, I think she sees working far into pregnancy as some type of trophy. I’m not sure risking her health or the babies health is worthy of a fictional trophy. Monday she plans to contact her doctor. So hopefully soon she might be able to get a note to leave work earlier than she anticipated. This is definitely not planned, nor does she have enough vacation time. I’m sure everything will work out in the end. Anyway, thanks Jolene for working so hard.
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