LIFE
How I Stayed in America (Part 14)
Dr. Vicky Macy made a mistake…
At the moment, when her figure skating class began, not only did I not give birth, but I also did not “open up”. I think that sophisticated and not so sophisticated mothers know that in order to give birth to a baby, it is necessary that the opening should be ten centimeters. My maximum exposure per day was only five. Twenty-four hours of labor exhausted me to the end. No wonder though… According to American rules, a caesarean section becomes available after twenty-four hours of trying to give birth by yourself. By that time, I was already shouting: “Cut me up as soon as possible!” However, nobody heard me. I mean, they did hear me, but no one was willing to perform a cut.
Let me get back to a few hours prior. I came to the hospital with a good spirit and in a positive mood. As you might remember, with a tape recorder. I decided to give birth with some music on, in particular, the song “Cabriolet”. A strange choice, you might say, but apparently, in the first year of my life in America, I still yearned for my homeland and Russian culture. I did not fully realize it, yet subconsciously, I did. I was given a dropper with Pitocin, the hormone that induces childbirth. At that instance, I was alone, waiting for Andrei to return from the trip, walking around the room with a dropper, and I felt very cheerful. After about four hours, contractions started. I was in no hurry because I wanted to explore the sensations of contractions and even thought about performing a natural childbirth, a sinful deed.
And here, my husband arrived right on time. He brought me presents. Jimmy Choo sandals, as I recall. My husband is distinguished by extraordinary thinking and imagination. In some ways, he is a genius. I can’t say that he is a prodigy, but he just is not like everybody else. After all the saline poured into me, nothing could fit me, especially the sandals. In fact, my legs didn’t even fit into the wide size-38 sneakers, so Jimmy Choo was out of the question.
My husband only gifts what he personally admires. In fact, he made me get used to it after many years of living together. However, he did not succeed, and we agreed that he should usually give several gifts. In other words, the gift should consist of two parts — what he likes and what I order. In any case, at that moment I was pleased with his attention, although I never wore those sandals — the shoes by Jimmy Choo categorically do not fit me.
I felt the contractions and made a decision: natural childbirth without pain relief is not for me. The anesthesiologist came with his set of epidurals. Andrei was there and even taped everything on camera, while studying the whole procedure. He was curious.
My legs got heavier, and soon I couldn’t feel them at all. I also could not feel the contractions, but after a few hours pain appeared again, which the epidural had already failed to cope with. It turned out that in some strange way I felt pain merely on the right side. It was this exact pain that wore me out. I suffered all night.
It is noteworthy that for the entire time of me giving birth, I saw Dr. Vicky Macy merely for 30 minutes, 20 of which she performed a cesarean. At first, she ran in for 10 minutes to remove the “plug”. I hope everyone understands what I mean by this? Then, she went to watch some figure skating. Let me remind you that it was at this exact time that the Olympics took place in Salt Lake City, and the doctor had tickets. Nowadays, I am fascinated by American medicine, but back then, it just seemed wild to me. Indeed, for a Russian person, the doctor primarily provides psychological assistance. Obviously, I wanted my doctor to be with me for the entire childbirth (i.e. 30 hours), however, such miracles do not happen in America. Therefore, after figure skating was over, Vicky calmly returned home and went to bed. Don’t get me wrong, I was watched by nurses, and as I have said many times, a nurse in America is practically a doctor. The only difference is that she does not have the right to prescribe medication and diagnose. My nurse kept in touch with Vicky, periodically checking my disclosure and probably reporting back. Thus, Vicky did not show up — why come see me if
there is only five centimeters available? But she gave instructions to the nurse to turn me from one side to the other every half hour. According to Vicky, the fetus’s head was at the bottom, only face up. In short, she wanted him to roll over.
All night, my husband kept turning me over, but nothing came of it. At 5:30 in the morning, I was already howling. Moreover, the nurse’s face was apprehensive. Monitors were connected both to the outside and inside, projecting the activity of the fetus all this time. Without water, my boy, apparently, gradually began to choke, and therefore, for the first time in 25+ hours, everyone started panicking and running around quickly! Very quickly!!! The anesthesiologist gave me spinal anesthesia, they then took me to the operating room, and there, ready and dressed in a special uniform, Dr. Macy met me. I was so angry with her!
Although, what could she do? Sitting next to me and just saying that everything will be okay??? It’s terrible to admit, but for some reason the right side was still sensitive, and lived after spinal anesthesia! As far as I understand, while she was cutting me, which was only 15-20 minutes, they still “turned me off”. Although I had already come to terms with the idea that I was dying. I think that every woman in labor had such thoughts. In delirium, literally with one eye, I saw the baby.
Red-blue-white, completely unsightly. I did not feel any happiness, but only quietly said:
“Where is the prince???”