Monday July 2nd, 2007

At every job I have worked at there are certain days that even though we may be open for business, nothing gets done. The day after Thanksgiving. The entire week between Xmas and New Year’s. For me, today is one of those days. I walk into work knowing that if anything work related comes out of my office today it will be purely coincidental. I have work to do, but almost none with my job. After I check my work email I start making phone calls.

However, the mama Ali calls me at 9am while I’m just getting warmed up. There is no way not to be nervous when she calls me anymore. Every call could be the call. This call is to let me know that they have finally gotten clearance for her to be transferred to Daytona. My boss is already well aware of my situation and lets me leave work in the middle of the day. Again. It wasn’t the last time that summer. I have to quickly get to Ormond. I have to hurry up and get there and – wait. I get to Ormond around 10:30 am. The ambulance doesn’t arrive until about an hour after that. We don’t leave the hospital until noon. As they transfer the mama Ali from the bed to the stretcher, they don’t want her to move. They don’t want her to attempt to help. They actually lift up the sheet she is lying on to transfer her to the stretcher. In my mind I can only think of one thing. I know that Ormond will charge us $300 for taking their sheet. Will Daytona give us a $300 credit for giving them a sheet?

All little boys grow up wanting to ride in a fire truck. They are big and colorful and make lots of noise. Plus they play with fire. Other than the fire part, ambulances are the same and for the first time I get to ride in the front. Alas, the siren was not turned on. We did not drive fast. We ran no lights. We did not get to choose the radio station. We were not allowed to push any of the buttons to find out what they did. We were not covered by insurance. We are still paying the ambulance company. However, they did deliver her to Daytona in probably about 5 seconds faster than I could have managed on my own and she was still pregnant. I suppose it was worth it. I still want to ride in a fire truck.

When we got out of the ambulance I saw that the techs had misinterpreted the directions for her. In the hospital she had been lying in a position where the bed was flat and the whole bed was tilted such that her head was the lowest part of her. I can’t spell the name so we will call this the ‘funny T’ position. The techs interpreted this to mean that her legs should be elevated, but that her head can be a little elevated as well causing her to lie in a V position. That meant for the first time in days the fluid wasn’t rushing to her head. In the time it took to ride from Ormond to Daytona it looked as if she lost a couple of pounds. It was funny. I didn’t mention anything because she had the chance to do something she wouldn’t be able to do again. Look around. After being in Ormond for 3 days she never got to look around. She could only she what she could see from the bed. She couldn’t even see out the other side of the window. Now she was looking around the maternity ward. This was her only chance while she was pregnant to actually look in other rooms, or see the hallway, or know what the floor was covered with. Altogether too quickly she was placed in a room where she would only be able to study the same for walls. She never complained about that part – not even once.

Daytona was a bigger hospital than Ormond – by far. In fact other than the beachfront hotels and the raceway, it was the tallest building in town. They even had a segregated area in the maternity ward for the women who would be there for a long time. I do mean segregated because it was the proverbial back of the bus and the literal back of the ward. I don’t have a problem with that. The long term stay rooms were half the size of the other rooms. I could sort of deal with that. The worst part was that to get to our room we had to walk past the nursery/NICU. The NICU was sealed off, but the nursery was there. The babies were big and chubby. I would find out that the babies were also in there for hours – not weeks. The mama Ali did not see that and would not see that. I saw it daily. Coming and going.

The room was not like the other rooms either. The other rooms were designed to be big enough for the doctor, nurses, several family, and anyone else who cared to watch. They also had wide but hard beds. The long term rooms had beds that were softer but less wide and were not expected to hold a baseball team at the foot of the bed. Our room was narrow with most of the floor space taken up by the bed and two chairs. I would have to move furniture around if I expected to sleep here. I would even have to move the bed over to make room. This was a room where they put people who are going to be there a while. That means the doctor was wrong about the end being close. He said that the pregnancy wouldn’t last the weekend. Now it’s Monday afternoon and they are preparing for the pregnancy to last longer. I walked into that new room with my wife and a smile on my face.

My in laws were there and true to form they tried to straighten up the room. My job was to get the clothes and stuff from the car. Their job was to organize it. They’re funny like that. I also made some more phone calls to bill companies. We weren’t behind yet, but little things need to be taken care of. I don’t want to insure a car that won’t be driven. The health club membership has to go for now at least. My wife won’t be working for a while so let’s see if we can skip a car payment. The house has internet, but the computer is in the hospital. She has her own health insurance and the baby will be on mine so I need to notify both insurance companies. Her insurance company had trouble understanding how she could be in labor 3 months after her first ultrasound. So did I.

Before I knew it, it was time to go again. I desperately wanted to stay the first night in the new room, but I had to go. Saying goodbye was hard again, but not as hard. There was still the fear, but the doctor said there were no major changes, so there was a possibility that she could last another day. If she can go all day Monday without giving birth, she can do it Tuesday. I remember telling her as I left that I knew what I wanted for my birthday – nothing. Today was the 2nd. My birthday was the 9th. She knew exactly what I meant.