Nurse OB

Time to vent: I don't try to act like a doctor or a nurse because I have no medical training in those areas. So please, nurse from my OB practice, stop trying to act like a dietitian. Or at least glance at my chart and be aware, before trying to talk to me about nutrition, that my "occupation" is "graduate student in dietetics." That nutrition encounter is what pushed me over the edge; it was the "final straw" so to speak. Normally it wouldn't have bothered me, but Nurse OB already had a couple of strikes against her. Strike 1: I have had this nurse once before. She is apparently the nurse that you get if you have an urgent concern. The last time I saw her I had intractable nausea, and was on the verge of tears because I hadn't eaten in a couple of days and I hadn't had anything to drink that day. She is not a very warm person and I did not appreciate that she was short with me throughout my entire appointment. Today I hadn't felt the baby kick for a few days (after kicking incessantly for several weeks), so I called the doctor to see if I should be concerned. They scheduled me for an appointment within the hour. I arrived at the OB office, and sat in the waiting room until Nurse OB called me back. She put me in a chair, squirted some goop onto my belly, and then moved the fetal monitor around trying to find the heartbeat. After about 5 minutes of moving the fetal monitor to different locations, she went and got the doppler. Apparently the baby is positioned behind my pelvis right now, because after a couple of minutes with the doppler she was able to find the heartbeat if she pushed really hard just above my pelvis. Because the baby was positioned so low she said that she couldn't use the fetal monitor. I was no longer concerned because the heart rate sounded normal on the doppler, so I was okay with not being hooked up to the monitor. Nurse OB had been spreading more and more goop over my belly during the 10 or so minutes she was trying to get the fetal monitor to work. Then strike 2 came: She grabbed the paper towel from my lap (that I assumed was for me to wipe my belly off with after she was done examining me), wiped a little bit of the goop off of her hands, wiped down the monitor and the doppler and left the room. She didn't give me anything to wipe the goop off with. After getting goop all over my pants and shirt I was finally able to find a box of tissues in the room and wipe off what had not already soaked into my clothes. Strike 3: She came back 30 minutes later. I wouldn't have minded a 30 minute wait, but she hadn't told me where she was going or what she was doing, so I was sitting in the room, by myself, without any idea if they thought the baby was okay or not. When she came back she informed me that my doctor was busy with another patient and that she wanted to ask him some questions. I wish she would have told me that before she took off the first time, but at least she let me know now. Then she said, "Have you eaten yet today?" I said yes. She asked when. I said "I ate at 10:15 and then had a latte at 11:00." (My appointment was at 1:30, so she was asking me these questions at about 2:10). She said, in a haughty voice, "A latte isn't food." Thank you for stating the obvious, Nurse OB. I realize that a latte is technically considered a "drink" and not "food." Also, I don't usually drink lattes. I have had 2 in the past year. I drank one today because I thought the caffeine might get the baby to kick and I thought that was an appropriate course of action to take before calling the doctor. Then she said, "You need to be eating every few hours." Thank you for another obvious statement. I wondered if she had looked at the clock recently since I ate less than 4 hours before. Just because I didn't eat lunch at "lunchtime" didn't mean that I was starving. Furthermore, I probably would have been eating at that moment had I been at home, but Nurse OB had left me sitting in the exam room for 30 minutes with no word of what was going on. Additionally, she did not ask me what I ate earlier in the day. For reference, it was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. My stomach has been upset lately and it is settling to eat something that is bland and room temperature like a PB&J. But, for all she knew I could have eaten the Hungry Farmer's Breakfast from Cracker Barrel, consuming greater than 1000 calories, in which case it would have been inappropriate to be eating again so soon. So the advice she gave was not necessarily correct. Also, while a latte isn't "food" per se, it did provide about 250 calories and 8 g protein, so it does count. In fact, if I had a patient who couldn't eat food, I would advise them to drink their calories. And drinking something containing milk is great because it provides protein, vitamins and calories. She told me that I should be eating protein bars (you know, those candy bars masquerading as being healthy because they are chocked full o' protein). I would never tell someone to eat a highly processed protein bar in place of natural, whole foods. So, Nurse OB, please check your attitude at the door the next time I have to see you. I was polite this time, but I can assure you that the further into pregnancy I get the more fired up I get about lesser offenses. If you, with no nutritional training and about 70 pounds of extra body weight, try to tell me to eat a protein candy bar again, I will step up onto my soapbox and tell you exactly what I think. The most important thing is baby is okay. Baby is just positioned so low that it is more difficult to feel movement, and probably hasn't been moving around as much because I haven't been feeling very good for the past few days.