The next few days were very worrisome for us as the unusual symptoms persisted, but phone calls to our Doctor were ignored. My mother is an RN, as is my aunt and her daughter. We are all very close. Finally my mother insisted I get a second opinion from another OB doctor. She had a recommendation from a friend and had already made an appointment for me for that afternoon, October 2. This new doctor was in a different neighboring county and delivered at a different Hospital. After just 5 minutes in her exam room she had guessed that I was suffering from a dangerous bacterial infection, causing water leakage and contractions. A few minutes later tests confirmed it. I was prescribed antibiotics and told that if I had not been treated for this infection before delivery of my baby it is likely my baby would have died. Needless to say I decided on the spot to never see my previous doctor again - talk about incompetance! I made arrangements to have all of my remaining appointments moved to my new doctor and to have the baby at the hospital she works at.
On October 8th I delivered my baby at my new OB’s hospital. Still unknown to me were the drug test performed at the previous hospital and it’s results. The new hospital requested my records from the previous hospital as I was a new patient and read the report for a positive drug test the week before. Still without my knowledge they did not investigate but believed me to be a drug user. During my labor I was subjected to the usual questions but with a new vigor. The usual 'Have you taken any street drugs?' (Followed by my answer 'No, never.') Was followed by, 'Well how about speed?' Noooo.... 'Well how about meth?' Nooo.... 'Well how about ....' and on and on it went. I was really getting a weird feeling about this but as I had no idea for their motivation I was at a loss to explain their behavior. Plus I was in active labor - who has time to think about why your doctor is acting creepy? Add to this that every nurse and doctor was looking at me funny and treating me like trash...to put it nicely. I was miserable and confused and had no idea what the problem was. I'd never even met these people before and had been here for an hour!
During my labor and after my baby was born drug tests were done on me and my infant, still without my knowledge. They were of course all negative. I finally started to get a clue that all was not as it was supposed to be when a nurse told me while walking me to my room, "We performed a drug test on your infant but don't worry - it came back negative." She said it with a kindly smile as if she dealt with loser, pregnant drug users all the time and was trying to ease any worry I might have about my perhaps drug addicted born baby. I was of course stumped as to this statement. I was completely in the dark here. I said, "Why? What for?" After all I'd had 3 kids prior to this one and that had never been routine. She just shrugged and looked at me like I was stupid. She didn't elaborate.
During this time between my arrival, delivery and current stay this hospital had also called their own county’s CPS, as it was assumed I was a drug user when they looked at my old records and saw the drug test result from a week before. I was finally informed of what was going on when my doctor came to tell me CPS would be visiting me in the hospital. She would not explain why. I mean - I'd never heard of CPS, so I asked who that was. She merely shrugged and said Social Services. She refused to say anything further and left. Now I was really becoming agitated and confused. What the HELL was going on here?????
I pulled the call cord and a new nurse came in my room. I explained all the weird behavior I had been subject to at this hospital, the strange comments and questions, and told her I had absolutely no idea what was going on and no one would tell me a thing. She was a little more sympathetic. I asked for my medical records. She actually said she shouldn't let me see them. I INSISTED - EMPHATICALLY, and finally discovered this whole huge mess. I informed my current doctor of the prescribed sleeping pill at the old hospital and my story was confirmed after numerous calls from my doctor to the old hospital. CPS in that county (the one that came to see me in the hospital) dropped the case after being updated by my doctor.
Needless to say I left IMMEDIATELY - packed up my new baby and my sore body and went home lickety split. I was sick and ill thinking of all that had passed over my head and the comments made to me during my stay. I wanted to get out of the land of Oz.
On the same day of October 8th my old hospital’s county CPS worker was at my house for a 'visit' to check on the pregnant drug user. I was of course not home, I was having a baby, but written in my file was, ‘CPS was denied access to the home’. Since we did not come to the door this Social Worker decided to 'take a look around' and began a thorough search of our home through all of our windows.
What this CPS worker did not know was that I owned a store and ran it out of the front downstairs of our large Victorian home. Not a ramshakle mom and pop store, I was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, had been in the paper for the ribbon cutting ceremony, and participated in community events as a business owner. My store was an 'antiques and boutique' kind of store. I had closed it up for my upcoming maternity leave...which would be followed by winter, where I stayed closed from January to March. So my store was packed up and shelved for the winter. Peeking in the front windows she of course saw shelves of antiques and boxes of knick knacks on the floor. She took this to assume we were messy pigs and our home must be filled with old crap, as well as dangerous to our children. She filed this into our report as well and determined she would be back.
