An ER story

On a typical night in our ER, we see a lot of people with abdominal pain. We get gallstones, pancreatitis, stomach flu, food poisoning, and cysts in various locations...just to name a few. So on Sunday night when a new patient arrived through the waiting room with abdominal pain, no one batted an eye. My friend got her "line" in (IV) and I brought in some IV fluids to hang...I took one look at her and already knew her affliction. I looked at her triage sheet (sorry if this is too much nurse talk) and went to find the Dr who was going to be taking care of her. I told him that he should go in with an ultrasound and find out how far along she is....his response: "but she's not pregnant." That's correct - this lady is 39 years old and has 3 kids. Her last "cycle(sorry for the feminine details)" was a few weeks ago and she is absolutely NOT PREGNANT. However, when I went in that room, I was sure I was looking at a woman in labor. The Dr. wanted to wait to get her labs back before taking in the ultrasound machine and I told him I would bet anything she was going to have a baby. Everyone else (the other nurses) probably agreed with me, but didn't pronounce it quite as adamantly as I did.
Now you're probably wondering, did she look pregnant? Well, she had some sort of a belly, but she said she got bloated like that after eating wheat. Hmmm...to me --it looked like a baby belly. BUT - she was a BIG girl, (as in about 200 lbs) so its hard to tell sometimes...
So about 20 minutes after arriving, I went over to where she was and one of our attending drs was on the phone and I overheard him..."we have a patient in the ER that we believe is crowning...could an OB Dr. come down??"
I KNEW it!!
How could you not know?? I mean, sure, you might think you have the flu at first, but then as you know your body is changing...and what about the baby moving? Only so much can be attributed to gas, right?? What I have concluded is that the mind is unbelievably powerful.
So on with the story...we wheeled her into one of our rooms called a trauma bay - specially for traumas and other events we might need random supplies for....like a baby delivery kit! Yes, our ER team delivered this lady's baby. The crazy thing is the OB resident came down, checked her and asked when her due date is. The lady screamed "I'M NOT PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!" The OB calmly looked at her and said, "actually, you are pregnant, and since you've had kids before, you know what I'm talking about when I say you are complete. And now its time to push. So with your next contraction, PUSH." The patient screamed NO several times before obeying and with one push came a big baby boy. Full term. 8 1/2 pounds.
How could you not know??