some stuff
ahh i think there were a few things i had promised to post about. i think one of them was my trip to the hospital (about a month and a half ago now). and the other i believe was regarding maternity leave. so uh, let me start with the hospital trip.
the first three months of the pregnancy were pretty bad. nausea every day (all day) and vomiting would come in spurts. nothing for a few weeks and then it would get bad. i finally realized it was brought on by a lack of sleep. anyhoo... there was a stressful week at work and i wasnt feeling well but forced myself to go in to try to make the holiday party that evening. i grabbed my anti-nausea meds and mustered the energy to get out the door. shortly after arriving at work and taking my pill, i started to feel HORRIBLE. sweaty, chills, and overall not good. i called my ob/gyn and she said if i felt that bad to head to the ER. soooo, while in the triage, they asked me all kinds of questions, took my temperature and asked what medication i was taking. i had no fever, which was odd, but i pulled out the pill bottle to see the exact name of the anti-nausea medication. lo and behold, it was not mine. it was the hub's. doh. they didn't seem overly concerned, but, i really felt shitty, so i asked to be admitted anyway. they put me on fluids and i was there for a while, prob about 6 hours. with no food inside of me, i vomited every couple of hours. sucky! in between bouts of barfing, there was much random inner city ER craziness. the inmate in the orange jumpsuit chained to his bed, the guy talking about how sad he was and then later pooping in his hands. or the guy who wanted to put back on his urine soaked clothes after being hosed off and given fresh clothes. there wasn't anything quite as sad, though, as the guy who came in because there was no room for him to do his pre-op in the regular hospital. he had just received a biopsy positive for cancer. that sucked. my ob/gyn was doing some deliveries that day and stopped by to check on me and do an ultrasound. even though i felt like i was dying, the little dude looked fine and it was the first time we saw him move!
in a nutshell, my maternity leave sucks it. i get 5 weeks of disability, which is a fraction of what i make. then i get whatever vacation days i've accrued until that time. by then, it will be about 7.5 days. i cannot use my personal/sick days during this time and must take the rest completely unpaid (health coverage continues the whole time). i suppose if we were a "typical" family, this would be fine, but since my husband is in school, this presents quite a challenge for us. Six weeks, no income. We have some savings and will save some more, but, things are already tight with only one income. These types of laws have to be written by someone who assumes that the woman will not be the primary breadwinner (aka mostly men). And you put on top of it that any woman that pushes her way forward in the business world (even political world) frequently ends up with some sort of derogatory slang thrown at her. you may think this a bad example, and not that i liked Sarah Palin... but holy shit, that woman got thrown through the ringer. Condoleeza Rice. Hilary Clinton (I don't like her either, but, damn, people get nasty)... now let's just add on top of this that my boss is a misogynist. and not in the "hey young thing, let me bang you kind of way" cause chicks aren't his thing. but in the "i detest women, or anything that might be perceived as weak, or even remotely emotional" kind of way. for example, everyone at work knows he has a significant other of many years, but he NEVER mentions this person. when i ran into them on the street, he introduced him as his friend. and then the time he told me that he was sure i was going to have a boy because he couldn't picture me raising a prissy girl. at the time i was so shocked i didn't say anything. but it came up again a while later, and i told him i could just as easily have a prissy boy. i really wanted it to be a girl for a while there. hah. what a douche. whew. end-rant. i can not WAIT to leave this place. it is in no way shape or form a family-friendly environment.
the first three months of the pregnancy were pretty bad. nausea every day (all day) and vomiting would come in spurts. nothing for a few weeks and then it would get bad. i finally realized it was brought on by a lack of sleep. anyhoo... there was a stressful week at work and i wasnt feeling well but forced myself to go in to try to make the holiday party that evening. i grabbed my anti-nausea meds and mustered the energy to get out the door. shortly after arriving at work and taking my pill, i started to feel HORRIBLE. sweaty, chills, and overall not good. i called my ob/gyn and she said if i felt that bad to head to the ER. soooo, while in the triage, they asked me all kinds of questions, took my temperature and asked what medication i was taking. i had no fever, which was odd, but i pulled out the pill bottle to see the exact name of the anti-nausea medication. lo and behold, it was not mine. it was the hub's. doh. they didn't seem overly concerned, but, i really felt shitty, so i asked to be admitted anyway. they put me on fluids and i was there for a while, prob about 6 hours. with no food inside of me, i vomited every couple of hours. sucky! in between bouts of barfing, there was much random inner city ER craziness. the inmate in the orange jumpsuit chained to his bed, the guy talking about how sad he was and then later pooping in his hands. or the guy who wanted to put back on his urine soaked clothes after being hosed off and given fresh clothes. there wasn't anything quite as sad, though, as the guy who came in because there was no room for him to do his pre-op in the regular hospital. he had just received a biopsy positive for cancer. that sucked. my ob/gyn was doing some deliveries that day and stopped by to check on me and do an ultrasound. even though i felt like i was dying, the little dude looked fine and it was the first time we saw him move!
in a nutshell, my maternity leave sucks it. i get 5 weeks of disability, which is a fraction of what i make. then i get whatever vacation days i've accrued until that time. by then, it will be about 7.5 days. i cannot use my personal/sick days during this time and must take the rest completely unpaid (health coverage continues the whole time). i suppose if we were a "typical" family, this would be fine, but since my husband is in school, this presents quite a challenge for us. Six weeks, no income. We have some savings and will save some more, but, things are already tight with only one income. These types of laws have to be written by someone who assumes that the woman will not be the primary breadwinner (aka mostly men). And you put on top of it that any woman that pushes her way forward in the business world (even political world) frequently ends up with some sort of derogatory slang thrown at her. you may think this a bad example, and not that i liked Sarah Palin... but holy shit, that woman got thrown through the ringer. Condoleeza Rice. Hilary Clinton (I don't like her either, but, damn, people get nasty)... now let's just add on top of this that my boss is a misogynist. and not in the "hey young thing, let me bang you kind of way" cause chicks aren't his thing. but in the "i detest women, or anything that might be perceived as weak, or even remotely emotional" kind of way. for example, everyone at work knows he has a significant other of many years, but he NEVER mentions this person. when i ran into them on the street, he introduced him as his friend. and then the time he told me that he was sure i was going to have a boy because he couldn't picture me raising a prissy girl. at the time i was so shocked i didn't say anything. but it came up again a while later, and i told him i could just as easily have a prissy boy. i really wanted it to be a girl for a while there. hah. what a douche. whew. end-rant. i can not WAIT to leave this place. it is in no way shape or form a family-friendly environment.