Being on call....

Those of you who know me well know that very strange, bassakward things, happen to me. I was on call from October 19 to October 26. What this means is that any call that comes in after 4:30 pm Monday thru Friday and all calls on Saturday and Sunday come through me. Now, another interesting thing is that I work with adults...by choice. I do not work with kids because I don't understand them. I have two kids of my own and its a wonder no one has ever called DHR on me. Anyway, Tuesday night I had just gotten in from a call. I was tired and just wanted to go to bed. I settle in on the couch to watch poker, and lo and behold my pager goes off. So I call central dispatch. They tell me one of our foster kids is in labor and enroute to the hospital. OK..lets talk for a minute. Do you remember I said I don't work with kids? Do you remember that I said I had my own two kids? And do you remember I said I was tired? Ok, I call my supervisor and he advises me to go to the hospital, which is in Birmingham, and see what is going on. If we need to we will call a case aid to come and sit with this kid.

So I get dressed and head to Birmingham. Anytime I have to go towards Birmingham, I always call my sister, Lib, to let her know. She lives in Leeds, which is between my house and Birmingham. So I am driving down I20 at 9:00 pm talking to my sister on my cute flip phone. All of a sudden as a transfer truck is screaming by me and I am cussing, my cute flip phone falls into two pieces - literally. The ear piece is in one hand and the key pad is in my lap. Ok, no problem. I still have my work phone if I need it. Driving down the road. I hear badeep! Low battery on my work phone. No problem, I am social worker. I can fix this. I have the car charger. Plug the car charger into the lighter and the phone. Badeep! It says not charging. I go balistic! Why, because my co worker Kristy had told them last week when she was on call that the car charger does not work. So here it is 9:20 pm on Tuesday night, (I go off call at 8 am on Wednesday morning!), and I have no phone on I20 heading to Birmingham to a 17 year old who is in labor, and I am supposed to "see what is going on!"

So I whip off of I20 to the WalMart exit, which I missed and went between the orange and white barrels. So I get to WalMart and surprisingly had no trouble getting a charger for the phone. So I check out and run out of WalMart. Yes I said run.

I get to the labor and delivery unit. I ask the nurse for the kid's room. She says, "What is her last name?" Did I tell you I don't work with kids? I don't know what this kid's last name is. I told this nurse, "how many kids in foster care have you had come in tonight?" This snide nurse, and that is being nice, says, "I know my HIPPA regulations!" I said, "Glad to hear it!" I call the social worker who is actually assigned to this kid and found out her last name. So I get in the room and introduce myself. This kid is not in ANY distress. She is just laying there. I said, "How are you?" She says, "I think I am having contractions." I ask, "Has your water broken?" She says, " I don't think so." Okay mommas out there. Did you ever THINK you were having contractions or THINK that your water had broken? NOOOOOO! You KNEW when you were having contractions and you KNEW when your water had broken. It felt like a bull was kicking and the dam had busted. After about 30 minutes, the resident on call said she was going home. So I bid her good bye and came back home. Sometimes I wonder why I am ever surprised by what happens to me!