Coincidence? I Think Not!

A strange thing happened to me while I was in labor. I had been having mild to moderate contractions every few minutes for most of the day on Wednesday. At 5pm my water broke completely and that is when the contractions picked up. They naturally became much more painful and closer together and in addition to that, the nurses began to increase the amount of Pitocin they were giving me to speed things up. That's when I cracked and asked for my epidural.

I was okay with getting an epidural, but it was ineffective when I gave birth to Imola so I was a little scared that this time around would prove to be the same. When I got the epidural, I felt less pain, but there was one area on the left side of my lower abdomen that I could still feel. The pain was strong, but it was manageable. The anesthesiologist kept administering greater doses of medication and he even tried repositioning my catheter, but to no avail.

As the nurses increased the amount of Pitocin I was receiving, the pain climbed up the scale. In a matter of a couple of hours, my pain had gone from a 6 to a 9 or 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. I was absolutely writhing in pain and the only small relief I could get was from an ice pack applied to my belly.

In the middle of this horrific pain, a person, strategically-placed by God, strolled into my room. The doctor who was on the labor and delivery floor that evening was one whom I did not know well. He was the doctor who I saw at my first appointment with the maternal-fetal medicine doctors, but I had never seen him again since then. I didn't feel like I had a relationship with him so I was a little disappointed that he would be the one delivering Caleb.

This doctor decided to come in and say hello since I hadn't seen him yet that day (the residents are the ones who take care of you most of the time.) So in comes the doctor as Andy is reading a book on the couch and I am in the bed dying in pain. After he said hello, he immediately asked me if I listen to Relevant Radio, which I thought was a very strange question.

If you have been following this blog from the beginning, you would have read an entry in early May in which I talked about calling in to a radio show called "Go Ask Your Father." I had gotten to meet Fr. Rocky, who is the host of the show, and he blessed Caleb in my womb. I told him I wanted to make a prayer request for Caleb on-air and he had me call in during his show to ask the 30 million listeners to pray for my unborn son.

Anyway, the doctor said the he was listening to "Go Ask Your Father" and he heard a girl named Heather describe the medical condition of her unborn son and ask that the listeners pray for him. He said that he immediately knew it was me because it was too coincidental for him to just see a patient with my name who was pregnant with a boy with these specific brain abnormalities.

Needless to say, I almost fell out of the bed! How is it that coincidentally, the doctor who I saw just happened to be listening to a radio talk show when I called in? I didn't even know he was Catholic let alone a fan of Relevant Radio. And here, this was the doctor who would be present when my little angel came into the world.

Andy and I knew right then that God had sent this specific doctor to care for me in delivery and there was a tremendous peace within our hearts. Now this peace didn't make the pain of my contractions go away, although I wish it had! Nonetheless, it still made me feel so much better.