Rick Hall Contracts Bird Flu
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Even though the headline to this post isn’t even close to being true, my wife and I were quarantined and placed into isolation at the hospital a couple of weeks ago.

Sarah, my wife, is just about 30 weeks into her first pregnancy.  While driving home from a family party, she started feeling horrendous pains, which we later learned were contractions.  We stopped at the house, called the doctor, and headed out to the hospital.  Because this is our first pregnancy, this soon-to-be dad had to work hard at keeping his cool.

It was already late at night by the time that we made it to the hospital.  I pulled up the drive and was greeted by the valet guy, who wished us well as we rushed inside.

Once inside, a triage nurse pulled out a checklist of questions and went down the list one-by-one:

• Q:  Do you have a fever?
• Q:  Do you have a sore throat?
• Q:  Do you wet the bed?  … kidding
• Q:  Do you have a cold or a cough?

Her REWARD for answering yes to ALL of the questions?  The privilege of being forced to wear a surgical mask while we waited.

We quickly learned that if you answer yes to any of the above questions, you will quickly be ushered into isolation, in an effort to keep moms and newborns safe from germs.

We were asked to sit down in the waiting room and after no more than 60 seconds, our name was called.  A nurse opened the door, led us down a hall, around the corner, through a series of double doors, down another hall, and into the room where we would spend the rest of the night.

Because we were behind closed doors, Sarah was able to take off her mask.  Instead, any visitors into the room, including me, were forced to wear a white surgical mask.  I felt like I was on the movie Outbreak.

Our nurse was great and quickly worked to rig Sarah and the baby up to a series of monitors and IV tubes.  Multiple tests were done and our nurse and doctor worked diligently at getting things under control.  By about 4AM, we were finally moved into a normal hospital room, where we were both able to get some rest.  Thankfully, she was released later the next day.

Without a doubt, the best part of the whole experience was being able to listen to our baby’s heart beat for uninterrupted for several hours.  I can still hear that little heart beat in my head.  I can only imagine what the actual delivery process is going to be like, but I feel like we both were given a pretty good taste of what’s to come.