Now, I may not always be at my best when I'm pulled out of bed in the middle of the night but WOW, this one floored me.

I was just about to leave work yesterday and I got a phone call... "You know that appendicitis you took in the other night?" ...

We picked up a (generally larger) lady complaining of abdominal pain that started around the belly button and later moved down to her lower right abdomen. There was some nausea and a little pain in her right lower back. Without getting too specific in all the details and questions asked, I concluded this lady probably had appendicitis. Virtually all of the symptoms and findings on exam all supported this. Needless to say, we took her in to the hospital and passed off care to the emergency department.

Seems she called our head office to let us know what happened. She said even the physician at the hospital was suspecting appendicitis... Right up to the point the baby started to deliver

She gave birth to a healthy, FULL TERM infant and had absolutely no clue she was pregnant. Because of all the questions asked, the answers given, and the physical assessment this didn't even seem possible (although because she was a larger lady, the physical assessment was somewhat masked by her body mass).

Moral of the story... If you think you have appendicitis, make sure you're not pregnant first

As far fetched as this sounds, it is absolutely true. I wouldn't have believed it had I not been there myself.

I'm overweight myself at 6'1/350ish....but, but HOW THE HELL CAN YOU NOT KNOW YOU ARE PREGNANT?

Man, I hear about one of these stories just about every week. I'm thinking that in most of these cases, you can slap some quote marks around the words, Didn't know they were pregnant, then look over at the poor guy who just got himself trapped into a life term with an overly desperate cellmate.
But I can see it happening legitimately. The only thing that throws me is how they don't notice the baby kicking or moving. There'* no WAY that could be mistaken for anything other than what it is.

...or the lack of....er, monthly visits....

What? Was she the size of a dump truck? How can you not know you're pregnant? I've heard that you can be to skinny and that causes lack of a regular menstrual cycle, does that apply to obesity as well?

So, Darcy, I take it you're a doctor?

That'* a bit ridiculous. You must be seriously monstrous to not know you're having a kid...not to mention how the hell did she not feel it kicking or moving?!

Darcy'* a paramedic I believe.

I believe he'* an EMT. Having had four kids....they move a lot in the 3rd term....she'* either totally ignorant of her body or had some wicked gas all the time. How anyone could not feel the kicking and movements is beyond me.

I believe that in Canada all levels of training are referred to as "paramedic", as opposed to the US where EMT is used for the lesser trained people and Paramedic for the more advanced. In Canada they are EMA-1, EMA-2, etc. EMA stands for emergency medical attendant.

In Canada, designations and scope of practice do vary by province. Alberta in particular has three levels:

EMR - Emergency Medical Responder
2 to 3 months of training and is simililar to Advanced First Aid Level 2

EMT - Emergency Medical Technician
About 1 year of training after already completing the EMR certification
Provides Basic Life Support (BLS) measures

EMT-P - Emergency Medical Technologist - Paramedic
About 2 years of training after already completing EMR and EMT certifications
Provides Advanced Life Support (ALS) measures

I`m an EMT-P (Paramedic) and in the years I`ve worked in this industry I`ve heard similar stories, just had never seen it first hand. You would certainly think she would have felt the baby move. People write off different feelings to the strangest things though. Ì`m not sure in this case, but I`m thinking something along the line of "Wow, dinner sure isn`t sitting well tonight!"

What bothered me most of all was that somehow I missed this. I'm not new to this industry by any means. I felt MUCH better when I heard that a physician in a big city Emergency Department also missed it.

So "Are you pregnant?" wasn't one of your questions i gather?