Hercules' Labors Pale

LOOKS EASY AT THIS POINT!


"Hurculean effort" is a term bandied about frequently. It refers, of course to the completion of impossible tasks like the ten (later amended to twelve) labors that Hercules was forced to perform: simple things like capturing man-eating horses or Diana's pet deer; kill a nione-headed hydra when one of its heads was immortal; steal Zeus's golden apples...you know...things that seem heroic to US, but in comparison to what I witnessed this past week, were child's play.
Our oldest son Ryun and his wife Sopanya had a baby girl this week. Of course, that's the Cliff Notes version of the story. As Paul Harvey used to say..."and now, the rest of the story."
Enduring 34 hours of labor was something Hercules (and most every other man I know, including me) would have run screaming to avoid.
Undergoing a Caesarian section to deliver the baby leaves the mother with a huge slice in her abdominal muscles (and a six-week recovery)...at least I've been there and done that with an aneuryism. The baby was SO not going to come out in the usual way that an attending physician had to reach in (you can figure out where) and PUSH the baby's head (wedged tightly in the birth canal)back into the uterus so little Sotheary could be extricated. Hey, I can't stand the yearly proctology exams...the thought of this type of action makes me queasy.
Of course, as a result of the drugs given during the operation part, the uterus contracted nicely...but an hour later, there was blood everywhere on the bed. Who noticed? the mother-in-law...not the nurses. As we were shoved into the hallway, the doctor came running and NOBODY would tell us what was happening or to whom, though we did get to hear them discuss their kids' raffle ticket sales while all five of them sat around the nurses' station. Fortunately, tragedy was avoided...we didn't strangle any of them.
The next part of the saga deals with breastfeeding. As a first-time mother, Sopanya had no experience with this procedure but was promised a visit by a lactation consultant who would go through it with a live baby. Uh...not so much...it turned out that the woman was "busy" with other babies in the hospital and couldn't make it...mother-in-law helped out as the frustration began to mount.
The capper to "The Labors of Sopanya"? She developed a fever and could not be released on the day the insurance company said she should be leaving. Since she was just getting the hang of breastfeeding, the baby stayed in the room with her even though the pediatrician had given her the thumbs up to be discharged. Following a breastfeeding session, the baby spit up on her little shirt and the blanket. Naturally, Mom called the nurses and asked for some clean clothes and blanket...to which the nurse replied,
"Your fever is the only reason that baby is still here. We don't have to do anything else for that baby because the doctor said she could go home."
Even Hercules would have broken under that strain. As if the labor, the C-section, the frustration of a new Mom with breastfeeding and the three days without eating were NOT enough, now the nurse (compassionate caregiver that she was) has the nerve to refuse care to a two-day-old baby simply because the insurance company said she was good to go.
Yeah, Hercules spent years completing his tasks, but he never had to undergo something like this.
Congratulations to the mom on her Herculean effort.
For my money, the nurse should have to clean out the stables of all the cattle in Greece in one day.
See how SHE likes an Herculean effort.
And it's a good thing for the nurse that the MIL had gone back home.