On the Mend.

The decision.

On Monday afternoon after my membranes ruptured, Mr. Dr. M. came to see us.  He explained that for each of the complications we'd been having, waiting as long as possible to deliver was the best option.  However, when all those complications (fibroids, two episodes of major bleeds, contractions, and now ruptured membranes) were taken together, there is no textbook answer on what the right thing to do is.  Instead, it was a balancing act between risks for preemie vs. risk to mama to stay pregnant vs. desire to do c section in a planned, scheduled way vs. possibility of the need for an emergency c section putting both mama and baby at risk.  To make a long story short, he couldn't tell us what to do and asked what we wanted.  After a bit of discussion we decided the most we could realistically hope to get of a longer gestation was 2-3 days.  A consult with the NICU left us feeling pretty confident in a 30 week baby who had been treated with steroids for lung development and magnesium to protect her brain.  We decided to go ahead with the c section that evening in the interest of everyone's safety and sanity.

The surgery.

This surgery was way more traumatic andscarier than the c section with Cassidy, from preparation all the way through to the recovery room.  Part of this is that it just felt like I had so much more on the line now that we have Cassidy.  Aside from that, the docs here went in really prepared for everything to go wrong.  I had 4 IV lines put in, 2 large ones for transfusing blood.  I had a probe put directly into an artery to constantly monitor my blood pressure.  They had 5 units of both blood and plasma ready for transfusion.  Mrs. Dr. M. was assisted by another of her partners, as well as an OB oncologist who regularly operates on bodies distorted with tumors and cancers, in case we needed to do a hysterectomy.  I had a spinal block and an epidural with general anesthesia standing ready in case things got ugly.  And the NICU team was in the room ready to rush in for baby as soon as she was out.  

Things moved really slow with all the prep work that we could see starting around 5:00.  Once the surgery actually started, Chloe joined us after only a few minutes.  She came out crying and pink at 6:23pm.  They checked to make sure she was stable, with two APGAR scores of 9, brought her over for a quick introduction and then whisked her away to the NICU. A while later, the docs double checked that I still wanted my tubes tied.  When I answered yes, both of the docs' heads popped up from behind the curtain and said "I think that's a good idea".  For what seemed like forever, they pulled and pushed to get to those tubes around my giant fibroid inhabited uterus through the incision which extends upwards from the top of my belly button about 6 inches.  They finally found and finished one when I started throwing up and my blood pressure started falling.  Around that time, they started replacing the unit of blood I had lost and started talking about putting me under general anesthesia as I was starting to get very sore and uncomfortable in spite of them increasing meds in the epidural or spinal block twice.  At that point, I said I'd had enough and they should forget about finding the other tube.  They immediately started to stabilize everything and close me up.  I think I made it to the recovery room between 8 and 8:30.  During the surgery, I started shaking and shivering, which continued until about 1 and a half hours into recovery.

The Recovery.

That night we made it back to our high risk room about 11pm.  We spent a long night there with concerns about the amount of bleeding they were still seeing.  The next day after consults with the doctors, we moved over to the mother and baby area with instructions to keep monitoring the bleeding.  

Things continued pretty well Tuesday and around 3pm, I had them remove the catheter, which they like to do no later than 24 hours after it's put in.  This, of course, meant that I had to get up to pee.  By the middle of the night I was a mess.  The meds they were giving me by IV didn't seem to be helping the pain, they just made me loopy and I'd fall asleep.  I was feeling ok when I would wake up about an hour after my last dose of meds, but as soon as I tried to move, the pain was just excruciating.  Every muscle in my abdomen was cramping, my fibroids were hurting as my uterus continued to cramp down to stop the bleeding, and then throw in some gas and digestive pain also.

By Wednesday at 4 am, I was crying (while saying "don't cry. don't cry. dont cry."because guess what feels awful on an already painful abdomen?  Yep, crying.). and begging the nurse for more of the IV meds or any other medicine so I would fall asleep and not hurt for a couple of hours.  The plan was to switch to oral meds that morning, so they were getting those orders put in but still had to wait a bit because of the amounts of acetaminophen I'd had in the past 24 hours.  I also requested some simethicone for gas pains and stool softeners to help get my digestive tract running again.  I got my first dose of Vicodin and simethicone (gas ex) around 8am. Within a couple of hours, I was feeling and moving better.  Mrs. Dr. M. stopped in to check on me and also prescribed some naproxen to take in addition to the Vicodin.  By the afternoon, I was able to take a shower and remove the incision dressing as Dr. M. instructed.  By 5 pm I was out of my room for the third time walking the hallways to stimulate my digestive system!  I also started to see results from my breast pumping efforts with the first collectable amounts of colostrum.  Wednesday turned out to be a pretty fantastic day considering the way overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday went.

I love Vicodin.  It is the best medicine ever!

So that brings you up to speed on our week.  It's been a pretty emotional couple of weeks considering I was admitted to the hospital for bleeding on March 25th.  It's looking like I'll be discharged from the hospital tomorrow to continue recovery at home.  Then I guess we try to figure out how to spend time with Chloe in the NICU and me at home recovering but not able to drive for a while.  

Also I have to say a million thank yous to my mom.  During this week, mom took care of Cassidy, getting her to and from school and bringing her up to the hospital to see us so Jeff was able to stay at the hospital with me the entire time, which made things MUCH less scary for me. 

Thank you Mom!  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! 

And thank you, Jeff.  For your support, your understanding, and your refusal to let me attempt to be self sufficient.