Please pray

This weekend has been a whirlwind and a nightmare. Sunday morning I woke up (7:15AM) to find a little blood when I peed. Though neither Paul or I were overly concerned we thought we’d better go into the hospital just to make sure that everything really was ok.

They took me into a room and the nurses took blood samples and a urine sample, did a Doppler and asked tons of questions. The dr then came in and he did an ultra sound and thought everything looked fine. He got his superior and that dr thought everything looked ok too. There was a med student in the room the whole time and she put a speculum in and took a look inside me - I could tell something was wrong as she jumped out of her seat pretty quickly and gave the doc ‘the look.’ I wish I had missed that look. It did nothing to make me feel comfortable or at ease about the situation. The dr took a look and said that my cervix had dilated to somewhere between 2 and 3 cm and that my fluid membrane had gone down into my vaginal canal.

They very quickly moved me over to high risk, set me up in a special bed where my feet were up above my head, hooked up an IV, did a second ultra sound and continued monitoring me for the next 8 hours. They wanted to give my body the opportunity and time to have the membrane return to where it should have been, and they didn’t want to do too much to me at once and risk an even higher chance of premature labor.

We had oodles of doctors coming in to see me - one to discuss the procedures that would be happening to me. The anesthesia doctor to discuss the risks and side effects of the spinal that they would need to do to me. Another one to discuss my options. Did we want an amnio? Did we want a cerclage? So many decisions to make. Then there was the surgeon. It was a lot to take in in a very short amount of time.

We decided that we did not want an amnio. The surgeons would not have done the cerclage had the amnio showed any bacteria or infection (the membrane dropping increased the odds greatly that there would be bacteria). If the cerclage wasn’t done then there was less than .5% that the baby could survive. I wanted the doctors to do absolutely everything to save the baby. So we decided to just have the cerclage done.

The nurses wheeled me into the operating room. What a cold, spooky place!! I have to admit though, for such a serious thing, the drs and nurses had me totally at ease and it was a very comfortable environment. We talked throughout the whole procedure - they showed me the needle they used for the spinal (AFTER it had gone in me!) and they also showed me the size of the thread used for the suture, the needle they used and the tool used to hold the needle. It was fascinating. I couldn’t have gotten nicer drs or nurses had I gotten to pick them all out myself.

For the next hour and a half they had me hooked up to tons of machines and kept a very, very close eye on me.
About 8:30 pm they decided that the surgery had gone really well. There were a lot of risks going in to the surgery, and God took care of us and guided the drs.

They moved me into a much more comfortable room for the night. Esther and Paul hung around till 11:30, then I was left on my own to sleep. I didn’t sleep very well - with bathroom breaks and nurse check ups throughout the night.
When the dr came to see me in the morning he said I was ok to go home today! Paul and Esther picked me up just after 10am, and I am now stuck at home, just playing a waiting game really. There are still so many risks. The surgery may have aggravated things and my water could break and I go into premature labor. There could be an infection. The stitch might not hold things.

So that is the weekend in a nutshell. It has been quite crazy and rather intense. We are just waiting and praying.
I don’t see a dr for two weeks - I am suppose to just take things easy, not lift anything - not quite bed rest, but still pretty restrictive - for the next two weeks. Then the dr will reevaluate and see what needs to happen next.