April 12, 2012 – The Birthday Adventure

Note: This is another graphic post.  Sorry for the gore, I would have loved to live without it myself!

Alright, I am going to try to condense this into the important events so everyone can be updated.  Tuesday around 9pm I started having the same cramping and bleeding that led to my ER trip.  This has been happening at least once a week, sometimes 2 or 3 times a week, but usually gets better after a few hours and some passed tissue and clots.  This particular episode went until 3:30am and was a bit more intense on the pain scale.  When the pain hit it no longer felt like two hands twisting my uterus.  Instead it felt like my whole midsection, from belly button to hips, was being twisted.  It was hard to breathe when this would happen. 

After the pain and bleeding slowed down, I was able to sleep for a couple of hours.  I woke up glad that it was over and knowing it would be at least a few days before it happened again.  I was, of course, so wrong.  Around 9:30-10am it started up again.  At 11 I put in a call to a nurse at my doctor’s office begging for help with the pain.  I told them I could handle the blood and tissue, but the pain was unbearable.  There was no way to get comfortable and the contractions were happening so close together that I just camped out on the toilet to pass the clots.  At noon the pain was so bad I took my dog’s tramadol.  Not something I would normally do, but I couldn’t see straight the pain was so bad.  At 1 I called the office back.  The nurse had posted the call directly to the doctor and they said I should hear back soon.  At 2 she called and said my doctor wanted to see me ASAP.  I told her I wasn’t sure if I could drive, but I was going to try and would be there as quickly as possible. 

I called Doc while I was getting dressed.  He was in clinic, so he could answer, and he said he would come get me.  I of course refused and told him it would just be a quick pelvic, sonogram, and pain meds… again so wrong.  It took me a total of 20 minutes to get dressed and get to the office.  In that time I had passed so many clots and the bleeding was so intense that I soaked a large pad.  While I was changing the nurse knocked on the door to tell me my husband was here.  I love my husband.  He has a way of knowing when I am really going to need him. 

I soaked my new pad in 10 minutes.  When my doctor asked me to get on the exam table I began hemorrhaging.  There isn’t a good way to describe that other than warm, messy and very embarrassing.  I couldn’t tell how bad it was because everything was flowing out of me so fast that I couldn’t tell if it was clots or blood or both.  I did notice my doctor took a step away from the table when he saw it.  He then started getting towels and extra pads.  Doc took a quick peek below the sheet and came up to hold my hand and get out of the doctor’s way.  Not a good sign.  I apologized for making a mess, something I couldn’t stop myself from doing throughout the day.  I feel really bad for the nurses having to clean up after me.  My doctor said the nurses are always mad at him for making a mess, so I shouldn’t worry.  He asked Doc to step out and get a nurse.  He then tried to continue with the pelvic.  Up until this point he had been explaining the many options available to us.  During the pelvic he stopped.  He told Doc that he couldn’t even get a visual on the cervix, the bleeding was too bad. 

My doctor patted my knee and said, “I am sorry, we are out of options.  We have to go to surgery.  Now.”  He left to set it up and his nurse came to try and get me cleaned up.  There is no cleaning up with that kind of bleeding.  They gave me extra maxi-pads and sitting pads.  Sitting pads are basically puppy training pads.  You know you are really bleeding when they break out those bad boys and then big towels too!  They got me a wheelchair and told me we would be going to the west campus for our hospital because it was next door.  We were given instructions to not allow them to put me in a waiting room, but to tell them we needed to be taken directly to pre-op, it was an emergency.  Doc wheeled me to the car and we were off. 

It took 5 minutes to get me in the hospital.  I soaked a pad.  They did try to sit me in the waiting room and for the first time in my life I told a medical personnel no.  She took us back to see the nurse, who was on her own checking all patients in.  She was over worked.  I explained to her that I was hemorrhaging and she found me a room.  I had to change another pad before I could get dressed in my new hospital garb.  My doctor pulled some magic and had me on the surgical board before I was even checked in.  Everyone had to rush to keep up with him. 

We had to get labs and an IV started… I have no places to stick me any more!  It didn’t help that I had lost a lot of blood and my veins were all in hiding.  My poor nurse had to dig into the middle of my right arm; I could only respond with, “Please stop doing that.”  My nurse told me I could cuss at her; I of course refused to do that.  I am a fan of cuss words, but I refuse to cuss at someone who is trying to help save my life.  My doctor came in and let me know his plans for the surgery.  He was going to try and balance the repair without introducing more damage, but let us know it was a possibility that he wouldn’t be able to do both.  I told him we trust him and know that he knows our goals and he is on our side.  I gave him permission to do what he needed to do.  I then told him that while this was an exciting birthday present, next year I wanted a c-section and twins.  He laughed and said he would be very happy with that. 

I was being walked into surgery by 4.  Thankfully, I didn’t end up needing blood.  No one could figure that out.  We all thought I would need blood, so chalk up a win for my body taking care of that!  Doc said it may have also been that my labs were skewed by the amount of dehydration I was experiencing.  I ended up needing 2 liters on IV to get partially rehydrated.  As I walked into the OR I heard my doctor talking to his team like a coach, explaining what he would be doing and exactly what he wanted them to be doing.  He was talking about back up plans and when someone asked about the worst case scenario of a hysterectomy, as it would be easier than the plans my doctor was putting up, he very sternly told them "we won't be doing that to her".  I love my doctor.  I squeezed his arm and gave him a smile before continuing on. 

To help reduce errors in the OR they ask you to tell everyone your name, date of birth, and procedure.  I gave my name, explained that today was my birthday and thanked everyone for coming to my party.  Then it was sleepy time.  My doctor ended up removing a softball sized mass from my uterus.  He said that after examining the rest of my uterus it looked really good, the mass seemed to be the problem and removing it got the bleeding under control.  The mass was sent to pathology because he wants answers, I love that he is just as curious as we are.  He then had to head back to his clinic because he had cleared patients for my surgery.  So the next time you are finding yourself annoyed with the doctor cancelling your appointment for the mystery emergency.  Take a moment to say a prayer for the person they are helping, when they do that it really does mean emergency. 

I am now feeling better than I have in a month.  My uterus and vagina feel a bit like a deflated balloon, but the bleeding is much better (spotting) and the cramping is nothing.  We are just waiting for answers! Happy birthday to me, I survived the most dangerous complication associated with molar pregnancies.  I call that a huge win, major good luck came our way! J