Parental Digression is Advised

Warning: This might be more than what you want to read about your friend Jen!

Everything seem to happen so fast. The problems that led up to my giving birth to Charlee early seemed to be minor issues until the 30 of June. I had an appointment with my nurse midwife Tina to check why I still had blood in my urine. This issue had been going on for a week, it started the Tuesday before and I went in on Wednesday for a check with Tina and they didn't find anything. Later on Friday it began to get worse, I called Tina again and she decided that even though the test came back negative that I must have a bladder,or kidney infection or I had kidney stones and she called in a antibiotic for me and scheduled my appointment for Monday the 30th. If I indeed had Kidney stones she said that nothing really could be done until I had the baby. I had been in major pain for a couple months and had been using some pain pills to help since January. The pain started getting worse in May and became intolerable in June. I became really quit helpless and poor Brian had to do a lot around the house. I had come to the decision that it hurts if I do things and it hurts if I don't do things so I tried to do somethings even though I was in pain.
At my appointment on Monday, Tina had me give her another urine sample and she didn't believe that that much blood could come from my bladder. I had major bleeding and some clots and she said that it had to be contaminated. She checked me and found no bleeding and I was starting to thin. So she inserted a catheter and took a sample straight from my bladder. She said as the sample was coming "look it is clean, wait oh that is a lot of blood. We will send this in to be cultured." Finally she believed me!
Again I was sent home in pain with no answers. Later around 5 PM Brian took the boys for a bike ride, and I went out to the Garden determined to weed a bit. I started hurting pretty bad but decided to finish this one spot. When I stood up I thought maybe I had wet my pants and I hurried into the house. I had started bleeding vaginally this time and pretty heavy. I couldn't get off of the toilet for long enough to get a phone so I was stuck until I heard Brian come in the door. We paged Tina a couple times and never got anyone. Finally we called a friend who just had a baby 2 months before and she gave us some emergency numbers to call. They told us to head down to the hospital right away. On our way down we received a call from Tina and she told us that we were doing the right thing and she would call St Marks and let them know we were coming. She called us back and told us to head to the U instead. We told her ok and Brian dropped me off at the ER entrance at the U then took the boys over to Dad and Janis house. I went up to labor and delivery and they took me into a emergency room and checked me and got a quick ultra sound. The doctors found that I had a possible placenta previa and abruption and that I was bleeding heavy but not hemorrhaging. They decided they needed a better ultra sound and that I would stay over night until the ultrasound techs came in the morning.
Brian planned on going over to Dad's house and sleeping until I think he saw how much pain I was in and then he decided to stay. I was pretty miserable, they needed a urine sample and again I had a catheter placed for almost 2 hours. It wasn't a permanent catheter so I couldn't move because it would fall out and so I was very uncomfortable. Brian fell asleep and I was glad that he stayed. I cried a lot and watched the clock go until around 7 a.m. when a nurse came in and told me that the ultra sound people had came in early for me and they would be ready for me at 7:30. At 7:20 they came in and wheeled me to the ultrasound room. They did a full check on baby and everything looked great. When she got to the placenta that is when everyone when into high gear. Soon we had the head surgeon in the room looking at the ultrasound and checking different things.
Our heads spun quickly at this point, I with no food and no sleep found myself taking in all the information and smiling because it was too scary to not. Brian however didn't take the news as well and became as he said "completely helpless."
By 10 a.m I was schedule to have surgery in the O.R. upstairs, where Brian could not come with me. They told us that I had what is called an accreta and when I told them that I had been bleeding and clotting in my urine for a week everything became more serious. They told me that the placenta, (a dumb organ) does only one thing attach and grow. My placenta not only covered my cervix and was tearing away but it also was covering where my old C-section scar was and an accreta is where the dumb organ aka placenta grows through the uterine scar and attaches onto other organs. They told us that a specialist was called to preform an hysterectomy if needed and possibly take out part of my bladder and anything else that they might find. By 12:00 p.m. we had had two anesthesiologist, two surgeons, and 2-3 nurses come in with about 27 consent forms to sign. Brian not able to get a hold of anyone else gave me a blessing and although he was crying I felt a lot better. I remember that he said that I was in a lot of people's prayers and that those prayers would be answered. At 12:50 they wheeled me away to surgery and poor Brian was left alone in the room completely overwhelmed. They took me up to the holding room and found that the endocrinologist OB specialist would be 15 more min. and so they went down and got Brian. He looked so scared and I started to get a bit nervous and again really uncomfortable. I cracked a couple jokes and we cried a bit together. Then the anesthesiologist came by and told me what was going to happen. I wasn't to nervous until he told me, "some people are nervous that they will be paralysed during the surgery but awake. I will not paralyse you so if you are feeling anything I will know it."
I think he told me this to make me feel better. It didn't!
At 1:15 pm they wheeled me away again. Brian kissed me goodbye with tears in his eyes, the anesthesiologist told him he would take good care of me.

To be cont...



Side Note: In Placenta Accreta, the abnormally firm attachment of the placenta to the uterine wall prevents the placenta from separating normally after the delivery. The retained placenta interferes with uterine contraction that is necessary to control bleeding after delivery. Severe bleeding and surgical attempts to control bleeding are the major sources of maternal morbidity and mortality in cases of Placenta Accreta. Blood transfusions are required in more than 50% of patients with Placenta Accreta.

Several risk factors for Placenta Accreta have been identified. Among these, the most important appears to be Placenta Previa. Placenta Accreta complicates approx. 10% of all cases of Placenta Previa. In the absence of Placenta Previa, Placenta Accreta is rare. In patients with Placenta Previa, the incidence of Placenta Accreta correlates with the number of previous Caesarean Sections. Maternal age greater than 35 and placental location overlying the previous uterine scar also increase the risk of Accreta. Other reported risk factors include multiple previous pregnancies, previous uterine surgery, and previous D&C.

I am still wondering how they missed the placenta Previa on the ultra sound. I remember the Ultrasound lady telling me that my uterus was anterior (front) I asked her if that was a problem with doing a C-Section. She said No!