THINGS JUST GOT MORE COMPLICATED

It’s been awhile since I update my blog and there is a good reason why. If you happen to read my entry with the title “Who says that making a baby is easy” in my May archive you can see the struggle that I had to face to have children.

To cut the story short, my husband and I decide that we still want to give it one more try. This is our last try; if it fails then we would stop trying for good. After 6 months or more of trying without result, one day I had a very heavy bleeding. It last a whole day. The day after that I went to see our family doctor and he sent me to have a pregnancy test. Then he told me that I am pregnant! Jeez what a way to find out huh?

Then he sent me to have an ultrasound to find out why I bled so much. We got our second surprise there. Based on the ultrasound, they found that I am already in my 9 weeks of pregnancy! 2 months went by without knowing that I am pregnant.

It worries me a lot to find out that there was one month extra in my pregnancy because around that time I took some allergy medication when I had my period or so I thought, it turn out those 5 days period is not a period after all, maybe another episode of bleeding while pregnant.

The next 2 months was very hard on me. I was plague by non-stop headache and neck pain! It really knocked me off my feet. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, nothing! Around this time I went to see my OBGYN and had 2 messages. But nothing helped.

Then all of a sudden, I am ok.

Just when things start to get better, I went to have an ultrasound and the doctor told me that there is a problem with my baby’s bowel. It called Echogenic Bowel. 75% of this case turns out to be nothing at all. But, the other 25% can means a lot. It can mean that the baby will need surgery after being born. It can mean maybe I had an infection when I am pregnant and I don’t necessary need to know when I had the infection. It can mean the baby has Down syndrome or sex chromosome problem. The last was cystic fibrosis.

The 2 that worries me the most are the Down syndrome and the Sex Chromosome problem. The genetic doctor told me that right away we can eliminate the Cystic Fibrosis because my husband and I are Asians. Blood tests that can determine if I have an infection show that the result is negative. I took more blood tests to find the probability that my baby has another Spina bifida, Down syndrome and Trisomy 18. All tests turn out negative. But it doesn’t mean it is 100% sure.

To be more sure, they schedule me for an amniocentesis where a long thin needle is being poke into my uterus to draw a little of my amnio fluid for further testing. This is the second time that I have to do it and I really don’t like it, it’s painful!

Beside the amniocentesis, I also had an ultrasound and the good news is the baby’s bowel shows some improvement!

After waiting for a week, I finally get a phone call from the genetic office that the result of the amniocentesis is excellent. By now I am already in my 22nd weeks of pregnancy. Not a single day went by without I felt scared for my baby.

The good news really makes a different! I finally can take a deep breath. Maybe for the first time I can really enjoy my pregnancy. Well… kind off, because the ultrasound doctors also told me that I had a problem with the placenta being located exactly covering the cervix! But the last time I had a discussion with my OBGYN, he told me this is not going to be a big problem because anyway I am going to have a C-section. It just usually people with this kind of situation is going to loose more blood than normal and he told me that he will schedule me to have my own blood drawn for the surgery 2 times near the surgery day which is Feb 3rd, 2006.

The next 2 weeks feels like heavenly!

Then yesterday on my visit to my OBGYN doctor, he just drops The Bomb! On my last ultrasound visit, the doctors there said that I need to talk to my OBGYN doctor regarding the placenta. I ignore this warning because I thought it was about my placenta being to low and covering the cervix. I was wrong.

Dr. Anderson, my OB, just told me that we have a very serious problem. It’s called Placenta Percreta.

The definition of Placenta Percreta is:
“A placenta that invades the uterine wall. In placenta percreta, the vascular processes of the chorion (the chorionic villi), a fetal membrane that enters into the formation of the placenta, may invade the full thickness of the myometrium. This can cause an incomplete rupture of the uterus. The chorionic villi can go right on through both the myometrium and the outside covering of the uterus (serosa), causing complete and catastrophic rupture of the uterus.”

Translation: the placenta grows deep and infused with the wall of the uterus, in some extreme case it can even go through to the bladder. So when a woman finish delivering their baby, usually the placenta will detach by itself from the uterus wall, but in this case, it can’t since it is already invading the uterus wall or even bladder.

The woman with this kind of condition can actually bleed to death within 60 seconds because when a woman is pregnant, their uterus becomes like a major blood vessel because she grows a baby inside. So when the doctor has to cut the placenta out from the uterus wall, it will bleed so much and so fast. Normal operation for Placenta Percreta takes about 4 hrs to 9 hrs. It depends on how far the placenta grows outside the uterus wall. The reconstruction of the bladder itself can take 4 hrs or more. Dr. Anderson just did a surgery of this severe case 3 months ago on a woman whose last wish before the surgery was “Don’t let me die Doc”….

So now instead of 2 pints of blood, Dr. Anderson wants to have 4 pints of blood. He wishes he can get 5 pints but it’s impossible. So one month before my surgery, every week I will have to donate my own blood for my own surgery.

The irony was….Dr. Anderson never doubts it that the baby’s bowel will turn out to be nothing. All this time I lost my sleep over nothing, and all of a sudden, it’s my own survival that now being questioned.

My husband always called me from his work every time I went to see any doctor. Sometimes he left a message to ask me to call him back. Usually I always call him back except yesterday. I don’t know how to tell him that I may die…..

Later he asked me why I did not call him back. I told him I need to prepare my self on how best to tell him about my condition.

I finally told him last night.

He told me to have faith in God. The worse case that can happen to me is to have a complete hysterectomy. It’s a big possibility according Dr. Anderson, and I already signs the paper that tells him that I allow him to do that.

Now… how am I going to tell my parents? I am their only child…..