After these appointments, we had a meeting with two doctors and a nurse to go over the results of the tests. We learned that there are five stages in TTTS. Stage 5 is death of the babies and we were told that we were at stage 4 because of the severity of our recipient baby's heart problems and fluid in her body. This news was hard to take, and we knew we had to do something! The doctors explained the procedure that they recommended and the potential risks that were involved, but we knew the risks were much greater if we didn't do anything.
We made the easy decision of having the surgery and we were scheduled for the next morning at 7:00 am. They explained that they would make an incision less than half an inch on my side and insert a long tool that had a laser and go into my placenta and clot the blood vessels that were connecting the babies. We went to a hotel for the night and came back at 5:30 on Friday morning to be admitted and get prepped for surgery. After a few attempts and blood all over the bed sheets later, they started an IV, and wheeled me down to the operating room, where I received some meds that made me pretty tired, and an epidural. The surgery itself was a blur and relatively painless. I was taken up to a recovery room where I would spend the rest of the day and night and be discharged to a hotel in the morning.
While I was in the recovery room, everything seemed to be going well. They were monitoring my vitals and keeping track of my contractions (which is normal, as they go through the uterus in the procedure). I felt pretty good all day. It was around 8:00 when a few nurses came in and told me that they were seriously concerned and explained that my contractions were 4 minutes apart. This came as a surprise to me because the contractions were not painful. They had tried a few shots to stop the contractions, but when they did not help, I was put on a heavy dose of magnesium sulfate (a muscle relaxer) through my IV and I was taken by ambulance to another hospital. Magnesium sulfate, by the way, is the worst thing I have ever been put on. I instantly felt like my entire body was on fire and that I had the worst flu of my life. I was taken to a labor and delivery room, still on the magnesium, and unable to eat or drink anything in case they needed to deliver the babies. At this point I was only 20 weeks, and delivering the babies would have resulted in death for them both. We were really scared.
With the magnesium, another drug, many prayers, and God's grace, my contractions lessened and I was in a more stable condition by the next day. The problems weren't over, however. I went to sleep that night and woke up in the middle of the night with itching in my hands that I cannot explain. It was the worst itching I've ever felt. As time went on, my feet and the rest of my body began to itch as well. It took them about a day to figure out what was causing the itching, but they eventually diagnosed me with cholestasis, a condition where the liver and gall bladder cannot process the fats in my body because of the pregnancy hormones. One of the major symptoms of this condition is itching. I am now on a medication that helps my liver and gall bladder function properly.
I was then moved to a special care unit in the maternity wing where I spent four more days. After another ultrasound, echo cardiogram, and a meeting with the doctors, I was discharged. This was when I learned that I would be on bed rest for the rest of my pregnancy. I will write soon about what it has been like to be on bed rest for the past month, but for now, I will include some pictures of our sweet little girls. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment