Well, I guess I will jump in here. The short story is on my ticker. Here's the long story...
First pregnancy ended somewhere around 12 weeks, needed D&C to complete it. Second pregnancy had brown spotting around 6.5 weeks which carried on for a week. An ultrasound at 8 weeks showed no fetal growth after 6.5 weeks. Needed a D&C for that one too. Got pregnant with Greg 3 months later. Long, complicated pregnancy. Lots of bleeding episodes, and bedrest. At 22 weeks or so I was feeling off and was told it 24 weeks I had some pink spotting which I was told was from the yeast infection. At 24+2 there was red bleeding with membranes (never any pain). An ultrasound showed my cervix was 1.3 cm and I was sent out. Had Greg 5 days later at 25+0. He weighed 720 grams, or 1lb 9 ounces. We were in hospital with him almost 5 months, 3 weeks after his due date... He has come along fine and has no serious complications.
Pregnancy #4 was a surprise and a heartbeat was seen on an ultrasound at 6 and 8 weeks. There was bleeding with this one too. Then at 10+5 I believe, I started having incredible pain and hemmorgaing at home. Needed an emergency D&C with that one. They think the baby died around 9 weeks. Got pregnant 3 months later. More bleeding episodes and bedrest. Heartbeat seen at 6 and 8 weeks and heard at 10 weeks. The night before my scheduled cerclage an ultrasound showed he had died at 13+1. I had to have a D&E for that one, followed by a repeat D&C 5 days later as the surgeon had screwed up and only removed enough for a 6 week gestation; I went into labour with the remains in Walmart.
This was followed by a chemical in July 2009 which ended just before 5 weeks.
Then there was Devon. The perfect pregnancy until an infection became colonized, and no one believed me... In short, they had me on a multitude of medications during my pregnancy with her. I was on Prometrium suppositories, Metformin, Heparin injections, aspirin, Prenatals, and I think that was it. There were no bleeding episodes at all with her and no bedrest and I continued walking for excercise every day. At 14.5 weeks I had a vaginal MacDonald cerclage placed under GA. We both pulled through fine. At 21 weeks my OB decided to do her first ever internal digital check and scan, as she was leaving for 3 weeks on vacation. I asked her not to, but she said it was important and must be done. It was uncomfortable, and I knew she was doing some sort of damage while she was doing it. Her scans and checks were inconclusive. The cervix felt a bit soft and thin, but was measuring 3cm and had no funnelling. She put me on bedrest just in case, but she said many women had soft cervixes at this stage.
I went home and was in pain from the exam for the rest of that day and the next. On the Friday, the pain increased, and was accompanied by copious amounts of discharge. It didn't smell, wasn't bloody and wasn't green or yellow though. I was hoping it would go away. It lightened up on the Saturday, but on Sunday it increased again. It was the August long weekend and there was no hope of seeing a Dr until Tuesday, so I went to the ER in our hometown. The Dr on call, who NEVER deals with pregnant women, tried to do an internal, and I refused, so he walked out on me. I drove an hour South to my OBs hospital. None of the OBs were on call that night; instead they had a Locum who had no clue who I was and had no clue of my history. She also couldn't do ultrasounds. So she tried to take a swab without a speculum but said she didn't see anything up there. My urin came back with a bit of raised white cell counts. She said if it was an infection it was just starting and we could wait for the culture to come back before treating. I begged her for antibiotics as I was sure the infection was quite serious. She finally gave me a prescription, but told me I musn't fill it unless the symptoms got increasingly worse.
I went home, and on Monday, things started picking up again. I was having back spasms, cramps, and discharge. No pharmacies were open though. My mom filled my script on Tuesday and I went to see my family Dr. He said I didn't have an infection and wasn't in labour, which I was sure I was in by then. He didn't do a check or anything, just told me to stop the meds and go home as I was fine. He booked an ultrasound for the next day. Wednesday showed her to be fine. I went back to the Dr as the pain was worse and so was the discharge. He said I might have a UTI, so got me antibiotics for that, but said a definate no to the vaginal infection. Once again, without checking, he said I wasn't in labour. He sent me home. That night the pain was getting consistent, and I started bleeding. I went to the ER at 5AM on Thursday morning. My discharge was grey and red, and my cervix was closed and 3 cm long. The Dr finally agreed I had a vaginal infection as well as a UTI. He still said I wasn't in labour. He said I could have an irritable uterus, but it wasn't doing anything. I went back at 2PM as the pain was coming every few minutes and I couldn't breathe or walk through them. Once again, he said I was fine and I should just take T3's and sleeping pills. A nurse felt my abdomen and said I was definately having regular contractions, but he didn't believe her. He sent me home. I went back at 8PM as the pain was constant. I was found to be 1CM dilated and in definate labour. They told me since I was only 23+1 there was nothing they could do and they wouldn't try to help me if she came. They said there was no point in trying to save her. Finally I was sent to another hospital that was going to try to help, at 1AM on Friday morning. My membranes were bulging and they gave me Indomethacin to stop the contractions. At 2PM on Friday I was flown to Vancouver. They continued the Indomethacin, but I kept dilating and a blood test showed an acute infection. On August 7th, at 2:56AM I delivered Devon, 23+3 weeks... She weighed 510 grams, or 1lb 2 ounces. They gave up on her before she was even born. They tried to intubate her once, gave up, and handed her back to me. She died after 40 minutes. I was diagnosed with acute chorioamniotitis, which started as a bacterial vaginosis infection at my stitches, and once it ascended and hit the amniotic sac, all bets were off. If someone had have believed me when I first went in 6 days earlier, and if they had have treated me when I had 3cm of cervix left, then there is a good possibility I could have gone further than I have ever gotten before. As it was, I ended up needing another D&C 4 weeks after she was born due to retained necrotic tissue. I had also had 6 days or so of IV antibiotics before that to try and stop me from getting septic.
Now I am pregnant again, and no one knows what to do or what to expect.
As it stands they believe with on of the first 2 D&C's I was over dilated, which led to a weakened cervix, which was the cause of Greg's early birth. So they are very sure his was from an Incompetant Cervix. They believe the early losses were from an undiagnosed blood clotting disorder, and then that led to the D&Cs which weakened the cervix. Then, no one treated the blood clotting disorder, and they believe that being pregnant with Greg exacerbated it, so my body was more attuned and more willing to kill future pregnancies. Then the repeated D&C's, including one completely unnecessary one in Feb of 2009 (because my OB at the time 'thought' there was something in there, so she went in and found out there was nothing there), continued to weaken my cervix. And now, they believe that because the infection in my uterine lining was so far advanced with Devon, that they believe it will flare up with this one as well, which could have devestating effects.
So they think I had a weakened cervix before, which is really weakened now as I ripped through my cervical stitch with Devon, because they forgot to remove it until after she was delivered. So my cervix is really screwed. They think I have a propensity towards pre term labour, and they think I will suffer from the same uterine infection.
So far the plan this time is for me to be on Fragmin injections, aspirin, Metformin, Prometrium suppositories (however, nothing is allowed to go into my vagina, so they are done rectally). I am also on a low dose of Erythromyacin to try and keep any uterine infection at bay. At around 13 or 14 weeks, I will have a Sharodkur cerclage placed, so higher than where the MacDonald ripped through. I will NOT stop the Prometrium, which I stopped with Devon at 19 weeks. There will be no internal exams of any sort. If I get to 21 weeks, me and my Dr are debating hospital bedrest for my danger time. She is willing to give me Nifedipene preventatively from 21 weeks on, as long as I agree to complete hospital bedrest for the duration of the treatment. We are still in the bartering stage with that. I am going to see if she will keep me in, on Nifedipene, from 21 weeks to 25 weeks. Then if I tolerate the medicine well, I will see if she will release me on home bedrest as long as I get monitored 2x a day because of the medicine. Then, 'if' I get to 30 weeks, I will just stop the Nifedipene and let nature take its course. They won't let me get past 35 weeks no matter what.
So I am nervous to say the least...
they are running riot as I've pretty much lost my voice which is green light for mayhem.
