Throughout my pregnancy I had back pain. I had some lower abdomen/ groin pain in August, had gone to our office and they believed it was round ligament pain which is very common in pregnancy. I had no sign of infection, baby looked great, and heating pads and rest eased it. That pain went away but mild lower back pain persisted throughout September and October. It was never anything that was excruciating and heating pads always helped. On the morning of Friday October 10 though, I woke up with horrible back pain that was much worse than it ever had been. By mid morning I was vomiting and felt so sick. Gianni was home (we were on vacation) so we went into the office and saw a brand new doctor to the practice. She was so nice, ran a bunch of tests, checked Gabriella, and everything looked great. She made me promise to call her if the pain continued or the vomiting got worse and sent us on our way with a prescription for an anti-nausea drug.
Throughout the afternoon, the pain would come and go but I was keeping down gatorade and water so I figured (aka stubbornly decided) that I was fine. I was mad I wouldn't be able to see Gianni run the next morning. The new doctor called a few times to check on me and reiterated a dozen times to call if anything changed. By 7 pm, the pain and vomiting was bad again and Gianni called the office. They told me I had to come into the hospital to at least get IV fluids. To say that I was annoyed is an understatement. I made Gianni pack his running gear (I swear he did just to make me happy) and I was convinced that this was a new doctor being nervous and I would head home on Saturday. We arrived to the hospital, I was hooked up to a fetal monitor that showed I was having an occasional contraction. The doctor on call asked if I was having contractions earlier. I immediately said no, but when I saw on the monitor when a contraction was happening, I realized that the slight tightening I had felt had been happening forever... I had assumed it was normal and it was the baby moving. Looking back, I had been having on and off contractions since I could feel Gabriella kick; probably starting around week 19. They were never painful though, it was just a slight tightening every once in awhile. Irregular, infrequent contractions are not uncommon with dehydration so they hooked me up to fluids and throughout the night and day on Saturday, the contractions stopped. By Sunday morning I was eating bland foods and happily agreed to be discharged. The high risk fetal medicine team all agreed that the baby looked great, contractions were most likely due to dehydration and I was feeling more like myself.
We got home on Sunday afternoon and as good as I was feeling in the hospital, by evening I was feeling crummy again. By Monday morning I was again vomiting and the back pain was even worse than Friday night. The pain started radiating around to my abdomen and that's when we got really scared. Gianni wanted to call an ambulance but I yelled at him to just drive me in, that we weren't paying the $500 ambulance co-pay (seriously, I was not thinking clearly and poor Gianni just did whatever I was saying!). We arrived to the hospital in no time at all( don't ask how fast we went...), illegally parked, yelled at a security guard to help, I then yelled again at the security guard that he better not bring me into the emergency room with a bunch of crazy people (did I mention that I wasn't thinking clearly???), and thankfully, the security guard was extremely kind and patient, explained that there was a special emergency elevator to labor and delivery in the emergency department and he wouldn't leave me in the waiting room.
The labor and delivery staff was excellent. They hooked me up to a fetal monitor again, got fluids running, gave me anti-nausea and pain meds. The fetal monitor showed no contractions, I wasn't dilated, and the baby looked comfortable and perfect. Over the next 48 hours, I was moved to a women's health floor, they ran a ton of tests and their best guess was that I had kidney stones that they couldn't see because Gabriella was sitting on my bladder. I was constantly in pain and only holding down clear liquids. On Wednesday afternoon, my doctor and the high risk team came in and we decided that I would try to only take oral pain meds and try eating regular foods so that I could finally go home. I was desperate to get home and back to normal, Gianni was exhausted and scared, and the doctors couldn't find anything wrong. I went to bed Wednesday night thinking I would be discharged the next day.
I woke up around 1:30 in the morning to use the bathroom and realized I was bleeding. I was scared but also beyond frustrated. I just wanted a normal pregnancy and I wanted to be home. I woke up Gianni, called my nurse, who paged the OB team on call. While we waited for the doctors, the back pain was starting again and was coming in waves. Gianni looked at the clock and told me the pain was coming exactly 1 minute apart. I didn't want to believe him. Two residents came in around 2:15 am and checked me. They had obviously been sleeping somewhere in the hospital and I will never, ever forget the look one of them gave the other when she checked me. Her eyes got huge and she said, " you are starting to dilate". They paged my doctor and brought me down to labor and delivery. When we arrived in labor and delivery, they hooked me up to the fetal monitor and there were no contractions showing. Gabriella's heart rate was steady at 150 and showing no signs of distress. I was only about 1 cm dilated. To even the most experienced nurses on duty that night, it didn't seem like labor was imminent. My doctor came running in around 3:30 am and said she was going to check me because she didn't like that I was 1 cm dilated. She checked, and again, I will never forget her face when she looked at us and said, "Mary, you are 10 cm dilated. You are delivering this baby today." I started crying, saying over and over that it was too early, and she looked at me and said in the softest, kindest, way, "I know".
The next hours were a blur, they started running magnesium and steroids to try and help Gabriella in any way they could. They ran them fast; these meds are usually given 48 hours before preterm births to help with the baby's neurological and respiratory systems. I delivered her at 6:48 am so they weren't able to help. Gianni was a rock. He was calm, positive, and the best partner to have during the worst moments of my life. I later found out that he did break down outside of my room with our doctor. But he was amazing.
She came out pink and let out a cry... I think everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief. Her apgar scores were 8/9, nearly perfect for a full term baby, nevermind a micropreemie. She had a very long road ahead but she survived!
The diagnosis came several weeks after the lab tested both amniotic fluids and the placenta. I had chorioamnionitis; an infection of the amniotic fluid. I was not diagnosed because I had no symptoms. Had I been symptomatic for chorio, the only treatment is delivering the baby. Had I not gone into preterm labor, chorio can lead to sepsis, blood clots, and meningitis in either mom or baby and if this happens the baby does not often survive. As hard as this journey was, I will never forget how blessed we are that our outcome was a good one.
So there you have it, the full "what happened???". Every second of it was worth it for our sweet girl! !
Mary
...and I am instantly transported back to that time. Words cannot describe how courageous you were Mary. You and Gabriella are truly examples of what miracles are. I love you always.
ReplyDelete