Events of August

This is a copy of what I put up on Facebook a few months ago, and I never got around to putting it up here. I feel like this blog needed an ending point for the story of our first pregnancy. I'm going to keep this blog up, and hopefully when/if we find ourselves pregnant again, it will be here to record happy memories.

~Kara

In June Dan and I got the wonderful news that I was pregnant. I don't know that I have ever been more excited about anything in my life. And by two and a half weeks ago (Early August), I was 12 weeks. The time flew by quickly, and I was excited about getting into the second trimester and starting to show. But, unfortunately, it was not meant to be, and after a series of events, I ended up with an ultrasound and was told the devastating news that our baby had not made it. I was diagnosed with what the doctors called a "blighted ovum," which basically means that for some reason in the very very early weeks of the pregnancy, something went wrong, probably a chromosome problem, and the baby was not able to develop. As is not uncommon with this type of thing, my body kept going as if I was pregnant. The placenta can keep itself going and developing for 2 whole months before the body realizes what has happened and miscarries. That is exactly what happened to me.

I was given the option of continuing to miscarry naturally or go to the hospital and get a D&C (surgery). Since I had already began, it only seemed logical that I go the natural route, and besides, what is what I was planning to do for the birth anyway. Between Tuesday and Thursday last week (Aug. 5-7), I painfully miscarried. After it all happened, still in disbelief, and physically just feeling worn out from the whole ordeal, I stayed in and watched movies all week, and took it easy, as I was advised by our midwife. I was finally feeling better by Thursday of last week, and was feeling more ready to take on the world again.

And then all hell broke loose (Aug. 14-15).

Suddenly, I went from barely bleeding (less than period), to hemorrhaging. It was really in a blink of an eye. I rushed to the bathroom and hopped in the tub so I wouldn't get blood everywhere. Dan called 911 and I got to ride in an ambulance to the hospital. After 3 hours there, at least 1 of which being ignored even by the nurses (apparently uncontrolled bleeding out isn't that big of an emergency in the ER), an on call OB finally saw me and rushed me to the OR in a flurry, upset that I had gotten so bad. By they time they had pumped me full of 4 liters of saline through 2 ivs, one in each arm, and had me tilted slightly on my head to try to keep my falling heartrate up. I think I was mostly conscious for most of the ER visit, but by the end it was mostly pretty blurry.

The bleeding stopped almost as soon as they doctor began the surgery. It seems there was just a tiny piece of placenta that was hanging on, and once they got that out, the bleeding just stopped.

I spent the rest of the night in a hospital room with Dan, attempting to recover from everything that had happened. I wasn't able to stand up really at all after that, they said that I had lost nearly half of the blood that should have been in my body. So at about 7am (Aug. 15), the nurses started me on a blood transfusion, and I got 2 units over the course of 8 hours, and then they sent me home. I now have enough blood that I can walk across the apartment without passing out, but I am still pretty dizzy, so I am on bedrest for at least a while. I'm not supposed to do anything for the next 2 weeks.

I really am doing fine, all things considered. Just really tired and dizzy all the time, but that will pass. I haven't needed any of the pain relievers that were prescribed, and really haven't been in any pain at all. Both the blighted ovum and the complications were kind of just acts of God. I have been told that the next time I get pregnant, though believe me it won't be for a while, everything will most likely proceed as it should, it wasn't something that was really wrong with either Dan or me, just one of those fluke things. Also, the complication that sent me to the hospital was another one of those flukes, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with my uterus, this is just one of those crazy things that happens sometimes.

I think I can safely say that Dan and I are pretty done with flukes for now. :-)

So that's what happened, in a nutshell. There is no need to worry, as I am getting better every day. Eventually I will be back to my normal self, it will just take a while.