Luck of Gladstone Gander

My brother's nickname is Unca...for Unca Scrooge. For obvious reasons if you know him.
I have always been lucky...and more and more recently my brother has been calling me Gladstone Gander. If you know anything about the comics, you know this is fitting. :)

I think I have channeled all of my Gladstone Gander luck for a while.
Here I will tell you why- please bear with me, it is a little long.....but worth reading.

I went in Thursday (4/21/11) for a scheduled monthly ob appt. ultrasound.
Got the US first, and I pretty much knew something was up immediately. The tech wasn't chipper and talkative. After 20 seconds and seeing her brow furrowed she said. "Have you been contracting?"
Me: a little, I have had a stomach bug.
Her: I have to stop right now- your cervix is funneling and need to talk to Michelle (nurse practitioner) to see if she needs to do anything. Like right now.

Okay, maybe there was more, but idk. That was the gist of it.

Apparently my cervix was 0.6cm..to give you an idea, normal is 3.5-4.5 cm

Like basically nothing. Nada. A push away from a toilet birth, and a likely demise seeing as I was 24weeks 4 days at the time. Viability for a baby is called 24 weeks, meaning that is the point they will intubate and try to resuscitate a birth, but that is still really really young.

I was instructed to go straight to the high risk doctors office at first, and then they told me to just go to Labor and Delivery at the hospital after they talked to the doctor. I was instructed to not push on my abd, try to poop, push or anything like that. The told me that I would being 'getting a stitch' put in to close up my cervix.

I got to the hospital around 400/415 and got admitted and all that good stuff. IV started, labs drawn etc. I tried to cope with it in my way- humor. Lance did wonderfully and handled it all well. I called my friend Kristie and she was wonderful and went by our house and got clothes for Lance and stuff so he could leave and go to work straight from the hospital the next morning if I was still there.

We are blessed to have her as a friend. She stayed with Lance while I was back in surgery, and and stayed until I got out of recovery and into my room for the night. I know she helped keep Lance calm while he was waiting. I am so thankful for her.

They wheeled me away to surgery, and I got a spinal. The process of of getting one was not bad at all. They had my legs hoisted up and hanging from basically hooks. I will forever have an image of my cherry red toenails peeking out from drapes where my legs were being hung like two huge hamhocks in a meat locker. I remember thinking those are MY legs...I can't wiggle my toes. How the heck did they get them UP there. Then I got the giggles. I think the staff thought I was nuts. LOL.

I was totally with it during the procedure. They tugged and pulled and managed to close me up with a McDonald's cerclage. This stitch will stay in place until I am 36 weeks (second week in July)

It was pretty much done in about 20 minutes, but as per usual the set up and then the clean up and getting me to recovery took longer. Here is the deal...after they were done, they got my legs and put them back down on the stretcher....then I tried to move. Obviously I couldn't. I don't know if it was that, but if it was the fluid shift after putting my legs down...but I kinda freaked out. I was trying to move and couldn't. Basically I KNEW it was stupid, but I had a full blown anxiety attack. I just had to work through it, and it got better when I was distracted.

I had another small one in recovery wen the nurse was asking me if I could move my foot, and I tried to. It was the NOT being able to move that freaked me out. Once Lance and Kristie could come back and distract me it was better.

I was pretty quickly moved back up to the Labor and Delivery dept. where the plan was to watch me until I could walk/go pee/my pain was under control and I wasn't having contractions. I started having pretty yucky contractions when I got the feeling back in my legs and I had a morphine PCA pump (thank you Jesus), and they gave me a few doses of turbutiline.

That turbutiline was crazy. It would stop/slow my contractions, but boy howdy did it make me shake like I had a palsy. It was crazy!!!!!!

Lance had to get up and go to work since he was on call for the weekend and ALL of his practice partners were out of town. Murphy's Law huh? Luckily my friend Kathy came that morning before Lance had to go into work and sat with me until my Mom could get here.

I had called Mom the night before as soon as I found out I WAS going to have to have surgery. I called her at work, and her boss answered the phone. I know it is busy if the doctor answers the phone- normally I just say never mind. But when he told me "Lynda is busy, can I take a message?" I said "no, this is Laura I really need to talk to her" He just said "oh" and set down the phone. Within 5 seconds my mom was on the phone. :)

All I had time to say was "Now, don't freak out- we are all okay. I am in the hospital and have to have surgery to stitch me up. Can you come down tomorrow?" "Yes" she said, that is really all I remember.....she said I told her which hospital I was at, etc. etc....but I don't remember that. I guess stress really does make you forget stuff.

I got a clear liquid breakfast- and I have to tell you that was the best beef broth EVER. LOL. The italian ice was yummy also! :) considering I came out of surgery starving...I was ready for food in the am. :)

Anyways, Lance went off to work in the AM and my mom got there around 1pm or so.

We just hung out while I pushed the marker button to show my contractions, and they got farther and farther apart. I ended up getting two total shots of turbutiline to help with the contractions. I also kept pushing the morphine PCA pump. LOL. Hey, no sense being in pain....plus pain was causing more contractions and we didn't want that!

They were aiming for a 23 hour observation so that meant I was shooting to get out of there by 4pm. it worked out well b/c by 3 or so I wasn't having any contractions and the pain was well controlled without the morphine. They had started me on oral pain meds that worked smashingly.

I got wheeled out at 4pm on the DOT so they didnt' have to change me over to an admission, and it was easier on the insurance. Just fine with me.

Mom and I came home and chilled. I got on the TV to show her the BBC America channel and how they always have Law and Order UK on there....and discovered that it is a Doctor Who marathon weekend b/c the new season started last night.

Mom was ecstatic b/c she doesn't get BBC America in Alabama. SO, we recorded all of them and have been watching them. I have introduced her to the JOY of DVR and fastforwarding through commercials. LOVE IT!!!!

We are currently watching the season finale from last season...and the next episode will be last night's season premier of Doctor Who in America. :) WOOO HOOOO!!!!

So here we are hanging out. I am doing really good, just a little bored. LOL. I can't sit up too long or I get some pain, but I can sit up a longer today than I could yesterday. Little by little.

We are beyond blessed, and I guess it is hitting me more now that it is over and done with. I suppose I wouldn't let myself think too much about the gravity of the situation before the surgery. I didn't Google funneling, and I asked Lance not to- or at least not tell me all the info if he did. Sometimes knowledge is power...sometimes ignorance is bliss.

I am very lucky that we got this ultrasound. I have had no problems up till now, so it was really just a whim that my doc did it. I am lucky I was still 24 weeks- this is generally the cut off for cerclages. Any later and I would probably have been on complete bed rest in the hospital until delievery.

We are lucky that nothing happened when I was on the many plane rides I took recently.

We are lucky nothing happened IN the Bahamas.

Our doctor said that if this wasn't caught she believed I would have delivered in the next few days....more than likely when I strained doing something- obviously most likely on the toilet. If this were to have happened there is a HIGH likelihood the baby wouldn't have made it being born so early out of the hospital.

I keep having all these thoughts come into my head to be thankful for....how lucky and blessed we are that this was caught since I really wasn't having real symptoms.

The baby has always been really really low. Even at 24 weeks, I only really felt it move right behind my pubic bone and a smidge above. The heart tones were always found extremely low. I never felt much any higher. I carried really low, but my uterus could be felt in the right spot above my belly button. I felt like was waddling b/c my legs wouldn't walk right- perhaps it is b/c the baby was so low? I don't know, but that makes sense.

I had some contractions, but they weren't painful, and were textbook braxton hicks- so I didn't worry about them.

I had no bleeding. There really was nothing that would have told me this was going to happen.

I thank GOD that this was caught.

Currently the baby is testing out new real estate around and above my belly button. (s)He is more active now, and I swear it kicked my stomach earlier. It is almost like feeling it move for the first time!

Everyday is a blessing, and I am going to TRY to thank God for every pain I have from here on out. I am blessed to be able to still have the pain. The still have the aches. Each jab to my kidneys tells me I am still a Mommy to be.

I am telling our story b/c I believe in the power of prayer. I believe in support. I want the information to be out there so people know what can happen. I have always been open with my health history, as long as it didn't make others feel uncomfortable. I don't think silence is the answer, but rather respect. This being said, that is why you haven't really seen me talk about this on Facebook. Please respect that fact also- I don't think Facebook is the place to be sharing total intimate details. You can ask how I am doing, etc...and I may mention it on there in the future- but just not right now.

I have many friends dealing with infertility and loss right now, and I don't want to bombard their news feed with my story. I can't control what others put on facebook, but I CAN control what I put on mine.

"WHY are you putting it on a public blog?" you might ask? Well, b/c I want to document my story. I want my family and loved ones to know. I also don't want to have to tell the story 500 times. I am aware that this is public, but it isn't freaking Facebook.

I hope you respect that even if you don't understand it.

Any questions, email me. Seriously- I am not doing anything...but the pain pills do make me groggy.

LOVE TO ALL