Delivery Day...continued...

Read Post One Here

As I left off, I heard the doctors saying that I had already lost a lot of blood in the OR, and they would most likely put me on the Magnesium Sulfate to help regulate the blood pressure. My blood pressure was completely fine during the c-section, but they expected due to the preeclampsia that it would not regulate for awhile, but they were more worried about the blood clotting at this point in my upper uterus. (still trying to figure out what to call what exactly happened) Because Natalee was just so far deep inside, when the DR pulled her out the uterus separated from the back of my abdominal wall, and that's how the bleeding began. Her placenta was not bleeding before, as what I thought they said when I came out of the OR, but it had nothing to do with her, other than her positioning inside of me.

But I went into a recovery room, freezing, freezing and freezing, that is when my blood pressure started going up. I also started bleeding A LOT. They kept pushing on my belly and HUGE amounts of blood would come out, I was so out of it though, that of course I couldn't feel anything, amen. The doctor came back, more blood...they pushed and pushed on my tummy...more blood. I wasn't clotting. My BP continued to go higher, so they said they would start the Magnesium Sulfate and I would stay with Labor and Delivery until tomorrow because of it. I didn't even care, just get me warm was all I wanted. My Mom came back, and then my Dad and my MIL, and the doctors and nurses still were pushing and trying to see if my uterus would clot, which it clearly wasn't doing.

I was finally rolled back to a Labor and Delivery room, briefly where my family was waiting. I was awake but I don't really remember much. All I remember was A LOT of needles and people rushing to get things done. I got some zofran, pain meds, the Mag started and probably a bunch more, that I have no idea about.  The doctor came back in a few minutes later and checked me again and said that I would definitely need something done about the bleeding because I was just bleeding too much. So, the doctor, plenty of nurses and surgeon assistant decided to put a balloon inside me to control the bleeding (I'll explain later). They weren't quite sure what to do, which worried me, but I was so out of it, that it didn't register with me. All I kept hearing was if they couldn't stop it then I would need an emergency hysterectomy. Hello..no way! But all I thought was save me, I have my beautiful girls, just fix me and do what you need to, but I didn't like them even talking about it.  They gave me more sedatives and went to work. They tried and tried and tried, all failing and it was becoming more and more uncomfortable because the spinal was wearing off. I was not happy and it was really scaring me. Tim stayed with me the whole time until after about an hour and half, enough was enough and they decided to roll me back to the OR and try there.

They rolled me back, I was really scared now and alone, since they said Tim could not come, but the surgical assistant was so nice and comforting. He kept me warm and they brought in many warm blankets for me because I was still shaking and the Mag was really kicking in. They put me in candy cane stirrups and I remember joking and saying, tis the season and everyone laughed. It seemed to take forever for them to get started but they wanted to call a million people back in case I needed the hysterectomy, so they waited for the anesthesiologist to be ready in case I needed more sedation. Please take your time I thought.

I was in and out of it, so really I had no idea of how seriously sick I was at that moment. The swelling in my legs prevented them from being too high in the stirrups, everything was just getting in the way. However, within an hour, they managed to get the balloon all the way through my cervix and into the top of the uterus to hopefully stop the bleeding. They then packed me FULL of gauze and stuff to help the bleeding too. Then they noticed that I was bleeding from another area (TMI) and decided to work on that area too, which meant shoveling lots of anti-biotic and something else, I can't remember right now, but it didn't sound pretty, but apparently worked great.

Finally, I was rolled back to the room and then my blood transfusions began. I had one bag, and then had another. The blood really made me feel much better, and put color in my face almost immediately everyone said. I had lost a lot they said. About 1/4 of my blood supply...after the bleeding finally stopped.

But I wasn't out of the woods yet.