The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I'll start with the bad and the ugly, and end with the good.

The Bad
Thursday morning I went in for an routine OB appointment. Tatu's heartbeat was strong and I was healthy. But they did inform me that an ultra-sound, taken a few weeks earlier, revealed that I have complete placenta previa. This means that Tatu's placenta is positioned entirely over my cervix. The placenta is rich with blood vessels. So having a hole to the outside world (my cervix) right in the middle of all of these blood vessels is not a good thing. My OB told me that if I had any bleeding I was to hop in the car and call my doctor as I drove to the ER.

Back home I did more research and was reassured to learn that the placenta will probably migrate to a safer spot and therefore cause me no trouble at all.

And then I noticed the bleeding. Just spotting. But I knew I was headed to the ER. Fortunately Jeffrey was only 10 minutes from home at the time. We left the kids with my mom-in-law, armed ourselves with snacks and a good book to read, and hit the road.

Our six hour visit to the ER revealed several things.
1) Having placenta previa and bleeding will skip you right past people waiting hours in the ER and land you a room as you are experiencing a "life-threaten event".
2) Having a husband wearing scrubs and a hospital doctor name tag makes everyone treat you awfully nicely

We also learned a lot about placenta previa too. It is likely that the placeta will migrate off of the cervix. But if it does not, I will probably have a "big bleed" at some point. This won't be just spotting, this will likely require temporary hospitalization and maybe a blood transfusion. If it can't be controlled, the baby will be delivered. But it will probably be brought under control and I'll be sent home on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy. If I have a second big bleed, I would be hospitalized for the duration of the pregancy. In addition, because I've already had two c-sections, placenta previa would put me at risk of placeta accreta. In which case I might end up with a hysterectomy.

We were a bit dazed by this information, but focusing on the fact that my current bleeding was not worrisome and that the placenta previa would probably clear up on its own. They gave us our discharge instructions and we started packing up our stuff to head home.

And then they came back in the room. The attending radiologist took a good look at our ultrasound and discovered two disconcerting things. First, there is blood in some strange spot in my uterus. And second, my cervix is short. These two new problems warranted a recategorization of this pregnancy as "high-risk", follow-up appointments with my new high-risk OB this week, bed rest until the appointment, and a speech warning us to prepare ourselves for the possibility that we might lose this pregnancy.

It was a big second blow to receive just before leaving the hospital.

The Ugly
I have a cold. A nasty, long-lived illness has invaded our home. Zion has been sick for a week and a half. His sinuses are so stuffed up that his tear drainage system is blocked. So he is covered in crusty, gooey eye crud. Jeffrey has been sick off and on, mostly on, for the last three weeks. We both have stuffy noses and constant coughs. But this is only where my trouble begins. I am still a bit nauseated with morning sickness. So once my stomach gets into a big round of coughing, it wants to keep on tightening as it switches to violent vomit mode. And there goes my dinner. I told you it was ugly. I have bowls strategically positioned around the house as I never know when a cough will morph into more. I even threw-up while at my Mothers' Day dinner (in the bathroom) and during our visit to the ER. Ugly. Nasty. Miserable.

The Good
1) Jeffrey's mom flew in on Tuesday, this all started on Thursday. She was already planning on staying through June 10. She and I both had hoped this visit would be more of a vacation for her than her last trip out to rescue me. But even as I lie in bed rest, my kids are well cared for and my house is well run. I think God really was taking care of us in arranging this before we knew we had the need. And I will never be able to repay Sharon for the many times she has come through for me and my family.
2) Elise and Zion. If we end up loosing Tatu, or having a hysterectomy, I am so glad for my two precious children. Our family is already full of love and complete.
3) Friends and family. I know that if we end up going down the bed rest route long term, we have people that surround us with love and support.
4) Jeffrey's work related load has eased some, so he is now able to balance roles of resident, nurse, and Mr. Mom to a degree that he could not have just a few weeks ago.

So there you have it: the good, the bad, and the ugly.