ER Hospital visit

So I have so much to update on. As you probably seen from my last post, I ended up in hospital for the day due to heavy (not sure if ‘heavy’ even covers the amount of blood I lost) bleeding. I should probably start at the start.

Last week I had my 12 week ultrasound. At the time, everything seemed to go really great! Baby boy wouldn’t stop moving so it was so difficult getting pictures. I was in the ultrasound room for an hour and a half just getting the ultrasound done. We switched to transvaginal twice because we thought it may get better views or at least calm baby down.

Anyway, the sonographer was happy with everything and told me everything looked good.

Until yesterday. I got a call from a ‘fetal cardiologist’ saying that she was a specialist and my case has been referred to her. She said she is not convinced this baby has a healthy heart and wants to see me again. So now I have to go there tomorrow for another scan.

Cue the stress.

But it actually worked out great in terms of timing.

This is so embarrassing, and I can’t believe I’m even about to write this. 

This morning I was inundated with pregnancy hormones and needed a bit of a relief… if you all catch my drift. 

I did my thing and then went to have a shower. Just before the shower I went to the toilet and obviously things were wet down there (oh god… my face is bright red right now). I don’t know what made me look at the toilet paper, but there was so much bright red blood. The first wipe was the worst, but there was a small amount each time I wiped after that. It seemed to slow down, so I wasn’t too concerned.

I guessed it was probably from… my release… and I didn’t have any cramping so I didn’t think too much of it.

About half way through my shower I started to feel like I was going to pass out. I turned the water to cold and sat down with my head between my legs. 

Then the cramps started.

It’s weird, because when I was about 25 weeks with Scarlett I remember cramping after orgasm, but it didn’t start this early.

I decided to lay down after my shower to give my uterus a chance to relax before I got changed and went back out to play with Scarlett, who was with my mum at the time in the lounge room. Before I left the bathroom I checked the bleeding and it had all but stopped. Literally had maybe 1 small spot of pink discharge with 4-5 wipes.

So I went to lay down and after about 5 minutes, I was just about to get up when I felt something come out of my vagina.

I wasn’t sure if it was a mass or blood, so I reached down to check, and sure enough, blood. To the point if was pouring out. Gushing. My fingers and hand were completely covered in blood and literally dripping just from touching the outside of my vagina. I got up super quick and shoved my towel between my legs. It just kept gushing. I couldn’t stop it and I started to feel dizzy. It was literally like someone turned on a tap in my vag. That’s how extreme is was pouring out.

I was still naked, so imagine my horror in having to call my mum into my room to help me get dressed, put a pad on and go to emergency. I wasn’t sure if I was about to pass out and imagine my mum walking into something like that. At least she had some pre warning before she had to help me get dressed.

The pad I had on, it was filled with blood in the 5 minutes it took to get to the hospital. A maternity pad, so very absorbent. I rushed into emergency and had blood running down my legs. They gave me another pad and I put that on, and within another 5 minutes that was full too.

So I put another pad on, and on the way to the bathroom, infront of about 10 people in emergency, a massive gush of blood went into the floor.

Immediately they got me in. They did my blood pressure and found it was very low, probably from the blood loss, and my heart rate was super high.

I was put into a room immediately and a doctor was in within about 15 minutes to chat with me. She told me that it sounds like a miscarriage. That I shouldn’t get my hopes up for a good outcome. That this almost never leads to a good outcome.

She wanted to see the pad I had on (the one I had put on about 15-20 minutes before) and she told me the bleeding looked like it slowed down.

She wanted to check my cervix. So in goes the speculum, but there was too much blood to see anything. She got some absorbent gauze and cleaned the cervix. She then watched it for a minute and told me it seemed the bleeding completely stopped. She also said my cervix was ‘long and closed’, which was apparently a good sign.

Since my cervix was closed, they started to question what was happening. The fact that I was bleeding so much indicated miscarriage, but usually your cervix is open during a miscarriage.

The doctor decided to keep me for an hour, then if the bleeding was still slow, they would send me home… WITHOUT an ultrasound.

I was mega pissed that they had no intentions of doing an ultrasound. I had one booked in for tomorrow anyway, but you expected me to wait over 24 hours for that?

Since the doctor was being no help, I spoke to a nurse who agreed she would call ultrasound and try to organise an appointment. 

Sure enough, the nurse came back in and said she organised it. 

About an hour later someone from ultrasound came to collect me and wheeled me in a wheelchair to the room. The sonographer came in and told me she had read my file and was familiar with my case. She asked the questions other doctors and nurses asked- am I in pain? How heavy was the bleeding? How long did it last? 

Then she started the ultrasound. She placed the probe on my belly and we saw the baby. He was so still. Completely opposite to how he had been last Friday.

She quickly turned the screen away from me. I started crying. Then she said ‘oh, there it is!’ And turned the screen toward me again. We saw the heartbeat, it was 159bpm. Then he started squirming around. He was alive!!

The sonographer printed me a photo of his face and his hand. I thanked her profusely and she just took it in her stride and claimed it was her job. But she had no idea what she had just done for me. Not only did she ease my mind, she also went above and beyond by dragging out the ultrasound just so I could look at him and accept everything was okay. Then she printed me a photo. She was amazing.

So I was strolled back into my room. Very soon after the doctor came in and gave me the results of the ultrasound. ‘Live uterine pregnancy with a SCH’. It was 3.5 x 4cm, which is apparently quite large. She said she would have hated to see its size before the bleeding.

Then she sent me home on the proviso that I come back if I start to bleed heavily again, or if I pass any clots or tissue.

You have no idea how relieved I am. Guys, I can’t even describe how much blood there was. It pooled in my hand, my towel was soaked through 90% of blood. As in, a big body towel you dry yourself with after a shower! I soaked two pads in 10 minutes and it still soaked my undies and ran down my legs onto the floor. I stood in a small pool of my blood before the nurse finally ushered me into the bathroom. My mum washed and soaked my towel after I left for emergency and she said she could have rung the towel out and produced at least a litre of blood with how much was still In it. She said the towel was heavy from all the blood.

The bleed has certainly slowed down now. I went and checked about 10 minutes ago and it was more like red stained mucous than anything. 

But now I’m sore. It’s not cramps, I’m just really tender and sore in the area where my uterus is. Not sure why it’s sore, but hopefully that eases up soon.

I’m not allowed to lift anything over 2kg for a week. No work for a week. ‘Modified bed rest’ is what they are calling it. I’m supposed to rest, and if I’m not laying down, I should be sitting down.

My mum is amazing. She is lifting Scarlett for me so I can change her nappies. She let me go lay down after I came home and looked after Scarlett without any issues. I’d be totally lost without her.

Anyway, here are some photos from the 12 week ultrasound last week. Wish me luck for tomorrow. Hopefully baby boy was just jumping around too much to get a good view of the heart. I’m praying there is nothing wrong with it/him.