Four weeks after delivering Grace, on a Wednesday while we were home alone, I started bleeding...a lot. It was pretty alarming; I honestly thought I was going to pass out and leave Grace all by herself. David was in Oklahoma so I called Jessica knowing she was the closest one to me. She rushed over with Reed, despite being in the midst of her own morning sickness. I called my doctor's office in the meantime and was advised to come in. I told them that wasn't really an option at the moment, so they gave me some instructions and told me to call back if it didn't stop. By the time Jessica got here, it had. I brushed it off as just a freak thing, so Jess helped me out until David got home and that was the end of it...or so I thought.
It happened again the following Sunday while David was here, along with a couple from our community group who'd brought us dinner. It eventually stopped like it had before and I promised I'd call my doctor's office first thing in the morning to go in. Well, it happened again while I was getting ready for my appointment, but this time it didn't stop. David called his mom to come watch Grace because he had a feeling we wouldn't be coming home...and he was right. The ultrasound tech was unusually quiet while she looked around, so it wasn't much of a surprise when Dr. Stevenson walked in and said we needed to do a D&C. Apparently there was a tiny bit of tissue still attached to my uterus that was causing me to hemorrhage; only the second time she'd seen this happen with a vaginal delivery. I was definitely relieved to know the problem and have a plan of action, but a little emotional at the thought of leaving Grace overnight. I called my mom to come back up to Dallas, thinking two grandmas (with a four week old used to nursing) would be better than one.
Things got hairier after the surgery. I was just coming out of anesthesia when my heart rate dropped into the 30's and they had to do a blood transfusion. I then had to stay in recovery until my blood pressure stabilized, which didn't happen until almost 3:00 in the morning. Due to the late hour, I had to be in the ICU recovery room...it was miserable. Especially since I went from 10:00 am to midnight without nursing or pumping! It also turned out that after scraping all they could, the bleeding still hadn't stopped, so they'd had to try a 'balloon' procedure (something my doctor had only read about up to that point). Lovely.
The next day was equally as bad due to all the blood counts they had to take. Not to mention that I started feeling like another UTI was coming on, so my nurse had to do a catheter to get a urine sample...not fun! When I found out that they may keep me another night if my blood counts didn't keep improving, and the nurse mentioned possibly doing another catheter, I went a bit hysterical. Dr. Stevenson came in not long after and said the nurse had described me as "tearful". She was incredibly sympathetic though and thankfully ended up sending me home within a few hours. I don't think I could've handled anymore pokes by the time I left! The only good thing about it all, I came home to this...
In all honesty, even after all the random things that happened, I don't have any negative feelings toward childbirth. It's really pretty crazy how quickly you forget all the bad stuff when the result is so great. Grace was definitely worth it.
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