How quickly things change.

It’s amazing how things can change in an instant. In the blink of an eye, we went from having a normal, low-risk pregnancy to me being on bedrest with a 50% chance of losing our baby.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to update this blog, and I’m actually not supposed to be sitting in front of the computer right now, but I promise I’ll take it really easy the rest of the day.

On Sunday the 25th, at around 6:30 p.m. I got an unbelievable and unexplainable backache. At around 7:45 p.m. I started bleeding…big gushes of bright red blood. Needless to say, we were incredibly surprised and worried, so we called our midwives, who agreed that it sounded like a miscarriage. They were also sure to say that it could be something else, but we were not very optimistic. Since I wanted to know for sure if I had lost the baby or not, we decided to go to the emergency room at the small hospital one town west, about 20 minutes away.

Upon arrival, the medical staff was very sympathetic and caring, but they did not seem very optimistic, especially once they saw how much blood I had lost, and was still losing. We waited almost two hours for the ultrasound tech to get in and set up the room (they are not at the hospital 24/7). During that time, I prepared myself for the worst. We finally went to radiology, and when she had scanned for a few seconds she turned the screen so I could see our baby…perfectly healthy with a perfect heartbeat. The rush of relief was incredible to say the least. We quickly shifted to wondering where the heck all the blood was coming from. After a very extensive and long set of ultrasounds (both vaginal and abdominal) we went back to the ER to wait for the radiologist report. After another ½ hour, we were told I have a “uterine bleed.” The easiest way to explain it is to compare it to a blister. With a blister on your hand, if it pops it leaks fluid. Instead of fluid, a uterine bleed causes hemorrhaging. When a blister pops, you are left with a raw wound covered by a layer of skin. In the same way, I have an open wound on the lining of my uterus, with a layer of tissue covering it.

The ER doctor put me on immediate bedrest. The only thing I am supposed to get out of bed for is to use the bathroom, and shower every couple of days. The concern is that if I do too much, it will reopen the bleed or cause it to get bigger, which means it could undercut the placenta. I have not had any more bleeding since that first bout, which we are taking as a good sign. The doctors don’t know what causes these bleeds, there is nothing they can do about them, and they have no way to predict what the outcome will be. What they do know is that 50% of women who have these bleeds will lose their baby.

We had another ultrasound on March 2nd, and the bleed was measured to be 6.8 cm wide and 5.6 cm high. Apparently that is considered pretty large. I will continue to be on bedrest until at least the 15th, when we have another ultrasound scheduled. The only thing I can do is wait, try not to move too much, and pray. St. Benedict is the patron saint of pregnant women, so any prayers to him on our behalf would be greatly appreciated.

I think this is long enough for now…if I get internet access from my bed, I will try to post updates periodically. If we can’t get our router to work with the laptop, the next time I post will either be good news (I’m off bedrest), or bad (we lost the baby).