How I did not want to get an ultrasound
July 9, 2003, 1:24 pm.
This is the story of how I did not want to get an ultrasound.
I woke up at 2 am for my normal 2 am pee, but in the half light, could tell
there was rather a lot of red blood on the toilet paper. And the BH ctx I'd been
feeling for a bit were rather on the frequent side, and I was feeling a little
crampy. Suckity crap. So I decided there was no way I was going to go back to
sleep, woke up David, called my sister/BIL to watch Stephen (who was, luckily, fast
asleep), and we went to the ER. They were nice and fast about admitting me, and
we were whisked up to the maternity ward (eek!).
Once there, the nurse spent about 30 minutes trying to get consistent fetal
heart rate trace on the monitor thingie -- difficult, because Strychnine didn't
want to sit still (which was reassuring, anyway). None of my ctx showed up on
the monitor, which I gather was also good, that they weren't strong enough to
register. The heart rates she did get were in the 135-144 range, which was also
nice.
After another 30-45 minutes, the on-call doctor came in, and did a brief ultrasound
-- all the bits are there, anyway, and the placenta is nice and high, though
she wasn't happy with the resolution or quality of the US. Then the speculum
came out -- she couldn't make out much of the cervix, because of the blood, and
a manual exam didn't show much either, because it's so high. So it's not placenta
previa, but she said it might be a placental abruption -- I guess if it's the
latter, it's only partial, because I haven't had any real pain to speak of and
the baby is still very active.
We were there for another 45 minutes, part of which was just sitting and waiting,
and part of which was getting blood drawn for CBC, platelets, and fibrinogen.
Then we came home (around 5ish, I guess -- the sun was rising as we left) and
I tried to sleep some more, but it was hard because we still didn't (and don't
yet) know what was going on. David, who doesn't deal well with stress, has been
nauseous all morning, while I have been as calm as I might expect under the circumstances
:P And I did not mind one bit when Stephen climbed into bed with me at 7 am, but we
had a nice long cuddle.
So, we have a better-quality ultrasound scheduled for 3:30, and an appt. with
another doctor after that. I'll check in when I get home, hopefully with good
news. I have to imagine that since the baby is still really active and the bleeding
has slowed to just a pinkish tinge on TP, it can't be all bad. I do wonder, though,
if partial placenta abruptio will risk me out of homebirth. And we're going to
have to go to the state's prenatal coverage, since our crappy insurance maxes
out at $1000, and I'm sure we've blown more than that today.
Later on, 7:16 pm:
Here I am! The appt. took forever -- the receptionist was Not Happy with our
cut-out insurance cards ("Do you have your card?" "Yes, it's right
here." "Well, I'm not sure I can accept this until I have your card." "Um,
this is the card." Sigh.) and while we got into the ultrasound more or less
on time, it wasn't until 6 pm (for a 4 pm appt.) that we saw the doctor afterwards.
The ultrasound was really, really cool. The tech spent about 20 minutes with
us, and zoomed in on *everything* -- measured bones, belly, head, etc. (All were
right on target for our due date.) Even did the internal ultrasound(way space-aged
looking, that device). And we got a peek between the legs, and she's pretty sure
it's a girl (she has a 95% success rate, she says :) There was no evidence of
placental abruption (though the dr. said they only pick up 50% of those with
ultrasound, the blood tests were also normal), and while there was a little fluid
in my cervix (leftover blood, presumably), it was 4 cm long and not dialated
or anything. Placenta is right where I thought it was (high and to the right)
and not previa.
The doctor (who was very nice and worth the wait) couldn't tell what had happened
-- just one of those things. I have another US scheduled for the 23rd to check
and make sure the baby is growing all right. Just talked to my midwife, and she
says we're still fine for a homebirth, provided the growth looks fine and this
doesn't happen on a regular basis -- plus, we are all of 5 minutes from the hospital
if anything should go wrong. This is immensely reassuring to me -- having been
in the hospital L&D, I am now quite positive I don't want to birth there
unless we need to!
Still, it's hard not to be nervous. I have a feeling the next 12 weeks are
really going to draaaaaaag out.
Way after the fact:
It seems likely that the spotting I'd had earlier, as well as this episode
of bleeding, were due to the weirdness of our placenta [warning:
link shows graphic pictures of the placenta] -- there was an extra lobe that
never showed up on any of the ultrasounds, and Cilia (my midwife) was fairly
sure that the lobe was the cause of the bleeding, since neither Sophia nor the
actual placenta showed any ill effects.
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