I woke up on 8th Jan 2012 at 36 weeks & 3days pregnant, expecting to enjoy a nice family day with our daughter, our last Sunday as a family of 3! We planned to go to the soft play area and to the park to feed the ducks, then to Nana's for sunday tea. HOWEVER, when i woke up i was getting slight stomach cramps, they were coming every hour and lasting a few minutes at a time. I had been having braxton hicks contractions a lot this week so passed them off as nothing. We got ready and went to the soft play, my daughter Megan and her daddy went to go play and i sat close by watching. As they played my cramps began to get stronger and closer together, every 30mins now. They were starting to take my breath away now and i realised they were probably real contractions. I rang the RVI and was told to take paracetemol and get in the car for the 1 hour drive to the hospital. We loaded the bags into the car, dropped Megan off with her Nana and set off. During the drive my contractions started getting closer, every 10mins now.
When we arrived at the RVI I was hooked up to the monitors and examined by the midwife. I was 3cm dilated and contractions coming every 5 mins now. They were starting to get very painful and i was given Gas & Air. The consultant came to see me and told me was my labour was quite quick last time (5hrs) they wanted to give me something to slow down my contractions so that they could get all the team in for C-section. I was admitted to the delivery suite and hooked up to a drip to slow my contractions which were now 3 mins apart. The medicine didn't work. They had booked the theatre for 7.30pm (it was 7pm now) my partner, Adam, was taken away to get dressed in his scrubs for surgery. They started to wheel me round to theatre at 7.30pm, i was very scared now. They stopped just outside theatre and warned me that there would be a lot of people in the room waiting for baby. I was later told there was 21 people in theatre, outside I could hear them all talking and felt sick. The next hour is a bit of a blur, I remember feeling very strange after having my spinal. They asked if we wanted any music on, we weren't bothered, so they put on Spandau Ballet's Greatest Hits on and began my C-Section. I remember feeling very anxious now and crying because i was supposed to have 4 more days to prepare for this. At about 7.50pm I heard the sound I had so desperately been waiting for, my little baby's cry, which oddly resembled a duck!! I was so relieved. After a bit more pulling and tugging Oliver Cole F was born. He was taken to a table to be assessed by the doctors then put in an incubator and covered over. They wheeled him to us, so we could see his face then they took him away to surgery. I was stitched up and they explained to us his condition.
Oliver (Olly or Ollypop) was born with his bowels outside as expected however it was not Gastroschisis it was a ruptured Exompholas. Exompholas is defect where the bowels develop outside of the abdomen but in a covered sac. This condition usually comes with chromosomal problems, such as downs syndrome. We were told they were sure Olly didn't have downs and looked like a normal baby. The tissue mass was not attached to Olly at all and turned out to be a twin that had not developed properly (no heart or brain) and died early in the pregnancy. It was attached to Olly's placenta by its own umbilical cord and was still receiving nutrients causing it to grow. The twins bowels had also developed outside of its body and had tangled up with Olly's bowels and umbilical cord. Because of this Olly, his twin and the placenta were born at the exact same time and for this reason they had to make my C-section incision larger like an upside down T. I was told i would never be able to have a normal birth again. I was taken round to recovery and awaited the outcome of Olly's Surgery. At 3am Olly's surgeon, Mr Hosie, came to see us and told us once they had removed his twin, its bowels and the placenta they had been able to put all his bowels back inside and stitch him up. They were very pleased with this, although he had lost a lot of blood during birth and his surgery so he had 2 blood transfusions and they expected him to be quite poorly over the next few days. They had also discovered Olly was born with a condition called hypospadias which means his wee hole isn't in the right place on his penis and a he also didn't have an exit hole on his bottom (imperforate anus). As he didn't have an exit hole they had given him a stoma which meant he would need to wear a colostomy bag until he is 4months old, when he would have surgery to fix his bum. Also when they were putting his urinary catheter in during surgery they noticed traces of meconium (baby poop) in his bladder. This meant he had a connection somewhere between his bladder and bowels. They were not concerned with any of these problems as they are apparently quite common and easily fixed, but does mean he has another 3 surgeries to go. Olly had been taken to paediatric ICU to recover and Adam was allowed to see him a few hours later.
Beyond....
I was allowed to see Olly the day after he was born once i could manage to get into a wheel chair and get to ICU. The first time i saw him he was very swollen from his surgery and he had all sorts of wires sticking out of him and on a ventilator to help him breathe. They had finally been able to weigh him after having his twin and placenta removed and he weighed 5lb 8oz (2.5kg). He was quite jaundice so needed to be on the phototherapy lights a lot. Over the next few days Olly did very well and was taken off the ventilator at 1 week old and we got our first cuddles. They even talked about sending him onto a normal ward, but he didn't like this! As he had been weaned off his painkillers (morphine) he started to show signs of withdrawal, his heart rate became very fast, his breathing rapid and he was very jittery. This was concerning to the doctors and they did lots of tests to see what was wrong. He had blood & urine tests done, an ultrasound on his brain, ultrasound on his heart and a test done to monitor his brain activity. All came back normal, although the ultrasound on his heart picked up he has a small hole they aren't concerned with it. Over the next week he began to improve and his doctors put his symptoms down to withdrawal.
At 1 week 5 days old Olly was started on breast milk, he was fed 2ml every 2hrs down a feeding tube in his nose. He was taken out of the incubator, dressed and placed in a cot. Then at 2 weeks old he was discharged from ICU and admitted to ward 9 the surgical paediatric ward, for children who were recovering from surgery. On this ward i was able to stay with him all the time and shown how to look after him. Pretty soon i was bathing him, emptying his colostomy bag and giving him his feeds down his feeding tube. He was tolerating his milk very well and it was increased every 12hrs by 2ml, by Tuesday 31st Jan he was on full feeds every 3hrs but still fed through his nose tube. We decided to try breastfeeding which he took to quite well and started feeding every 3-4hrs. On Thursday 2nd Feb all his tubes and wires were removed, it was so nice to see his little face at last. On Saturday 4th Feb at 3 weeks 6 days old we were given the news we had so desperately been waiting for... he could go home!! After being told during my pregnancy to expect at least a 3month stay in hospital this was amazing news.
I am so proud of my brave baby boy he has done so well. He has to go back every few weeks for check-ups and will have his next surgery at 4months old. Now we are home and getting into a routine again he is doing great, weighs 6lb 3oz now and at this moment is asleep on my lap. On his first check up at the hospital i made some cupcakes as a thank you for all the staff on ward 9 and PICU....
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