Amniocentesis
Yesterday we had another doctors appointment to go over the findings of last weeks visit. They wanted to get new measurements and see if everything had resolved itself or if I would need further intervention. We were at the dr's for about 3 hours (seems typical for this pregnancy) and after they did all the measurements and Doppler and heartrate check they said that the two twins were growing farther apart in size. Baby B's fluid was above the normal desired amount and Baby A's fluid had only gone up a little bit. My dr came in and we talked more about the surgery that they offer in Tampa with the cutting off of some blood vessels, we had discussed this last week as one of the options to correct what may be happening. He said he would definitely recommend me for this. What the surgery entails is going into the uterus via Laparoschopic technology and using a laser to cut some of the blood vessels that run from the placenta to baby B so that she isn't getting as much blood and pressure and therefore hopefully evening out the two babies. The DR said that I would have to go to the clinic in Tampa once to be evaluated and see if they wanted to accept me as a patient and that he would call the place today. He told me that I needed to have amniocentesis done and they could either do it at the office or in Tampa but he was thinking that Tampa wouldn't want to see me until they already had the results because it takes a couple days to get them back. He asked me if it was alright if we just did it there (I didn't know he meant right then). I said yes, of course if it is necessary, and he said "okay I will go get the the consent form and send the nurse in to prep you". That was weird, I was really surprised at that because I was thinking maybe next week sometime or something. I have never known of anyone that had Amniocentesis done so I didn't really know much about the procedure. I had read lots of books and such that told what it was for and some basic information on it but I had never talked to someone who had gone through it. Basically the dr goes into the uterus through the belly and takes out some amniotic fluid that surrounds the fetus in the sac. Of course usually there is only one baby but because I have three they had to do it to each fetus. They send the fluid that they remove off to a lab that will check the chromosomes in the cells for abnormalities, such as downs syndrome or something more serious and life threatning. So then we read through the consent form which described the basics of the procedure and post care and I asked them to call the IPs so that they knew what was going on, they prepped me and it was really odd. They put drapes all around like they were going to do surgery and then they put a ton of betadine on me to get ready. When the Dr put the first needle in I just felt a pinch but as soon as it went through the uterus I got instant contractions. It hurt really bad and he had to keep moving the needle around to get to an area in the sac that had fluid and that baby B or membrane wasn't in the way. When he moved the needle it made the contractions stronger and it hurt so much. Peter was there to hold my hand so it was nice to have something to squeeze tighter when the pain got worse. Then he had to move to baby A, and that was awful, all the while the contractions were getting stronger and stronger and they never let up it was just one constant contraction. Finally he finished with the twins and then moved on to Baby C. That was even worse! C was up high and when he put the needle in the contractions started even harder and I seriously could hardly breath. When I tried to it made the pain so much worse and when he kept moving the needle around it only amplified it. C didn't take as long as the other two but the pain there was 10x worse than when he did A and B. Then he had to go back to B to pull some extra fluid out around her so that the pressure wouldn't be so great against baby A. I don't know if it was worse because I was already in so much pain or if it was the location, but I thought I was going to pass out from the pain. It took so long for him to be able to get fluid from B, I tried so hard to be still and let it be done but I was dying. I tried to watch the monitor the whole time to distract me but by that point all I could do was close my eyes and I actually had tears coming out. I was so relieved when the Dr. finally pulled the needle out. I still had contractions but just the relief of him not moving the needle around inside me made a lot of the pain go away. The nurse checked all the baby's heartrates after that and then they cleaned me up. I had to rest in the office for about 25 minutes and then we left. They gave me a prescription for if the contractions started again but I haven't used any yet. The Dr told me that depending on what the clinic says they may have to do this over again every week. They wouldn't send the fluid in for testing every week but they would have to go in and pull fluid out to relieve the pressure on A and try to even out B's area. After we left we went to my mom's where the girls were. Peter had to leave for work in St. Louis this morning so I would be all alone with the girls. My mom is so great, she let both the girls stay the night at her house because I can't lift them and I am going to get them later today. Last night was terrible. My stomach hurt so much just from being poked a bunch of times and it was so tender. I couldn't use any of my stomach muscles at all and had to get help getting up and I couldn't reach over or bend down and I couldn't twist my body around at all. Luckily I was so tired at night that I went to sleep pretty quick but I could not get comfortable at all. I woke up around 4:30 when Peter was getting ready to leave and I had a hard time getting back to sleep. I feel a little better today but I am still so tender I have to be careful when I move at all. I will probably be going to Tampa sometime next week for the first evaluation and I have another appointment at my parinatologist (my normal Dr., high-risk) next Wednesday if I am in town. If you have never had amniocentesis done than I would never recommend it to you, it was like torture and there were many times that I wanted to scream out to the Dr to just stop it altogether. It's over with now though but who knows if I will have to go through it again every week.
posted by We are the Taylors @ 10:40 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I've had an amniocentesis done when I was pregnant with Tyler and the experience wasn't bad at all. They kept in bed for 2 hours after while they monitored Tyler's heartbeat and checked for contractions. When the tests came back, it was decided that Tyler was ready to come out and later that night the Dr did my c-section :)
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