Ivie Family: Déjàvu

It all started Sunday evening. I noticed the area above my incision was hard, puffy and hot. I showed Chris and he was also concerned. I took my temperature and I was running a low grade fever. NOT GOOD NEWS! We agreed that I would call the doctor in the morning, as this appeared to be just like the way my infection after Emma started. I actually compared the picture of the puffiness to the picture of what my tummy looked like the night before I was admitted after Emma and there was a lot of similarities. I woke up Monday morning and called the doctor, I told her nurse what was going on and that I preferred to come in Tuesday because we had a busy day She said she would let Dr. J know about my symptoms and call me back. We headed to Polly's doctor appointment and then went home to get ready for her newborn photo shoot. This is when I got the phone call back from Dr. J's nurse telling me that I needed to find a way to come in that day. I told her we were busy and that the earliest I could come in would be 4:00, so she scheduled me at 4. (I know, I am an idiot! Why wait with my history??). We headed to Major Images for our 2;00 newborn shoot with all 3 girls and Mom along for the ride. Thankfully, we were almost done with the pictures when we walked outside to get a few shots in the natural light and I suddenly felt like I had peed my pants. It took a few seconds to realize that I most likely did not pee my pants since I no longer had a baby in my tummy sitting on my bladder. So, at that point I realized I was probably bleeding. I was in black pants so I couldn't be 100% sure, but I knew I needed to wrap up the pics and find out. We took a few more pictures and the bleeding continued. Finally, I excused myself and went inside to the restroom. Not to be too graphic, but in the bathroom I realized that I was bleeding profusely and that I needed to get to the doctor immediately. I told Chris and we grabbed some towels for me to sit on in the car and we headed to Dallas. Thank goodness I had that 4:00 appointment that I didn't want, otherwise we would have headed straight to the ER. I called ahead to let Dr. J's nurse know that I was hemorrhaging and that there was no way I could sit in their waiting room without ruining their chairs. When we arrived they took me straight back and Dr. J did a quick examination on me and sent us directly to the ER.
At the ER Chris and Polly were made to stay in the waiting room while I was triaged. Children under 12 are not allowed back in the ER. I was sad because I wanted Chris with me and I wanted to feed Polly. Thankfully, Peg was able to head up to the hospital to sit with Polly and then I ended up having a nice nurse who snuck them back so that I could feed her on time. I was running a higher fever, my BP was high, along with my HR. I was also feeling dizzy and in a lot of pain. After a bunch of lab draws and a ton of discussion about breastfeeding with IV contrast, I ended up going for a stat CT with IV contrast to see what was going on in my uterus. In the radiology room I could barely move my body from the stretcher to the scanner. I felt so weak and was in tremendous pain. It felt like I had just had a C-section that day. It was so strange to go from feeling okay to terrible in a few hours. The CT revealed that I did not have an abscess, but looked concerning for a uterine dehiscence, which would require a hysterectomy or a repair to fix. It also suggested an infection. This was the scariest few hours because we didn't know what was going to happen. A hysterectomy was going to be extremely risky because my uterus is still engorged from carrying a baby and I would lose a ton of blood. A repair is not ideal for me either since another operation would put me at risk for another infection. The OB on call team came by to talk to me and did an exam on me and decided that I had a uterine infection (based on labs, pain, fever and elevated WBC). They were not as convinced that I was having a uterine rupture. They wanted to admit me for IV antibiotics and to watch my labs for further infection and bleeding and see what everything looked like in the morning when my doctor came on call. So, here I was with a 10 day old newborn, being admitted to the hospital (again).
We had a long and sleepless night (we weren't admitted until after midnight, and then I had more lab draws, meds to be hung and vitals to be taken, along with feeding Polly). Thankfully, Polly was allowed to stay with me, just as Emma had been allowed to in the past. When Dr, J came around bright and early the next day she explained that my uterine repair after the C-section was a mess and that I had an inverted "T" shaped incision on my uterus due to all of the scar adhesions I had to my bladder and bowel, they had to make a vertical cut to get Polly out without causing a bladder injury. She said the repair probably looks horrible on CT, and that she should know because she did it. She did not feel like the uterus incision was opening up, she said she used more Vicryl sutures on me than she ever has. She thought that I had a uterine infection and she also said that the CT showed I have a large hematoma above my incision. She said she wanted to avoid another surgery at all cost because of the risks. My blood levels had stopped dropping so she thought the bleeding was under control. So, the two things: the puffy, hot, red superficial incision and the hemorrhaging were not related, but coincidentally happened all at once. That is some bad luck! She wanted to keep me at the hospital for a few days to watch my pain, bleeding and labs and give me IV antibiotics. So, to make a long story not so long, that is what happened. I went to the hospital Monday and got to go home 4 days later. I was extremely sad and depressed all day Tuesday, and I also felt like I had been run over by a train. Wednesday I started to turn a corner with the pain and bleeding. Thankfully, my fevers and WBC stayed down too, so I was responding to the IV meds. On the last day of my hospitalization I was transitioned from IV meds to oral and I got to go home. The hematoma we will have to watch to make sure my body absorbs it and that it doesn't get infected over the next few weeks. The worst part of it all was missing Ryan and Emma. And, the final punch in the gut was that Mom and Ryan had a tummy bug so the girls had to be quarantined at my parents for 24 hours after I got discharged. Although this allowed me time to rest it was torture to not see them. We could not risk Polly or me getting a stomach bug or we would have ended up right back in the hospital.
The whole ordeal was another nightmare and more proof that I no longer do post-partum well (Ryan was my only baby without post-partum complications). Thankfully, we had awesome family support from our parents. The girls stayed with my parents the whole time (even during the puke fest), Peg and Steve came up to the hospital multiple times, Mom stayed a night with me to give Chris a break and a chance to see the girls, and Carol and Bob cleaned our whole house to get rid of the tummy bug germs. I also received numerous flower deliveries, cards, texts and phone calls checking on me. I felt so much support during a sad and painful time. We are so thankful for our support system.