The Accreta team and Gestational Diabetes

Sorry for the long posts... They won't all be this long.  Just info download right now. PS- thanks to my amazing brother for providing me with this iPad lifeline to be able to have contact with the outside world!

Another chief resident came in today to see me. Her name is Dr Mercer. She drew a diagram and wrote down the Accreta team members and their duties for me. It's really interesting how much effort and research went into choosing this team...

Each day I will have a chief resident and a member of the Phoenix Perinatal Associates (the maternal fetal medicine doctors) in to check on me. They will continue to monitor the pregnancy daily and watch for signs of concern.

When I go into surgery they will be the ones to deliver the baby. If it does not end up being an emergency, they will give me a spinal and allow me to be awake for the delivery portion. Trever will also be able to be there with me.  They will have a trauma surgeon who is used to extreme bleeding and resuscitation to assist as needed. He is used to doing high risk things such as car accidents, gun shot wounds etc. he can quickly find the source of trauma and bleeding and remedy it almost immediately. Before the c-section, a urologist will put ureteral stents into the kidney drainage tubes (the ureters) to strengthen them and bring them into view and out of the way. The ureters kind of hug the uterus and connect to the bladder so they don't want to damage those. They will do a scope at that point to see if any placenta has grown through the bladder. If they see placenta inside the bladder, they'll need to do bladder surgery too.  They won't be able to see if it is attached only but will be able to see if it has grown through it.

After that they will deliver the baby via c-section. There will be a neonatalogist and his/her team ready to get the baby stable and off to the NICU. Trever will follow the baby out to the NICU.

Then they will put me under and get me hooked up to all kinds of fun tubes, iv's, monitors etc. and begin the surgery.  The trauma surgeon and OB doctors will perform the hysterectomy  They will also have a interventional radiologist perform a uterine artery emobilization which will essentially plug the artery leading to the uterus enough to slow the bleeding.  A Gyno Oncologists will also be present. These guys are professionals in all types of pelvic surgeries. Though this condition is not a cancer... It can kind of act and spread like cancer. So these guys will be able to deal with the heavy blood loss and removing any parts of the placenta that may have grown out and attached to other internal organs and such.  They are used to high trauma situations as well. I will also have the anesthesiologists right by my side of course as well watching anything and everything to make sure I am stable

These Drs are very good at what they do. I feel so much peace knowing that I am in their hands.

I did my glucose test yesterday. My blood sugar levels were about 201. I know nothing about diabetes yet so that number doesn't tell me much. Dr Mercer said that she would normally classify me as gestational diabetic but they did just give me steroids for the baby's lungs which can raise my levels. So they are going to check my levels throughout the day and see where I am. The first check was 132. Anything above 160 they will give me a little insulin to level it back out, but so far so good! The nice thing about diabetes is that they babies are usually bigger. In my case we may need all the help we can get in that department.

The nurse just came in and let me know that they have a special menu for long term patients :-) she is going to get that sent to me. Sweet! I have tons of options and the food has actually been pretty good, but after 8-9 weeks its going to get old.  This way I will have even more options for nutrition. Lets be honest. We pregnant women enjoy our food! They have a snack cart that comes by regularly too which is fun. I have to say... I am lovin' their carrot cake. Not going to lie!

They are also hoping to get me into a bigger room in the next couple of days! This room is super tiny right now so I am excited to have a little more space for the long haul. Life is good!