My name is Jennie. I'm a wife and a mother. I have been married to the man of my dreams, Trever, for 9 wonderful years. We have 5 beautiful daughters who fill our lives with joy and excitement. We just had our 6th child. Our son Caleb.

I was diagnosed with a rare condition called Placenta Accreta along with Placenta Previa. Accreta is a condition where the placenta attaches to the scar tissue in the uterus. It will often continue to grow to deeper tissue (increta) and even through the uterus attaching to other organs(percreta). I ended up having an 11 hour surgery, including a hystorectomy, and bladder repair. I received 7 units of blood and blood parts. (This is a lot of blood loss for my surgeons, but minimal blood loss to those who are not as experienced in these deliveries. I spent 36 hours in the ICU after surgery. I have also had many other complications afterwards including another minor surgery 2 weeks later. These complications are somewhat normal for the type of surgery I had.

I had a team of specialists doing my surgery. Obgyns, Gyno-oncologists, trauma surgeons, urologists and anesthesiologists. This team has specialized in techniques helping with minimal blood loss. Those with accreta , loose large amounts of blood because the placenta cannot detach naturally at delivery.

My goal is to help save women's lives by giving this terrible condition a voice. So many are ignorant to its fatal attack. Doctors and women alike, need to be educated about Accreta. Many have never even heard of it. The numbers are on the rise because of so many women choosing to have c-sections when it isn't necessary. Not all women can avoid it, but many can. Please help me give Accreta a voice, by sharing the information in this blog. (There are numerous posts with information on Accreta as well as the Accreta team who took such great care of me.)

Friday, April 26, 2013

Surviving the Nicu

We got some pretty crummy news today. Caleb had another "Brady" today. I guess it was a pretty good sized one. It lasted for about a minute. The nurse held off for a little bit, hoping that he would pull through it himself, but he didn't. She ended up having to rouse him a bit to remind him to breathe. Poor little man. I'm so glad that it happened there, attached to the monitors. It's depressing, because he has to wait another 5 days before he can come home now. Part of me wants to scream and cry. We were so anxious to get back to life and have our baby home. The other part of me is so thankful that it happened. It's like Heavenly Father was protecting him by saying... "He isn't quite ready yet".

That is how everything has gone with this recovery it seems. The day of, or night before something big is supposed to happen ( tube removal, coming home etc) we have a relapse. With my tubes coming out... It was so frustrating, but we realized later how crucial it was to have them stay in. I am really getting a sense of gratitude for these depressing moments. I am starting to see the value of trials and the blessing they are. That the Lord isn't trying to torture me. He really does have a reason for it. It is a huge blessing in the long run. I would have ended up in the operating room again, had those tubes come out too early. I am so thankful that the Lord has helped me learn this concept. Though, it has not been fun or easy.

My anxiety is defiantly on the rise in moments like today. Is this EVER going to end? Am I ever going to lay there on the x-ray table (during a cystogram) and not have liquid coming out places that it shouldn't. (During a cystogram, they fill your bladder with a dye type liquid, then take multiple x-rays to see where the leaks are) I also wonder... Will my baby ever make it home? Will he ever survive the Nicu? Before you go saying, those are ridiculous thoughts... Take a walk in my shoes for just a second. Logically I get that these thoughts are a little over the top, but when you have gone through what we have gone through... You wonder what will happen next. Nothing about this experience has gone according to planned. There has been constant "plan changes", disappointments, etc. There has been constant miracles as well, I know... But we are both so worried that this trial is only going to end in tears! For someone with my level of anxiety, then you throw constant life of death situations in the mix, you begin to allow your mind to wonder.

You begin to worry about having a fatal car accident on the way home from the hospital. Or your
baby just randomly having something go wrong in the hospital and he doesn't survive the night. For my husband, it's wondering if I will be the one who survives the scary moments, then in a normal routine procedure, ends up passing away. These are all constant fears we deal with. These long trials really weigh heavily on you emotionally, physically, spiritually, etc. We will fight to the end, there is no doubt about it. But when is the end, and how will it end?

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  1. nancyApril 26, 2013 at 2:21 PM

    The thing that no one can prepare you for is the vast reality that it might not ever end. With everything that goes on there might be something life long that keeps you up at night wondering and waiting. There is not a thing wrong with anxiety in your situation. There is nothing wrong with wondering and waiting for the next proverbial shoe to drop. At some point it will change and you will get use to the normal you are coming into. I do remember one day about 2 days before we brought Ty home and he had a brady. He had a nurse that had not ever been with him and she quickly helped him out of the brady. I was so devastated. They called me that night to warn me that it was recorded as a helped out of a brady and we wouldn't get to bring hiim home. I marched in there the next morning demanding that I was going to sign him out AMA. They chuckled and told me that he was 40 weeks ( almost) and that all babies have brady's but ours are just hooked up to machines so we know. They let us escape without making me look foolish. We came home on machines that still let us hear if he was having a brady. 7 years later I still check on that stink. Keep you head up. It's ok to feel scared and nervous and sad. You are doing great@!

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