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.)

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Miracles

Throughout this journey. I have witnessed so many miracles. Today I received another. After writing and sending off my "pee" story, we went into Phoenix to some doctors appointments. I had the cystogram done. During the cystogram, the doctor, I am assuming he was a radiologist, said that I had leaking out of my vagina. This was the one thing that Dr. Hall told me I did not want to have! This is the complication that I was worried about with my random episodes on Sunday. I was surprisingly at peace about it, but then my mind started stewing on it later and I really started to freak out. They were going to send the images to Dr Hall for my appointment today. I tried to call the doctor to see what to expect, because I didn't want to get blindsided when I got in today. Of course he was at the hospital, so I couldn't reach him. After my 2nd procedure, he asked if I had leaking out the vagina and I said no. He then said, oh good because you don't want that! It's really hard to fix.

So after hearing that that is what is going on, his words were all I heard in my mind. Really hard to fix, really hard to fix..... Did that mean major surgery? My mind was going crazy all day!

To top it off, right after the cystogram, we raced over to the wound care clinic for a check up. Of course, things were worse than it seemed. I'm learning to just expect the worst these days! The doctor thought that there was probably some bacteria that got on a stitch in a lower layer and that is why it isn't healing correctly. He said that since the stitch is a foreign body, there is no way for my body to be able to fight against it. And since the bacteria was on the stitch, no amount of antibiotics will get rid of it. So basically he had to take off the stitch and re-open that part of my incision. (Not the whole way down, only about an inch deep. Yuck!!!) now he wants us to coat this ribbon type stuff with a cream called silverdene (sp). It has anti microbial properties in it and basically pulls away dead tissue and keeps just the living tissue. So we coat this ribbon with this cream and then pack it down into the wound. This will keep the wound open and promote healing from the bottom up. He is worried that it might not be healed even deeper, but he didn't want to mess with it too much yet. The problem he is also worried about is the easier chance of getting a hernia. I don't even want to go there!

Trever even got grossed out by the idea of packing this stuff into my body. Nothing grosses him out. There is no doubt that man loves me with the crud he has to deal with. He is such a trooper to keep it up with it all.

Today I went into the urologist. I had prepared myself to be re-admitted to the hospital after the appointment. Quick back story.. When I had the clogged catheter last week, the Dr that was in the office that day, took it out and out a new one in. The new one in was the kind with the balloon not the old school one that Dr hall originally wanted in. The balloon one is the one that poked the hole in the first place. Dr. hall thinks that might be what happened again this time. So he took the balloon catheter out today and put in a new one. The old school one. It has a smaller head on it. Confused? Yeah me too. Basically since my bladder is extra weak, they want to have the old school one in so that it won't irritate and puncture it. But other doctors don't know that and revert to the newer ones resulting in messing things up. Anywho, so I am on catheter number 4 since my first surgery. Grrrr.

He then took us in his office and explained all the details to us about what the cystogram showed. He said that basically I can't let the catheter get pinched off. No kidding he said it probably 20-30 times. Hahaha. If it gets pinched off then the bladder expands messing with the vaginal area. If the bladder and the vagina grow together, then they have to do surgery to separate them. So I can't let the catheter get kinked! If I do this, then the hole should heal on its own and we should avoid surgery.

Can I just say how thankful I am for your prayers!!! We dodged to major bullets so far. If I am a good girl, we should be able to avoid those two surgeries. I hate going under! I am going to fight to stay away from those ones. With that and lots of prayer, we should be good to go. So greatful for the miracle of being home with my family tonight and not being back in the hospital. I'm off to play a game with my girlie. Have a good one ya'll!

Oh ps... Caleb is now 5 lbs 2 oz and 18 inches long. Still no desire to take a bottle. Speech therapy will follow up with him probably Thursday just to check on progress. He is just holding out for me to heal a little ore, then we will all be together as a family!
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)