Why I'm Home From the Hospital Again - Part II

I'm sorry this is so late -- here is part two of the story as to why I was home from the hospital again...

Once I was brought up to OB, the doctor we bothered at 4:00 am (Dr. Schaffer) came up to see me. She said that she had called Dr. Morrison, the doctor who performed my c-section to see if she could recall anything out of the ordinary during my c-section that could help solve the mystery of why I was in so much pain. Dr. Morrison said that Baby A (Abby) was so low that she had to move my bladder to get her out of me. So it was Dr. Morrison's recommendation that they repeat the CT and look at my bladder. Dr. Schaffer said that the CT had to be redone with contrast, so I would end up having to pump and dump, but at this point I was up for anything that was going to take away the pain.

Twenty minutes later I was on my way back down to CT for a repeat test -- this time with contrast. The tech who did the exam was someone I knew, he too had twins -- so he spent the next few minutes giving me lots of twin parent advice as he waited for the contrast to take effect. He watched every little movement I made to make sure I wasn't having a reaction to the contrast. Soon the test was complete and I was on my way back up to OB.

When I returned to my room, Geoff was gone - he had gone to feed the girls. I told him that it was important that he go be with them rather than wait in the room for me -- I wanted at least one of us to see the girls every day. Within the hour, I had the results from the CT -- I had a hole in my bladder and I had urine leaking into my abdomen. Once the diagnosis was confirmed, every doctor and nurse who saw me said "oh yeah -- urine in your abdomen is like battery acid; it causes excruciating pain." Like anyone had to tell me that -- I lived it; I knew.

It was determined that my hole was a "slow leak" so it was not something that needed to be repaired that night. My OB contacted a Urologist for a consult and she said he would be by in the morning to see me. In the meantime, he ordered a catheter be placed to keep my bladder from filling up and some medication to reduce bladder spasms. My nurse quickly put the Foley in place -- great, another catheter, I just had one of these less than a week ago. But if it kept my bladder from leaking into my belly, I could live with it.

About an hour later, my nurse came back into my room with wonderful news. The Urologist ordered a larger catheter -- so she needed to remove the one she had placed earlier and replace it with an enormous one (her words, not mine). Great -- just what I needed; and I just got used to having a catheter in again, now I had to go through it all over again. The nurse had to call the charge nurse to assist her in placing the much larger catheter -- nobody had seen such a beast before and I wasn't feeling so sure of the charge nurses ability to place the biggie cath, but I tried to relax as best I could. Once it was in place I thought that there was no way I was going to get any sleep that night. This thing felt like I had the jaws of life attached to my urethra -- not a very pleasant feeling. But again, as long as it kept my bladder empty -- the pain should stay away. Thank God.

I felt sad that night as I thought about the day -- it was the first day since the girls were born that I did not see them. I knew that it was for the best, since I was in no shape to make the journey down the hall to see them. I knew that once I was better, I could start making visits to the nursery again. Little did I know, the nurses in the Special Care Nursery were working on a plan for me. At around 12:30 am, I heard a knock on my door. I was awake, so I told whomever it was to come in. I looked toward the door and expected to see a tech walk in ready to take my vitals -- it was my tech, but she was not here for my vitals. She and a nurse were pushing a crib into my room while the nurse said "we thought you might feel up to a visit." My surprise immediately turned to disappointment (I didn't have my contacts in so Ii really couldn't see much), but they obviously had the wrong room, so I broke the news to them. "I think you have the wrong room -- my babies are in special care and aren't able to come out." To which they replied, "no -- we have the right room" -- just then I saw that there were two little babies bundled up inside the crib -- I immediately started to cry. "You have two babies in there -- my babies?" "Really?" I couldn't believe it. Both girls were taken off their IV's that day so it made it possible for the nurses to take them out to visit mommy. That night, I was able to hold both of my girls together at the same time. I was in heaven -- what a wonderful way to end a pretty crappy day.

I found out later that night that I had a nurse who didn't like to empty catheter bags -- and that made for a very uncomfortable night. Three times that night the pain returned -- each time the pain came back, I called the nurse. She would come in and tell me to hit my pain medicine button (which I already had done -- duh) and then reluctantly proceeded to empty by pee bag. It took me until after the third recurrence of the pain to realize that the pain would come back when my bag got full. With the bag full, the urine had nowhere else to go, so it collected in my bladder and then obviously leaked into my abdomen. So much fun. I asked if she could be a bit more proactive and maybe come to empty my bag again in about an hour, and rather than agree to that plan she told me to stop drinking so much water. Nice!

Early the next morning I was visited by Dr. Saffrin, the Urologist who was consulted on my situation. He told me that with bladder injuries there are typically two options for treatment. One was to keep the bladder empty and hope that the hole repairs itself. This would be a less invasive treatment option he said, but the downside was that he could not guarantee that the hole would stay repaired. It appears that my situation was caused by a weak point in the bladder that became a hole after the bladder became over-full. If the hole repaired itself, it is likely that this same scenario could repeat itself. I was not up for going through that pain again, so I quickly became interested in option two. Option two was to go in through my c-section incision and repair the hole in the bladder surgically. It would delay my recovery time, but this way he could guarantee that the hole was indeed fixed and that I would not have to go through all of this again after my girls got home. Definitely not something I wanted to endure -- so I knew that option two was the best option. Dr. Saffrin told me that he could do the surgery that afternoon. Thank God -- I couldn't endure another night of urine leaking into my abdomen. I was ready to put this situation behind me and began mentally preparing for my second major surgery in less than a week.

I of course don't remember anything about the surgery beyond being wheeled into the OR and being moved onto the operating table. I woke up in recovery groggy and sore. The procedure had been a success and I was again on the road to recovery. Once I got back into my room, Geoff shared the wonderful news that I would have to wear the ginormous catheter for seven days!!! What -- seven days with a catheter? I would have to wear it home? Wonderful! That news did not make my day, but I dealt with it. I reminded myself of the pain I endured and knew that it was all to help me recover, so I could be in one piece when the girls came home!

I stayed in the hospital for five days, and went home on Valentine's Day. That evening Geoff and I watched the news about the shootings at NIU (where Geoff went to college) and I was reminded that soon, our two beautiful girls would be home, and under our care. It would be up to us to keep them safe, healthy and happy -- it was a huge responsibility. On this day, there were parents who were going to be receiving the most horrific news possible; their child was hurt - or even worse, dead. It was out of their control -- nothing could be done to change things now, nobody could have known this was going to happen; it was a horrible tragedy. Throughout my pregnancy I was afraid of the unknown -- the things I could not see because everything was happening inside of me. I knew that this fear would go away with their birth, but it would be replaced by a new fear -- the fear of things you can see, but cannot control; otherwise known as parental fear. I was terrified of that fear, but I knew that the experience we were about to embark on was well worth it -- no matter what!