in the postpartum ward
After a flood scare from the two typhoons that passed by our province, I was all energized and enthusiastic because of the sunny Wednesday. I was awakened by a visit from my eldest brother and was bragging to him my newly-acquired waterbed :) when my dad came over to the house and was looking for Sarah. I asked why and he said he needs her to text someone to send a tricycle over to take my little nephew to the hospital. My nephew's parents brought him down from the village at my request but after one night with us, he began to develop a fever. So Bong volunteered to take them to the hospital.
Alone in the house, I forced myself to eat breakfast so I can take my meds and was waiting for Bong to come home so he can help me to the bathroom. (Yes, at this point, I need help getting out of bed and taking a bath cuz bending or anything that puts pressure on my lower abdomen hurts a lot and aggravates bleeding. But while lying flat on my back, I suddenly felt my lower tummy tightening and when I turn to my sides, it would relax but then it would tighten again. This was not new to me. This was the same thing I experienced before, but this time, I waited and waited for the tightening and then relaxing for a few moments and then tightening again to stop but they came more frequent and in short intervals. It was followed by a lot of bleeding and by this time, I heard Bong pulled up in the front yard. He came to the door and caught me in the nick of rearranging my face so he won't panic, not that he is the panicky kind... just that I did not want him to have any reason to insist on taking me to the hospital. :) But he saw the 'red flood' anyway. I asked him to help me to the shower. I sat on the seatee for half an hour at least trying to drain the red away but I was beginning to get dizzy so I took a quick shower and lie on the sofa with my feet propped up on pillows, the contractions still becoming stronger. As an SOP, we texted my OB reporting that something same as before was going on with me and that I still have some of the uterine muscle relaxant she prescribed before. This time she didn't buy my report and my suggestion, instead she told me to get to the hospital right away and that she thinks this is not good.
We arrived at the hospital and went straight to the OB-ER. Later, we learned that you're not supposed to do that. Bong actually got a major scolding because of this. They said you should register at the front desk and then they'll tell you where to go. Anyway, we were waiting there for a quarter of an hour and I was developing a terrible headache. I texted my dr asking where she is and that if she's still in her clinic in Solano, then we'll go to her, but she replied that she's in the hospital having a meeting. At that moment, a lady in scrub suit came and ask who is Mrs . Lumawan. Apparently, she was a resident physician sent by my OB to do the prelim exam on me. While I was getting on the exam table my OB came and she did the pelvic exam herself.
The diagnosis was threatened abortion, but for some reason my cervix was very closed... no dilation however minute at all. First great news. But still, both the consultant and the resident physician were not confident about anything, with the blood that I was losing and the fact that my answer to the question "Have you felt baby movements at all in the last few days or hours?" was I'm not sure. That's because all that has registered in my mind was the painful tightening and big blood clots. So they rallied everyone to prepare me for surgery (if needed to stop the bleeding) or a dilatation and curettage (D&C) if the baby is already dead. It was a flurry of activities in the room and I felt like I was just an specter watching the scenes unfold from a distance. They told Bong to buy this and that, hooked me on an IV, wheeled me to the lab for blood works in case I'll need a transfusion, told Sarah to go down the pharmacy to buy a nail-polish remover (yes, I had my nails done the day before and I had a nice shiny purple nail-polish on. So when I heard surgery mentioned, my first thought was, "Aww, they're gonna ruin my nails again!!!")
But before they slice me or empty my womb, whatever procedure they think is necessary, they put me on a wheelchair and took me to the ultrasound room. A lady doctor came and did the sonogram on me and the first thing she showed me on the monitor was a little heart beating so strongly and then a little foot kicking. The nurse called my OB, told her the news and my doctor came to the room very thrilled. At this time, I was still dreading the procedures that they were going to do on me. But when the doctor came in all smiles and even clapping, that was the only time it registered in my mind that my baby is still alive. The doctor told me that she's still keeping me in the hospital to get more fluids into my body to help the oligohydramnios. She called someone to wheel me into a room but there were no available semi- or private rooms so I was wheeled into the OB charity ward, a 12x15 room with at least 10 beds. Thankfully, the room was full so they had to take me somewhere else. I was taken into a room with another 8 beds but all the beds were empty. At last, I can tell Bong and Sarah that Junior is still alive and kicking literally.
The next morning, I waited for another ultrasound... an official one, where my baby's growth and my amniotic fluid pockets shall be measured. Family came to visit and Bong went home to take a shower and get his health insurance papers. My doctor came late in the afternoon but still we saw not even a shadow of the sonologist who's supposed to do my official scan. My dr called him a couple of times before she got an answer. He promised to come. At 4pm, I finally heard my name called and then someone put me on a stretcher to take me to the scan room. As I was being wheeled into the room, I did not pray for any miracle but I prayed that the Lord will give the doctor enough wisdom to make a correct visualization and diagnosis. While doing the scan, the sonologist kept saying things like, "What happened to this pregnancy? What are we to do with you? What did you do with your baby? etc, etc." So I came out of the scan room feeling defeated.
The scan revealed that I only have 1.9cm of water in each of the 4 pockets in the gestational sac. The normal should be at least more than 5cm on the deepest pocket. It also revealed that my baby who is supposed to be 20-week old is only as big as a 17 wk old. It was good to finally know all these. It made a big difference to know all the numbers and not just be told that my fluid is scanty or I don't have a bump that looks like I am almost 5 months on the way. The scan also showed a large mass that the doctor was puzzling about so much. He kept pointing the mass to me on the monitor but I don't have any idea what it is. The next morning, I asked my OB and she told me not to worry too much about it because it was never present in my previous scans so she is relatively sure that it must be a contraction that was captured during the scan. I didn't know a contraction can be captured in a scan but I do know that my womb kept on tightening even during the scan itself so maybe the mass was indeed a contraction.
After the scan, I messaged my OB and summarized to her all the things I heard about my scan and asked her to discharge me already cuz I can't stay one more night in the hospital. She wanted to keep me there for one more day until she comes to read my u/s results and so I could rest more but I said how in the world can a patient with threatened abortion rest in a postpartum ward, and that it's so hot, so many mosquitoes, and every other excuse I can come up with. I guess I was a brat, yes. :) (I even fast-dripped my IVF so it's consumed in no time so I could go home.) The OB gave up and told me to tell the resident doctor to make the order to let me go home, so Bong went to the nurses' station to ask them to discharge us. Unfortunately for me, the billing office closed at 4pm already so I just gritted my teeth and braced myself for another night of postpartal noise.
So I spent my two nights at the Veterans' Regional Hospital's Postpartum Ward. Postpartum refers to the state of a woman who just gave birth. As I said, I was the only one in the room at first but after an hour or two, two orderlies brought in a very big lady and laid her on the bed farthest from me, then on the second night, all the 8 beds were already occupied. Every time a new patient is brought in, many people would come talking and laughing loudly. I tried to sleep and not think about anything. Then a nurse would bring in a newborn after every two hours of wheeling in a mother. So the nights were full of happy family noise and baby screams. I was so sleepy both nights but couldn't take even a nap, what with the happy noise and screaming babies around me. So I just forced myself to imagine and tell myself that when my time comes, it will probably be like this, so every time I hear the baby screaming, I just smile. What I couldn't stand were the arguments between a mother and a mother-in-law trying to tell their daughter or daughter in law that this or that position is the best for the new mother, or she should eat this and not that, and many other superstitious stuff.
The next morning, my doctor woke me up at 6AM and told me that I may go home that day. Of course I was so thrilled although it wasn't until 12 noon that the papers and bills were sorted out and settled. My OB explained to me more about the result of my ultrasound, about what I should and should not do, she gave me new prescriptions and then she prayed for us. She is quite positive about the prognosis for this pregnancy even if every article and research I have been reading on the net about oligohydramnios was not very encouraging.
Again, it is the Lord who is forming, weaving and arranging every fiber of every part of my baby's body. There are no guarantees other than the fact that his little heart is still beating inside of me. We are taking one step at a time. If it is the Lord's will to let me carry this til October, then I'll wait happily until then. If along the way, God thinks it's better for Him to take this baby home to him right away, I'll be happy for that too.
In all this, I have seen how Philippians 4:7 has become practically real and true in my life. In my Kalanguya Bible it says, "Then if you do this (not being anxious and making known to God our petitions through prayer, with thanksgiving v.6), God will give you his peace, and this kind of peace is beyond what man is able to understand. And this peace of God will take care of your minds (thoughts) and your hearts in your-having-faith (in practicing your faith) in Christ Jesus."
Apparently, the best treatment for oligohydramnios is hydration and bed rest. I know I have been complaining about bed rest but honestly I haven't been truly bedresting. I've been going to meetings (well, just two), to garage sales (I went crazy and bought a truckload of books :) and walking around the property and telling people to clean this and that (although no one seems to be listening to me but my dad cuz he's the one doing all the cleaning around the houses :D).
But after coming home from the hospital, Bong has become more strict. He won't let me out the house not even to go to my sister's room (for fear that I'll fall on the steps again). They actually brought the Sunday meeting to my porch so I could worship with them. That was nice.
Please pray for my sister Sarah as she takes over most of the managerial tasks in our translation team. I'm still close by but Sarah's the one whose gonna make sure that everybody is in the office working. :) She will also be training our new team members who is going to do most of the backtranslating and comprehension checking. I've seen that she's enjoying the job already.
Alone in the house, I forced myself to eat breakfast so I can take my meds and was waiting for Bong to come home so he can help me to the bathroom. (Yes, at this point, I need help getting out of bed and taking a bath cuz bending or anything that puts pressure on my lower abdomen hurts a lot and aggravates bleeding. But while lying flat on my back, I suddenly felt my lower tummy tightening and when I turn to my sides, it would relax but then it would tighten again. This was not new to me. This was the same thing I experienced before, but this time, I waited and waited for the tightening and then relaxing for a few moments and then tightening again to stop but they came more frequent and in short intervals. It was followed by a lot of bleeding and by this time, I heard Bong pulled up in the front yard. He came to the door and caught me in the nick of rearranging my face so he won't panic, not that he is the panicky kind... just that I did not want him to have any reason to insist on taking me to the hospital. :) But he saw the 'red flood' anyway. I asked him to help me to the shower. I sat on the seatee for half an hour at least trying to drain the red away but I was beginning to get dizzy so I took a quick shower and lie on the sofa with my feet propped up on pillows, the contractions still becoming stronger. As an SOP, we texted my OB reporting that something same as before was going on with me and that I still have some of the uterine muscle relaxant she prescribed before. This time she didn't buy my report and my suggestion, instead she told me to get to the hospital right away and that she thinks this is not good.
We arrived at the hospital and went straight to the OB-ER. Later, we learned that you're not supposed to do that. Bong actually got a major scolding because of this. They said you should register at the front desk and then they'll tell you where to go. Anyway, we were waiting there for a quarter of an hour and I was developing a terrible headache. I texted my dr asking where she is and that if she's still in her clinic in Solano, then we'll go to her, but she replied that she's in the hospital having a meeting. At that moment, a lady in scrub suit came and ask who is Mrs . Lumawan. Apparently, she was a resident physician sent by my OB to do the prelim exam on me. While I was getting on the exam table my OB came and she did the pelvic exam herself.
The diagnosis was threatened abortion, but for some reason my cervix was very closed... no dilation however minute at all. First great news. But still, both the consultant and the resident physician were not confident about anything, with the blood that I was losing and the fact that my answer to the question "Have you felt baby movements at all in the last few days or hours?" was I'm not sure. That's because all that has registered in my mind was the painful tightening and big blood clots. So they rallied everyone to prepare me for surgery (if needed to stop the bleeding) or a dilatation and curettage (D&C) if the baby is already dead. It was a flurry of activities in the room and I felt like I was just an specter watching the scenes unfold from a distance. They told Bong to buy this and that, hooked me on an IV, wheeled me to the lab for blood works in case I'll need a transfusion, told Sarah to go down the pharmacy to buy a nail-polish remover (yes, I had my nails done the day before and I had a nice shiny purple nail-polish on. So when I heard surgery mentioned, my first thought was, "Aww, they're gonna ruin my nails again!!!")
But before they slice me or empty my womb, whatever procedure they think is necessary, they put me on a wheelchair and took me to the ultrasound room. A lady doctor came and did the sonogram on me and the first thing she showed me on the monitor was a little heart beating so strongly and then a little foot kicking. The nurse called my OB, told her the news and my doctor came to the room very thrilled. At this time, I was still dreading the procedures that they were going to do on me. But when the doctor came in all smiles and even clapping, that was the only time it registered in my mind that my baby is still alive. The doctor told me that she's still keeping me in the hospital to get more fluids into my body to help the oligohydramnios. She called someone to wheel me into a room but there were no available semi- or private rooms so I was wheeled into the OB charity ward, a 12x15 room with at least 10 beds. Thankfully, the room was full so they had to take me somewhere else. I was taken into a room with another 8 beds but all the beds were empty. At last, I can tell Bong and Sarah that Junior is still alive and kicking literally.
The next morning, I waited for another ultrasound... an official one, where my baby's growth and my amniotic fluid pockets shall be measured. Family came to visit and Bong went home to take a shower and get his health insurance papers. My doctor came late in the afternoon but still we saw not even a shadow of the sonologist who's supposed to do my official scan. My dr called him a couple of times before she got an answer. He promised to come. At 4pm, I finally heard my name called and then someone put me on a stretcher to take me to the scan room. As I was being wheeled into the room, I did not pray for any miracle but I prayed that the Lord will give the doctor enough wisdom to make a correct visualization and diagnosis. While doing the scan, the sonologist kept saying things like, "What happened to this pregnancy? What are we to do with you? What did you do with your baby? etc, etc." So I came out of the scan room feeling defeated.
The scan revealed that I only have 1.9cm of water in each of the 4 pockets in the gestational sac. The normal should be at least more than 5cm on the deepest pocket. It also revealed that my baby who is supposed to be 20-week old is only as big as a 17 wk old. It was good to finally know all these. It made a big difference to know all the numbers and not just be told that my fluid is scanty or I don't have a bump that looks like I am almost 5 months on the way. The scan also showed a large mass that the doctor was puzzling about so much. He kept pointing the mass to me on the monitor but I don't have any idea what it is. The next morning, I asked my OB and she told me not to worry too much about it because it was never present in my previous scans so she is relatively sure that it must be a contraction that was captured during the scan. I didn't know a contraction can be captured in a scan but I do know that my womb kept on tightening even during the scan itself so maybe the mass was indeed a contraction.
After the scan, I messaged my OB and summarized to her all the things I heard about my scan and asked her to discharge me already cuz I can't stay one more night in the hospital. She wanted to keep me there for one more day until she comes to read my u/s results and so I could rest more but I said how in the world can a patient with threatened abortion rest in a postpartum ward, and that it's so hot, so many mosquitoes, and every other excuse I can come up with. I guess I was a brat, yes. :) (I even fast-dripped my IVF so it's consumed in no time so I could go home.) The OB gave up and told me to tell the resident doctor to make the order to let me go home, so Bong went to the nurses' station to ask them to discharge us. Unfortunately for me, the billing office closed at 4pm already so I just gritted my teeth and braced myself for another night of postpartal noise.
So I spent my two nights at the Veterans' Regional Hospital's Postpartum Ward. Postpartum refers to the state of a woman who just gave birth. As I said, I was the only one in the room at first but after an hour or two, two orderlies brought in a very big lady and laid her on the bed farthest from me, then on the second night, all the 8 beds were already occupied. Every time a new patient is brought in, many people would come talking and laughing loudly. I tried to sleep and not think about anything. Then a nurse would bring in a newborn after every two hours of wheeling in a mother. So the nights were full of happy family noise and baby screams. I was so sleepy both nights but couldn't take even a nap, what with the happy noise and screaming babies around me. So I just forced myself to imagine and tell myself that when my time comes, it will probably be like this, so every time I hear the baby screaming, I just smile. What I couldn't stand were the arguments between a mother and a mother-in-law trying to tell their daughter or daughter in law that this or that position is the best for the new mother, or she should eat this and not that, and many other superstitious stuff.
The next morning, my doctor woke me up at 6AM and told me that I may go home that day. Of course I was so thrilled although it wasn't until 12 noon that the papers and bills were sorted out and settled. My OB explained to me more about the result of my ultrasound, about what I should and should not do, she gave me new prescriptions and then she prayed for us. She is quite positive about the prognosis for this pregnancy even if every article and research I have been reading on the net about oligohydramnios was not very encouraging.
Again, it is the Lord who is forming, weaving and arranging every fiber of every part of my baby's body. There are no guarantees other than the fact that his little heart is still beating inside of me. We are taking one step at a time. If it is the Lord's will to let me carry this til October, then I'll wait happily until then. If along the way, God thinks it's better for Him to take this baby home to him right away, I'll be happy for that too.
In all this, I have seen how Philippians 4:7 has become practically real and true in my life. In my Kalanguya Bible it says, "Then if you do this (not being anxious and making known to God our petitions through prayer, with thanksgiving v.6), God will give you his peace, and this kind of peace is beyond what man is able to understand. And this peace of God will take care of your minds (thoughts) and your hearts in your-having-faith (in practicing your faith) in Christ Jesus."
Apparently, the best treatment for oligohydramnios is hydration and bed rest. I know I have been complaining about bed rest but honestly I haven't been truly bedresting. I've been going to meetings (well, just two), to garage sales (I went crazy and bought a truckload of books :) and walking around the property and telling people to clean this and that (although no one seems to be listening to me but my dad cuz he's the one doing all the cleaning around the houses :D).
But after coming home from the hospital, Bong has become more strict. He won't let me out the house not even to go to my sister's room (for fear that I'll fall on the steps again). They actually brought the Sunday meeting to my porch so I could worship with them. That was nice.
Please pray for my sister Sarah as she takes over most of the managerial tasks in our translation team. I'm still close by but Sarah's the one whose gonna make sure that everybody is in the office working. :) She will also be training our new team members who is going to do most of the backtranslating and comprehension checking. I've seen that she's enjoying the job already.
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