On Saturday, January 19th I thought that I had lost my mucous plug right before bed, and I was also leaking fluid. Being a first time mom, I wasn’t sure if my water had broke, so first thing Sunday morning I called my specialist's office to let them know and see if I should go in. The doctor told me over the phone that everything sounded normal, and that I might just be leaking urine. She said I could go to the ER if I wanted, but she thought that I should just wait until my appointment the next day.
On Monday, January 20th, I went to their office, and after a few tests, turns out my water had broken Saturday night. They took me via ambulance to Indianapolis. When I arrived at IU Health, they gave me pitocin to help the labor along since I was only dilated about 3cm.
Tuesday was very fuzzy for me, but here is what I remember. They gave me more pitocin, my contractions were extremely strong so they gave me the epidural around 10 am since it “wouldn’t be much longer” before I’d start pushing. The anesthesiologist gave me the epidural saying that I did very well because it only took him three minutes to do it, when it usually takes a half hour or more to do an epidural. The pain went away for about an hour or so, and then came back very fast. The anesthesiologist gave me more drugs through my IV, which again faded after about an hour. So he gave me more. This continued for hours. About 10 pm I was dilated to 9cm, so they told us to call our family back because it wouldn’t be long. At this point, I still had not seen any high-risk doctor, or anyone who would potentially be delivering my baby.
Around midnight, they did an ultrasound to see how David was doing. His head was turned, but they told me it was time to start pushing. The drugs they were putting in my body weren’t working, but they kept giving me more. The anesthesiologist said that the amount he had given me would “numb a horse,” and that I must just have an unusually high pain tolerance.
I pushed for about six hours, and while I was pushing, the room was insane. Doctors were yelling at each other, anesthesiologists were yelling at each other, and I was screaming at everyone. The nurses kept telling me how well I was doing, while reaching their hand up my vagina to try to turn his head. I still had not seen the actual high-risk doctor. My mother overheard the team of anesthesiologists saying that they weren’t going to give me any more drugs other than Tylenol, but not to tell me.
I told them I couldn’t push anymore. I asked about a c-section. They told me that I could have a c-section, but then said that both mine and my baby’s survival rates would drop, and they tried to talk me out of it. Knowing that my body couldn’t take any more, I said I wanted to have it. At this point, my vagina was so swollen it was almost a foot wide. One of the nurses mentioned that it was the worst she had ever seen.
At 9:32 Wednesday morning, I finally had my son. The c-section was fast, only 20 minutes since they didn’t know what the drugs had done to my body and they didn’t want me to go under anyway. After I woke up, they had me use the incentive spirometer, but then it sat on a table for the next few days since I didn’t know I was supposed to be using it and I was still groggy from all the drugs. The nurses never told me that I should be using it.
On Thursday the doctors told me that with his head turned the way it was, there was no way he would’ve come out vaginally. We also had the team of anesthesiologists coming in to kiss our ass and “see if they could make my stay more comfortable.” They also said the amount of drugs they had given me should have killed me.
That night when the doctor checked my uterus, she found a softball size blood clot. She reached her hand up my vagina and I had to push like I was in labor again to get it out. After the blood clot came out, they told me my levels were low, so they gave me a blood transfusion and I got two bags of blood.
My body was also filled with so much fluid from the pregnancy and my IV, my thighs, calves and ankles were three times their normal size, and I had had no swelling throughout the pregnancy. I kept asking if I could have a diuretic or something, and they kept saying no and that it was very normal.
I was discharged Saturday morning. At this point, I still couldn’t walk more than 10 feet, and I even needed my husband to help me walk that far. I also had not had a bowel movement yet.
Saturday night and Sunday night, I would feel like I was going to stop breathing when I would lie down. I was also having extreme headaches and fevers. Monday morning I went back to IU where a doctor checked me out and said everything sounded normal and fine, even though I told her I was having breathing issues and a fever. My swelling had not gone down any and I still couldn’t walk on my own, so I asked again about a diuretic and she said no.
That night my breathing was even worse, and I was actually scared to fall asleep fearing that I wouldn’t wake up. I called the doctor back Tuesday morning, and she just told me to quit taking my pain meds, as they could cause respiratory issues.
Later that day, I got another awful fever and went back to the hospital. They decided to readmit me. After doing a chest x-ray and some other tests, they thought I had an extremely rare heart condition, and told me they thought my heart was failing and they needed a cardiologist to come do an ECHO on my heart. I asked how serious it was, and I was told that I should call my husband. I asked them if I was going to die, and they said “it’s an extremely serious condition, but luckily you’re in a great hospital.” I had continued asking about a diuretic, and finally they gave me a lasik right before the cardiologist came in. The cardiologist said my heart looked great, and that night I peed out over 10lbs of fluid. I lost another 10lbs over the next day, and I’ve been fine since then.
I apologize if this is somewhat choppy, but the whole ordeal was a complete blur. My experience with IU was complete hell, and I wouldn’t go back even if my life depended on it. I also feel that every decision they made was bad and extremely harmful to my health. The absolute worst part of the whole situation was that since I never knew if I was sick because of the fevers, swelling, headaches, pain, and just not knowing what was going on with me, I wasn’t able to see my son in the NICU for almost a week, and it almost killed me.
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