Saturday, April 6, 2013

I'm still pregnant with an IUD


I have a new update about my IUD pregnancy!  Here's a lot of reading if you aren't already up-to-date with my situation.

Part one: http://shayztar.blogspot.ca/2013/01/pregnant-with-iud.html
Part two: http://shayztar.blogspot.ca/2013/01/time-to-enjoy.html
Part three: http://shayztar.blogspot.ca/2013/02/iud-pregnancy-update.html
Part four: http://shayztar.blogspot.ca/2013/03/time-for-another-update.html

Since the last blog entry, I've had another ultrasounds and a couple more OB appointments.  I didn't rush to update here because everything is still exactly the same.  Thank God and everything else involved in helping me out.  The IUD is still at the top of my uterus, and every time I see my OB he loves telling me that he is less and less concerned.  He said that the IUD appears to be pinned between my amniotic sac and uterus now, and I might be relieved from pelvic rest soon.

In other news, I have hired a doula to help with with birth support.  I am very excited!  I decided to choose a doula instead of a midwife because I have too many medical issues involved with giving birth that I didn't want to involve another medical person.  I haven't mentioned before, but I have a borderline blood condition called Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura,or ITP for short.  Sounds nasty, doesn't it?  It's basically low platelets in the blood.  My platelets hover right around the level where it could cause a problem.  But has never actually dipped low enough while pregnant to cause a problem.  The impact is that my baby might have low platelets when born (because of me), which means that the delivering doctor will never be allowed to use
a vacuum on the baby's head.  It would kill the baby (shudder) because the baby wouldn't have enough platelets to repair the bleeding in it's head and that would cause bleeding in the brain.  If they are too low I can't have an epidural either.  This time I don't want one, so I don't care.  Because of all of this, I have to get monthly blood tests, then bi-weekly, closer to birth in order to verify any trends.  My OB has delivered my other babies, and he is very familiar with my medical issues, including the IUD.

I went off topic there, sorry.  So, I hired a doula.  It's very exciting for me because I want a natural drug-free birth this time around.  If you are curious why, I have previously posted a blog about my epidural headache.  After the headache, I started seeing a massage therapist for help working free the scar tissue between my spine vertebrae.  I even let her do acupuncture on me.  It was amazing.  I have been seeing her for regular, insurance covered massages ever since.  I would like to think that her and I have become friends.  After I found out that I was pregnant, my friend had a dream that I had a boy, and that she was in the delivery room standing beside me.  She told me that I had the most amazing smile on my face.  I thought that was very sweet.  A few weeks later, I told her I was researching doulas, and she gave me some advice.  I asked her how she knew so much, and she reminded me that her massage specialty is prenatal massage, with birth support.  She told me this before, but I put it out of my head because, well, I wasn't ever planning on having another baby.  She told me she is technically not a doula because she didn't take the weekend course required to get the certification.  But she did some of her interning at a hospital, and she works with the Mennonites in her area.  Since all I am looking for is someone to rub my back, remind me of breathing, and make me laugh, I think she would be perfect for the job!  And as she nicely reminded me after I told her I wanted her to be there for birth, "who better than the person who rehabbed you from your epidural injury to remind you why you don't want another epidural."  Too right!

When I told my OB that I hired a doula, he made a pained face.  He told me that some doulas come into the delivery room acting like they have doctorates and start making decisions for the patient.  When I explained what I wanted her there for, and that I've known her for years, he broke out into a huge smile and told me that he would be perfectly happy having her in the room in a friend/support capacity.  He did tell me that she should not come into the hospital telling people she's a doula, because it causes problems with other staff too.  Holy red tape and silly politics.  But I get it.

Speaking of epidural, my OB wanted to tell me that if something happens in birth that requires an epidural, like an emergency c-section for example, then I will be left with no choice.  He also told me that since I am farther in the pregnancy now, he wanted to talk just a little bit about his concerns about the IUD post birth.  He said that if the IUD doesn't come out behind the baby, he says he might have to "fish around" for the strings, and that it might really hurt.  Eek!  Then he said that he hopes it comes out with the placenta.  His biggest concern is that it might break the placenta during birth, and leave some placenta inside that I won't be able to birth.  If that's the case, I would need surgery.  I asked him if he could just flat out put me out for that, and he said he could, but he didn't want to get into too many details yet.  He just wanted to give me a heads up.  He said the last situation is that everything comes out properly except for the IUD, but he didn't want to discuss that with me yet.  For goodness sake.  I have enough worries!  But I do know that if an IUD is embedded in a uterus, then a woman needs a laparoscopy surgery to have it surgically removed.

And for some GOOD NEWS!  After my anatomy scan, it has been confirmed...


We are very excited!  It makes the kids future sleeping arrangements very easy.  Now to think of a name.  This time I have to let my husband feel like he chose it since I named my other kids with little input from him. Fair's fair!

I have another ultrasound in 2 weeks.  By the time my baby is born, I am going to have a really cool collection of ultrasound progression pictures.

Thanks for reading!  Again, I am very happy to give any ray of hope to anyone in this same scary situation.  And thanks to all of my friends and family who read my blog after my post in the IUD and Pregnant Facebook support group splashed across everyone's newsfeed.  Your support and kind words have meant a lot to me.

2 comments:

  1. Congratulations on having another boy!!! That's so exciting, and I'm sure you still have a lot of boy stuff in the house. :) So glad you are still feeling ok and everything is progressing well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I passed a note to you on babycenter....:)

    ReplyDelete