The Glycerin Magic Plaster

At 4pm Saturday 14th November, Clare had booked for me to go to the cinema as a little treat but had started to feel extremely tired so I told her to go to bed and I would stay home.  I tend to go to the cinema most Saturday nights whilst X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing are on TV as I am not a fan of this tripe TV, but after the water infection incident I am a little cautious sometimes to venture out and into mobile silence for a couple of hours whilst Clare is feeling under the weather.

A couple of hours later Clare came into the front room and lay on the couch in preparation for some ballroom action only to feel something was not quite right.  On inspection she noticed a brown mucus discharge that looked a little like old blood.  Without hesitation Clare was on the phone to Maternity Triage and I was frantically throwing clothes, supplies and a pack of cards into a bag.  Minutes later we were being admitted into the central delivery suite as a precautionary measure.

At 8pm the doctors in CDU did an examination of the cervix and determined that the cervical stitch that had been put in a couple of week ago had caused a rupture on the Anterior Cervical Lip.  This would need to be padded to stop the bleed and assessed further once the hemorrhage stopped.  As Clare is on blood thinning injections due to her Factor V Leiden the bleeding was adamant not to stop but after a good hour and lots of cotton pads the wound seemed to be clotted.

Clare was advised to rest for an hour and then see how things go.  At 10pm Clare got out of the bed to use the toilet but was rushed back into bed as the wound had seemingly opened again.  This is when things got a little serious.  The doctors told us that the stitch was causing the rupture and will more than likely have to be removed if they could not seal the bleed.  As they could not confirm 100% where the bleed was coming from they may have to deliver baby for safety of mother and child.  Clare was again advised to rest and see if the bleeding stopped and try to move in another hour to see the result.

After another long hour, Clare followed the instructions and stood up once more and headed towards the bathroom...no blood.  She then used the facilities and all seemed ok. On her way back to the bed it happened all over again.  Doctors rushed in and this time seemed more equipped.  This time the applied a glycerin mesh to the wound which would act as a sponge but also secure itself to the rupture and hopefully seal.  This was after they tried cauterising and applying another stitch, both of which were unsuccessful, adamant not to remove the cervical stitch this was our best hope.

At 3am Clare stood up after resting for a further hour, no blood, went to the toilet, nothing, maybe the little gel patch had worked it's magic.  We settled in for the night, Clare in her comfy(ish) bed and me with my ridged chair, it was going to be a long night.

The morning came too soon and observations were done.  No bleeding, the glycerin magic was doing it's sole purpose and doing it well.  We were both just drained of energy.

Clare was moved to ward M2 in the evening to stay a further night with observations and the second steroid injection.  We had been on this ward only two weeks prior with the stitch operation.  Staff were becoming a little too familiar, but we cannot thank them enough.

We are not just short of 25 weeks in and have seen more hospitals, doctors and scans than ever but Baby Sparkles is still doing great, parents are struggling but focusing on the same end goal.  We will keep fighting, we will keep strong for each other and when Sparkles finally decides to join us in person he/she will be treasured forever knowing how much suffering, both mentally and physically, we have been through to this point.

Another Major Milestone

Another Major Milestone

Even though Clare's new stitch had gone in place without any hiccups we were still nervous waiting for the 24 week scan.  As we approached the reception desk we were greeted by a familiar "Hello". The staff had become accustomed to our regular visits and started to recognise us.  I don't know if this is a good thing, but as the staff are fantastic and so helpful I am regarding it as a positive.

Having an earlier than usual appointment, we were called into the scan room within minutes of arrival and the scan commenced.  Now I know I am not trained in any way about looking at scan pictures, but I feel that the amount of these scans I have attended, I am getting a little knowledge of what things look like.  The new stitch was really prominent and seemed like a cable tie at the head of the cervix, and the funneling which I had seen time and time again seem to be gone, but I had to asked to confirm my findings.

The sonographer was more amazed by the stitch itself, she had not seen one like this before.  The cervix wall had increased to 3.4cm and the funneling had disappeared.  Clare and I could breath a little, the stress, panic, worry, anxiety of the last 6 weeks had gone.

20 minutes later we were in the clinic meeting to confirm the scan findings.  Happy with how the cervix was looking and the increase that was evident we were told that the regular two week scans are now being increased to monthly scans.  Our next scan at 28 weeks will be solely for a growth check on baby.

We were also given dates of importance, at the 33 weeks stage Clare will start a course of steroids to help baby grow stronger and at 36 weeks the stitch will be removed.  Normally when the stitch is removed baby is quick to follow, but just to be safe we are booked in for inducement at 38 weeks which will be the 16th February 2016.

After our great news, we purchased our first outfit for Baby Sparkles and started looking through the boxes that went into my parents loft a couple of years ago.  Clare is now talking about baby and feeling as though she can start to bond, something that she has feared doing since we found out out our blessing.