It turned out that my body did NOT want to behave itself and on tuesday I got taken to theatre for a general anaesthetic and an “Evacuation of Retained Products of Conception” (ERPC). This operation is also performed in the instance of miscarriages, in which case the name of the procedure is particularly upsetting and quite heartbreaking. It used to be called a Dilation & Curettage (D&C) and having spoken with people who were unfortunate enough to go through a miscarriage and need this operation, I think it would have been kinder and more humane, had they stuck with the original name. According to Wikipedia, this procedure is also used for abortions.
For those of you who would like to know more about the ERPC procedure, I found this link to be fully comprehensive – this was what I googled on my phone from my hospital bed.
Despite have general anaesthetics before (many as a child but only once as an adult), I was still very nervous about it. I think its harder to go in for anaesthetic as a fully aware adult, knowing the risks, when you have children you love and whom are dependant on you. Aside from which – as an adult you have to sign your own consent forms!
I kissed the twins and the porters wheeled me away on my hospital bed. I waved goodbye to my mum and shouted “I love you” across the hallway as she took the twins down in the lift to get some fresh air. I knew she’d get upset when I was out of sight as it would bring back bad memories of me going for anaesthetics as a child on Chemotherapy.
The surgery only took ten minutes and I was only unconscious for half an hour, although I was actually down in theatre and recovery for an hour and a half before they returned me to the ward, I was sleepy, hungry and thirsty but other than that felt fine. No pain. Before the anaesthetic they’d given me an injected painkiller which she said would be like drinking a triple G&T on an empty stomach. I have to admit, it did feel pretty good but it felt like multiple treble G&T’s (not that I’m a gin fan, I’d have gone for dark rum or brandy myself). Either way I felt VERY drunk. Bit of luck they put me out before taking me into the theatre as if I’d known it’d be THE FIT DOCTOR performing my surgery, the drunkeness may have made me say something inappropriate to him! … More on the FIT Doctor in another post! (Sorry Hubby – I still love you!)…
I was well enough to be discharged only four hours later and went home to be with my girls. I found out they removed “placental products” measuring 3.8 x 2.4 x 3.3 cm in three pieces. They class that as “small” despite that that is actually bigger than my ovaries and actually about a third of the size of my womb! I’ve no idea how they missed that before?!
I’ve been over cautious about everything since and havent left the house until today (Sunday) but even that was only to Argos and Sainsburys! I have a massive fear of the bleeding happening again but I just have to hope that it doesnt.
Thankyou once again to all my Twitter and Facebook friends for getting me through by messaging me kind words and thoughts. I Love You All! xxx
I am sorry this happened to you. Its quite traumatic I know, since I’ve been dealing with the same thing four over four months now. All the doctors I’ve seen and my GYNO have been utterly useless have acted as if I’m fine, bleeding ranging from spotting to heavy to pouring bright red blood constantly for an entire four months is quite normal according to them…idiots. Today marks the fourth occurence of daily debilitating severe abdominal cramping in an effort to pass retained tissue thus far (ive diagnosed myself since i cannot get my gyno to even run simple tests, he disregards everything i say as over reacting, and has decided he knows better w.o even examining me). Around the first of Jan 2013 I had a miscarriage and passed what I thought was all of it. It was relatively quick (5/6 hours) in which i was in excruciating pain and climaxed in this big GUSH of blood tissue etc. (It dropped into the toilet and i couldnt bear to inspect it, didnt really want to see it) It was a lot and the toilet water became solid red. In the following days the bleeding never stopped. However there was only mild to no cramping afterward so I thought I was ok.
Middle of february, still bleeding but I had the most intense pain and cramping consistently every day for about 5 days. What’s odd with these episodes are that I do not cramps until the evening 6/7 pm. During the day I’m fine but every night like clockwork the first cramp starts then rapidly progresses into severe pain, like somethings stuck and trying to come out. After about a week of the cramping i finally passed blood clots and this huge blood clot/livery looking thing that was dark red and smooth, almost slimy/shiny appearing (tmi I know, sorry for the graphic description). Because it was the size of my hand in height and shape and about 1/3 inch thickness, that worried me, I thought maybe I should see a dr. However since i had passed the tissue, I thought I’d be ok now and that was probably the last of it. Besides from 95% of what I’ve read online, when a woman’s having priblems with prolonged bleeding and cramping after any kind of miscarriage or abortion, the Doctors routinely tell them its normal, its natural, kind of the attitude of “I don’t care nor worry about it and ur wasting both of our times by being here…so I didn’t go.
Since then I’ve had two more episodes of passing large blood clots, also some small gray like tissue, and then about three weeks ago I had eased up on bleeding was barely spotting. Felt ok. Suddenly I have bright red blood absolutely pouring down my legs and splashing all over the tile floor (to a girl whos always been a mild bleeder with the lightest flow, thats terrifying). It was so severe I couldn’t stop it from gushing out. I’d be trying to clean the blood up off the floor while holding an entire wad of baby wipes under me to catch the blood still pouring out of me after already soaking through four tampons, an entire box of baby wipes (and half of another used to clean the floor up), and two hand towels, I was finally able to “plug the flow” (sorry, but for descriptive purposes, that’s correct) by holding a folded hand towel down there, inserting yet another new tampon and then pulling my pants and panties back on. What’s so troublesome about all this is that I wasn’t home when this happened. I had just stood up after laying in the tanning bed at the salon. So I had no one to call on to bring me a towel or this and that, and was left with cleaning up their floor so it didn’t look like I’d murdered someone while also trying to figure out how to stem the flow of blood with what I had available (thank God i had brought my tote bag with extra tampons, baby wipes, and towel which gave me enough time to get to my car and home without bleeding through the towel.) After i got home, the bleeding slowed dramatically. I figured because there wasn’t any blood left to bleed, regardless I was relieved it’d quit.
I have had one other episode of sudden severe bleeding since. The past week, I’ve had minimal bleeding but the most painful cramps I’ve ever experienced. Fine during the day and then they start every night at 6/7, they come on fast and quick and within twenty minutes of the first cramp I’m curled in a ball, thrashing, crying, and moaning. All that cramping and nothing more than a gel-y slime like bright red blood was produced. Oh and another useless visit to the gyno ( where they did nothing but a blood test and refilled my BC when I persisted that they do something to fix me).
Since the GYNO was useless and didnt fix nor treat the debilitating cramping im having, i took it upon myself too fix me- as they say, want something done youve got to do it urself. ..No way could i endure another day of it. I refilled my birth control, started hurting, took 3 pills (b/c i knew it should theoretically stop the bleeding therefore my cramping). Hour and half passes, the pains not as bad so i take 2 more. Next day, took 2. Pain is severe but not debilitating. 2 more the next day, mild cramping.
Day Four of my BC regimen, Fourth episode of terror and misery since my never ending miscarriage began Four and a half months ago:
Wake up, go to bathroom, sit on toilet, get another of those great “oh somethings coming out of me” feelings I’ve gotten familiar with since this ordeal began, and feel something pretty large and hard expel and fall into the toilet. Its fist sized, egg shaped, skin colored, hard mass of ?? Idk, that’s bloodied with deep dark red clotted, maybe even mottled would be a good term, blood surrounding one entire side of it. The side with the dark blood is as I said almost mottled in appearance or cratered, dimpled…the other side, when I (*this is gross I realize but no way was I not going to try to identify this foreign object I just birthed) picked it up out of the toilet, laid it on a cloth and flipped it over, was as I said fleshy pale colored and smooth almost compared with the other side. It honestly almost looks like a mass of skin that’s been compacted to the tiniest possible size (I’m guessing this is because it had to be smashed and squished before it’d ever be able to fit through my plumbing…) or maybe a better description (for an accurate visual) would be to say- picture an egg shaped, fist sized brain complete with the fleshy appearance and odd ridges/grooves running randomly through it. Yes that’s exactly what it looks like.
I figure since the GYNO has been utterly useless and disregarded all my concerns thus far, when I take my currently frozen, tupper-ware encased “bloody egg brain” to him on monday (its saturday now), that even with his arrogant god-like prescience and know it all, even he will have to listen this time to the ill advised illiterate peasant when she says “this isn’t normal, somethings wrong” and do his damn job.
I apologize for the length, I just wanted to tell my experience for those out there who are like me with no clue what’s going on, what’s normal and when to be worried or not, and without any help or references to guide them. I am surprised at the lack of medical help one can expect based on past experience and all the many comments and blogs I’ve read from others out there who were left like me, with no way to get help unless and until they were bleeding to death, fainting, had ruptured or torn something and dying. So I was left “googling” anything and everything, without much luck. There’s very few personal accounts and even less articles about what was happening to me and I just kept wishing I could find One person that had wrote about something similar and what it might be or gave me some insight. I thought if there’s someone else like me or you out there going through something similar, clueless and left searching google for medical advice because there are no other avenues available, that they might stumble upon this and realize what’s NOT normal, and demand that their doctors listen and do that ultrasound and that test or this test and LOOK for the problem, not ignore it. It couldve saved me 4 months and counting of misery.