My story begins like many of the other
stories I've read on this site, 1st
trimester bleeding and even the passage
of some tissue. That was at 12 weeks.
After an ultrasound was performed and
our baby looked great we were reassured
that everything was fine. Not so.
On April 27th, I was 18.1 weeks along.
Feeling great, feeling the baby really
starting to move everywhere. Three
times during the day I felt like I had
leaked fluid. Oh, I should mention that
I am a Labor and Delivery nurse. Went
to get checked out by my Dr. and
everything looked good. We found out we
were having another son, Mason would be
his name, and he was swimming in fluid.
I guess I was crazy.
Went on to work, still felt like I was
leaking, but then it happened a huge
gush of fluid that was running down my
leg. That was on a Friday. After
spending the weekend in the hospital on
bedrest, antibiotics, IV fluids, by
Monday my fluid was zero. Seeing our
son go from swimming to squashed was gut
wrenching to see.
We had two consultations from 2
different perinatologists that weekend,
one of whom I knew from my job. Neither
had good news: <5% chance of
re-sealing, about a 90% chance of
getting an infection, about a 90% chance
of miscarrying within 2 weeks, about a
20% chance of survival if we made it to
viability, joint contactures, smooshed
facial features, and of course the
biggest concern hypoplastic lungs.
Although we were never advised to induce
we kind of felt like that was the
message we were getting from everybody.
But I got the best peice of advice from
my midwife, "when you don't know what
to do don't do anything at all"
So we left the hospital not knowing
what to do and pregnant and just hoping
that whatever was supposed to happen
would happen. I prayed and prayed
sometimes not even knowing what to pray
for and then Tuesday night, 5 days after
my water broke it came to me so clear at
3am. My baby was moving like crazy and
I really hadn't felt much movement
since water broke. Laying there, awake
and crying, I felt a strong urge to go
into my 2 year old sons bedroom. I
looked at him, so beautiful and
innocent, would do anything to protect
him from harm, and I thought "I have
another son and I have to protect him."
So I continued on being pregnant,
hoping for a miracle, but still leaking
fluid. When I was 20 weeks pregnant I
heard about a Perinatologist in
Lexington,Ky that was performing an
investigational procedure to try to
create a seal to prevent fluid leaking
out. I got in contact with him and had
a consultation and found that I was a
candidate for the procedure(The AFI had
to be less than 2, again mine was zero)
The procedure consisted of a cerclage,
injecting gel foam into the uterus with
the goal being for it to settle in the
bottom of the wound near the cervix to
prevent leakage, and performing an
amnioinfusion. We thought our prayers
had been answered. Unfortunately, it
didn't seem it was going to be
successful for me. When I got out of
surgery I started having horrible
contractions and ended up on the very
nasty drug to stop labor, Mag Sulfate.
Five days later I left the hospital with
very little gel foam left inside, an AFI
of 2, and miracously still pregnant. I
continued on oral medication to stop
contractions and antibiotics and of
course bedrest and plenty of fluids.
Everything was kind of status quo for
the next 2 weeks then at 22 weeks I
started bleeding. I was devasted to
find out that the bleeding was from the
placenta. I thought how much more can
this little guy take.
At 23 weeks we went back to Lexington
and my AFI was 0.8cm so we had another
amnioinfusion perfomed. After 5 shots
of Brethine and an AFI of 4, we headed
back to Cincinnati.
At 24 weeks the bleeding starts again
and my OB decides its time to turn me
over to the high risk docs for good. I
was admitted to a level 3 hospital for
the duration. I was no longer in
control and things just went down hill
from there. Scare of infection,
contractions, mag sulfate, bleeding.
But after a week of being there things
seemed to be getting better. My temps
were normal, my contractions were under
control with mag, brethine, and
procardia, the bleeding was less, and
Mason was moving a lot. I was 25 weeks
and felt like I would be pregnant for
several more, I was having a good day so
I thought. Around 4:00 I felt a lot of
bleeding, called the nurse, and thank
god she thought to check Mason's
heartbeat and it was 70 (half of what it
should be)doctors and nurses came
running and the next thing I knew I was
being rushed to the operating room. I
awoke a little over 2 hours later in
recovery room with my family there and
was told that 50% of my placenta had
tore away(placenta abruption) and I had
a very sick 1lb 12oz son. He was in
very bad shape at birth, his lungs were
so bad it took ten minutes to be able to
properly get oxygen to them and his
heartrate at birth was 20 and it took
four doses of epinephrine to get his
heart going. My husband and family were
told Mason wouldn't make it through the
night.
Mason is now 7 weeks old and although
progress has been slow its better than
no progress at all. He was a special
ventilator called an oscillator for a
week, then he went on CPAP which
provides a constant amount of airway
pressure to keep the small sacs in his
lungs open but he does all the breathing
on his own. He has terrible reflux and
has to be tube fed into his intestines,
but he's up to 2lbs 5oz. He does have
contractures in his arms and legs that
he gets physical therapy on. He is
absolutely beautiful and so sweet. We
of course don't know the long term
outcomes yet. He does have lung disease
which he'll outgrow and there has
already been some discussion about
cerebral palsy but it doesn't even
matter. What matters is that he is
here. His existence can only be
explained as a miracle.
Having gone through this I want to
offer some advice to those struggling
now with PROM: Don't make any
decisions until you are out of the
hospital, speak to a perinatologists and
more importantly a Neonatolgist(they
were the only ones that gave me any
hope), insist on staying on antibiotics,
find a perinatologists that will do
amnioinfusions(even though you risk
labor, I'm convinced that my son's
lungs are functioning because of having
fluid on 2 occasions for short periods
of time), insist on admission to the
hospital when you reach 24 weeks, learn
about placenta abruption it's very
common in PROM, and read and re-read the
survival stories on this site(it gives
hope that you to will have a baby) If
any of you reading my story would like
to contact me by email please do.
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