By Kristen Ross, Jonesboro, AR United States
PROM at 13 weeks + 2 days. Delivery at 20 weeks.
Story added: 2010-06-28

I had bled the first 7 weeks of this pregnancy then passed a blood clot the size of the palm of my hand and then stopped bleeding. We also found a 4x5cm fibroid tumor on my uterus, the baby and placenta were no where near the tumor. I pprom'd at home on April 23, 2010. My sister took me to the hospital where i spent 4 days. I was told i should induce bc the baby would have no chance of making it. Nobody could understand why i wasnt going into labor. The baby's heart beat was strong and there were no contractions. My husband asked the ob on call if he had ever seen this before. He said no, i told him he's never seen me before either and that as long a there is a heart beat there would be no induction. I was sent home after 4 days. I was to be on strict bedrest. I was also on oral antibiotics for 1 week. I immediately started searching on the Internet for information. I found this website along with other and placed myself on a strict regimen of vitamins, a healthy diet and trying to stay infection free through cleanliness, after i consulted my dr. I wanted to see a specialist. I was referred to a perinatologist. My first appt with him went well. The baby seemed to be doing well. There was only 1.5cm AFI. At my next appt 4 weeks later my sac had appeared to of healed bc i was holding a normal amount of fluid. I hadnt leaked in a couple of weeks. The peri had told us he thought i had a high leak. We were so happy, it was a miracle and we were thankful to God. We found out we were having a boy and that his feet were turned in a little from the time he had no fluid. We didnt care, we both would have carried him around on our back for the rest of our lives if we had to. His growth was right on target. Two days later on May 24th my water broke again and we were back at square one. This time it was harder on me emotionally. He still continued to do well. We had ordered a fetal heart doppler from the internet and checked his heart rate 2-3 times a day. It always stayed in the 150's. He moved all the time, it was comforting. On sat June 5th i woke up at 5:30am in pain. I thought it was the baby kicking a fibroid tumor i have on my uterus. The tumor had caused me some pain from time to time. Then over the next 15 min the pain became so severe i started vomiting. I had my husband call an ambulance. I started passing out as well. We would later find out that my son had fused to my uterus after being in there for a time with out fluid. So every time i would have a contraction it would pull my uterus down, too much pain for me to tolerate. Once they got me to the hospital they checked me and i was dilated 3cm. They gave me some pain med and did a bedside u/s and he had no heartbeat. My husband fell apart. It was all i could do to focus and comfort him. A short time later my water broke. There was a big gush so apparently i had been holding fluid. They then started pitocin and gave me an epidural. I passed out during it and then my blood pressure dropped to 60/36. The anest. gave me an epinephrine shot and i woke up and he told us that was a side effect and to not worry. After awhile we started to push. It was very painful despite the epidural. Nothing happened so the dr wanted to wait awhile and try again. The dr had asked us of we wanted to hold him, we did and we wanted our family to have a chance to hold him as well. When we tried again he just wouldnt come. I could feel the dr pulling him and he just wouldnt come. The dr said that we were not going to be able to hold him bc the labor was putting to much stress on him. We had to tell our family and they were crushed. The dr then said that he was going to do a d&c. I dont remember anything after that, i cant remember much before that either. It was 9pm when they took me down. It was only supposed to take 30-45 min. They didnt get started til 10 bc they couldnt get my blood pressure stable. They got done and finally were taking me to my room at midnight. As soon as they rolled me into my room i crashed. They pushed my family out, rolled in the crash cart and called a code. Turns out the dr had perforated the top of my uterus, he accidentally had cut a 2 inch cut in it. I was internally bleeding. It took about 20 min for them to get me stable and they let my family come in to see me. I was unresponsive, white as the sheet, my lips were blue, my skin was cold, and my abdomen was distended. They all put their hands on me said a prayer and they took me down for emergency surgery. Once they got me down there they put me on life support and then used a syringe and removed 2 two liter bottles of blood from my abdomen. They then cut open my belly button and pumped me full of gas so they could insert a camera to find the bleed. They located it, cut me from the belly button down. They ob sewed up the perforation and then sewed me up and they gave me 6 units of blood and plasma. I had lost nearly all of my blood. I woke up at 530am and i didnt know what had happened. I thought i was still in my room. I tried to talk and realized i couldnt bc my throat was sore. My dad and my husband finally told me what happened bc i had no idea. I was shocked but mostly felt bad for my husband. Losing his son then almost losing his wife. I spent 2 days in the critical care unit then they moved me back to my room. I stayed there for 2 more days and they dismissed me. I didnt feel like i was ready to go home. I got home and the next morning i started running a fever and vomiting. They admitted me back bc my white blood cell count was high. I was also having trouble breathing. They started me on IV antibiotics. They did a CT scan on my uterus and there was a 5cm hematoma over the injury. They didnt see any pockets of fluid or infection anywhere. I still kept running a fever and my red blood cell count started dropping so i had to have another blood transfusion. The dr ordered a CT scan of my chest since i was having trouble breathing. To make sure that i didnt have a blood clot from being on bedrest. I didnt have a blood clot but i had pneumonia in my right lung from being on life support and on bedrest for 6 weeks. They started me on 2 more IV antibiotics and breathing treatments. I was kind of relieved bc the pneumonia was probably causing the fever instead of an infection some where. I continued to get better and finally got to go home after 2 weeks. We are thankful for the time we had with our son. He brought so many wonderful things to our lives and we give God all the glory. He brought some of my estranged family together. He brought my husband and i closer and closer to God. We named him Mason Wiley Ross. This has been a beautiful experience bc we have got to see great displays of everyone's faith and love in God. I experienced what it feels like to be a mother to my hero, and feel the presence of God. We looked forward to holding Mason in our laps and telling him about God. Now God holds him in his lap and tells him about us.