Day After Surgery Update

The day after surgery had some ups and downs associated with it. The day started off well. When I got to the hospital things were well. Rosie was a bit sore, but nothing too bad. She was taken off her firm bedrest and was allowed to get up and go to the bathroom. Later in the day she was also allowed to take a shower, she was taken off all of the monitors, and she was taken off of the IV as well.

We went down for an ultrasound late in the morning. This ultrasound was to determine if the amniotic fluid had started returning to normal levels after being high yesterday. During this ultrasound it was expressed to us by the sonographer that she "could not see a good pocket of amniotic fluid." She mentioned that this could be a very urgent issue so she called our doctors right away and sent us back to the room.

At that point, Rosie and I both had a feeling that we may be parents starting today. However, once we talked with the doctors it became clear the issue wasn't super urgent. Instead, the doctors felt that one of the three holes in the uterus (created during the procedure) had not closed up yet and that the amniotic fluid was leaking into the abdomon. They sent us back down for another ultrasound, this time to check the abdomon for any abnormalities. That ultrasound showed no significant pockets of fluid either. This is actually a good thing as the body was doing a good job of dispersing the fluid throughout the body so it could be absorbed.

As the day went on Rosie got more and more uncomfortable in her abdominal area. This can be attributed to the fact that the spinal given for the surgery takes 24 hours to wear off and was now completely worn off. She was feeling a combination of things such as the effects of having an incision, the muscles that were stretched during the attempt to change the babies position, being pregant and in bed all day, and of course the baby was constantly elbowing and kicking in this area as well.

The afternoon ended well. The surgeon came in and explained to us that the loss of amniotic fluid would not necessarily stop us from going home next week. The doctors examined Rosie and determined that she was not showing any signs of going into labor anytime soon, and they also stopped the medication to prevent contractions

The plan going forward is that we will have another ultrasound tomorrow to check progress of the amniotic fluid. If there are not any abnormalities in that ultrasound and Rosie is doing well, Rosie will be discharged from the hospital tomorrow as well. We will then return to our apartment until Monday, when we have another ultrasound. That ultrasound will be a complete ultrasound. If that ultrasound also goes well, we will return home to Michigan on Tuesday. On Monday, we are hoping to hear how much lung growth was gained by having this procedure done.