Wednesday, October 13, 2010


Stephanie
Mom to Baby Eddie Davis, III
Born on Saturday, April 10th, 2010, Due on September 21st, 2010
Huntsville, Alabama

On the night of Saturday, April 3, 2010, I began to have lower abdominal pain.  Now I must inform you that this was my first pregnancy, so I had no idea of what to expect, or what to count as a red flag.  The pain was more annoying I thought than major enough for it to be a red flag.  The next day was Easter Sunday, and like most, I went to church service, and throughout service the pain was bearable, but strange.  The whole day, I kept wondering if this was normal.  I made it through Sunday.  Monday morning came and the pain had worsened so I called my OB/GYN.  I asked if they could please squeeze me in due to the pain I was feeling.  Thankfully they were able to see me.  My doctor checked my cervix and informed me that it was still thick and there was no dilating, he told me not to worry. He said it was probably round ligament pain, and to take an ibuprofen for pain.  I left my docs office, still in pain, but confident that my doctor’s words were true.   

Tuesday came and I was still in a great amount of pain.  I was in so much pain that I wasn’t able to get any sleep or do much eating.  Wednesday morning came and the pain hadn’t subsided, so I called my dr. once again.  The nurses called me back and told me that he wanted me to go to Labor and Delivery to be checked for Kidney Stones.   

I got to the hospital and they put me in a room.  They got me registered and hooked me up to a contractions monitor.  Luckily I wasn’t contracting even though I felt like I was.  They did blood work and set up an ultrasound.  One positive of that day was finding out that we were going to have a baby boy.  I was overjoyed!! And I had a feeling all along that we were having a boy.  The day went by and my doc finally came to see me and he told me that all of my blood work and the ultrasound looked good, and there weren’t any kidney stones.  He then told me that he thought my bowels were obstructed due to my abdomen being distended.  I told him that I wasn’t having any problems with bowel movements and I thought this was strange.  But he told me to take laxatives and stool softeners.  I left the hospital and went home, still in pain, but optimistic and confused all at the same time.  Little did I know that my weekend would be the worst weekend ever.  

By this time I had been out of work every day prior, due to the pain intensifying daily.  Thursday came and the pain wasn’t letting up.  Thursday night the pain was beginning to become unbearable so I went to the Emergency Room.  I got there and was seen by an ER doctor.  I explained to him the events of the week and what my GYN had told me.  Instead of him performing any tests or doing any exams, he quickly diagnosed me as being constipated.  He proceeded to give me an enema and laxatives, again.  For a split second I actually felt a small amount of relief, but that was over quickly.  They discharged me and I went back home.  Friday was the absolute worst pain I had ever experienced.  I realize that it is only by the Grace of God that I made it through the day.  Friday night came and I was still in an enormous amount of pain.  I did notice a small amount of blood in my urine.  I immediately called Labor and Delivery and spoke with a nurse.  I explained briefly to her the events of the week.  She told me, “You’re having a miscarriage; you need to come to the ER.”  I was so shocked to hear those words.  I grabbed my husband and told him we needed to go right away to the ER.  We got there and thankfully there wasn’t a crowd.  I had to use the restroom and I noticed more blood in my urine.  I informed the nurse, and I was placed in a room.  The first thing she did was check for a heartbeat.  I was extremely excited and optimistic when we were able to hear the heartbeat.  It was considered as regular and strong at 126 b.p.m.  I thought we were in the clear after this.  

 By this time I was having contractions, my husband was timing them; they were 2 ½ minutes apart.  Thankfully they gave me IV pain medication to alleviate some of the pain.  The doctor I saw that night seemed compassionate and slightly concerned, but the nurse, was just the opposite.  She was very rough with my body even though it was evident I was in a tremendous amount of pain.  I explained to her that my veins were a bit troublesome when it comes time for IV and such, but she was still very heavy handed.  Especially when she was attempting to insert a catheter into my vagina, she was very rough and in my opinion, not at all considerable of the pain I was in.  the doctor did numerous tests.  He did a vaginal exam and told me that my cervix was beginning to thin and that I was dilating.  He also did a rectal exam and I don’t understand what for.  

 Well, shortly after the exams I began to bleed heavy, and my water broke.  I had no idea or had never before experienced my water breaking, so I asked the nurse what it was; she told me it was probably urine.  Even though I told her I couldn’t control the flow of it.  She pretty much ignored me and walked out of the room.  The ER dr. proceeded to call the doc who was on call for my regular doc and he told him that I was miscarrying.  The Dr. relayed the message to my husband and me, and told us there was nothing they could do.  He wrote me a prescription for pain meds and sent us home.  We left the hospital around 4:30 a.m., we went to CVS to get prescriptions filled and we traveled home.  

 When I got home I felt the urge to urinate, I did and my child was born; right in my toilet.  I sat on the toilet in disbelief and panic ran through my body.  I screamed for my husband.  He immediately came to my side and placed a towel over my legs so I couldn’t see my lifeless child lay in our toilet bowl.  He called the paramedics and they came to our home.  They had to detach the umbilical cord from me because it was still attached.  The paramedics took me back to Labor and Delivery once again.  I ended up having a D&C because the placenta wouldn’t come out on its own. After the surgery was over the nurse came in and asked us if we wanted to hold our son, we both were scared, but I quickly said Yes!! And she brought our precious son to us wrapped in a tiny blanket, he was so precious, tiny hand and tiny feet, a little button nose, just as cute as he can be. I am so glad that we got a chance to see our son, even though I wish I would've held him longer, for hours even. But that's over now and life must go on, even though my life pretty much stopped when my son was born.

I am learning to take things one day at a time. In the first few weeks I was in so much shock and disbelief, and even to this day, 6 months later, I still think to myself, "I can't believe I had a miscarriage, and at 16 weeks". I didn't find out until after I lost my precious Trey, that I had fibroid tumors in and around my uterus, I had surgery to have them removed, there were 5 of them and my doc had to do extensive work to attempt to save my womb, because he knows we want other children. I ended up being in the hospital for 9 days, with major complications, blood infections, having to have a blood transfusion, I had an abscess on my pelvis. But thankfully God brought me out of it and my family had thousands of people praying and I know its only the prayers that brought me through. I'm still in the process of picking up the pieces and on the road to healing and recovery.  And I'm trying to remain hopeful that my future will be much brighter than my past. 

You can contact Stephanie at davisstephanie01@gmail.com

1 comments:

Tracey said...

I am so sorry for loss. What a horrific experience to go through! I lost my baby at 20 weeks and I still miss her everyday. My thoughts go out to you and your family.

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