I had the cerclage put in today. What an experience! Thank goodness it’s over, though, and I don’t have to worry about losing my babies anymore.
I’ve been starving most of the day. I wasn’t allowed anything to eat or drink after 10 in the morning, because of the anesthesia. Brian stayed with me all day, and we read and listened to the tv, just waiting.
I thought I was okay, but when the orderlies finally came to take me downstairs, I lost it. Brian was able to stay with me until they were ready to take me into the operating room. They said he couldn’t see me in the recovery room afterwards, but they said they would go get a book from him so I would have something to do while I waited for the anesthesia to wear off.
The doctors wanted to give me general anesthesia, but I was worried about this because I’ve developed the most horrible cold over the weekend. I can’t breathe through my nose and I’m coughing a lot. So I was able to talk them into giving me a spinal. That was a big relief; the thought of going under scares me to death.
The way the doctors explained it to me, they don’t worry about a general anesthetic affecting the babies this early because they’re still on my life support. It’s at birth that a general can become a problem, because the babies are about to have to breathe and everything on their own and they might be too dopey to do it. But when they’re not going to be born anytime soon, it doesn’t hurt them at all, and they were concerned about my reaction to being awake for the surgery along with the risk of severe headache after a spinal.
I was very scared, but it was actually much easier than I expected. The doctors said they will also want to give me a spinal when the babies are born, so now I know what to expect. I had to sit up on the edge of the operating table with my feet hanging over the side, and hold on to a nurse so I could hunch over and relax. When the needle went in, it really just felt like a mosquito bite. It took effect so fast, I needed help to lie down and straighten out my legs.
The surgery itself took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I kept myself entertained by listening to the doctors. Did you know they really do talk about golf in the operating room?
The anesthesia started to wear off as I was being wheeled to recovery, which really seemed to surprise the doctors. I was completely bored. There was nothing to look at; I couldn’t even see my own monitors. Plus, as the anesthesia wore off, I started feeling very crampy. Then, when I really needed the distration, they told me I couldn’t have my book after all! I think next time I’m going to hide the book under my shirt or something, I won’t let them take it away.
I think I was supposed to spend an hour in recovery, but after spending twenty minutes complaining about the cramps and asking everybody in sight if they had something to read, they finally sent me back to my room. Yippee! I was escorted by a very nice young male orderly wearing a black cap with skeletons on it. I’m sure that goes over real well with other patients.
On to a slightly nastier topic, but I know a lot of people worry about this more than they need to, so I’ll share. I did have to have a catheter put in after the cerclage. I was a bit scared, but even putting it in without anesthetic wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. Once it was in place, all I felt was a strange feeling, almost like needing to pee, that I got used to. The most annoying part of the whole thing was the tube, which was taped to my thigh. Seemed like every time I rolled over I had to adjust it. But it was definitely nowhere near as bad as I expected it to be, and facing it again I would have no hesitation at all.