Just a little patience...

An image from the MFM Textbook!

It was explained to us that Lisa's cerclage was a ten minute procedure.  Of course, it took a lot longer than that, because there were complications.  If you're following this blog, that should come as no surprise to you.  After days over an hour, Dr. Frankencrocs came out into the lobby waiting room.  He told me that Lisa and the baby were fine, but that they had to perform an extra procedure because her cervix was actually beginning to dilate, instead of merely being short. 

She was expected to be in recovery a while longer, so I had nothing better to do but head on up to the room and do some research on what the "extra procedure" in the cerclage might have been.  Being the nerd that I am, I downloaded a maternal fetal medicine textbook, and began reading about the various types of cerclages and procedures.  There are actually several different types, depending on the condition of the mother, the cervix and the fetus.

I didn't find much else out about the procedure until Lisa came back from recovery and shared her story with me.  The procedure was in a regular o/r, and that it was about 5 degrees.  Lisa sat on the operating table, and leaned forward and arched her back to get the spinal.  She was really worried because her doctor wasn't even in the o/r yet, but she did walk in just as Lisa was laying down.  She had a small shot to numb her for the spinal, so the needle didn't really hurt that much.  She said it pinched and then basically everything from her naval down became slowly numb.    Dr. Frankencrocs, who apparently was beyond excited to be performing the cerclage, was ready to go before the spinal even took full effect.  Also apparently oblivious to the fact that her lower half was no longer "working" he kept asking her to move down to the end of the table.  Before the procedure had even started, Dr. Frankencrocs had been told to calm down, and also to learn patience.  I'm sure Lisa was thrilled.

If you've ever experienced a cesarean delivery, or watched one on TV, that's how Lisa described her procedure to me.  She had a sheet up, obstructing her view beneath her chest, the anesthesiologist and nurse sat by her head monitoring her vitals, while the doctors were behind the sheet.  Shortly after beginning the procedure, they changed Lisa's position, and rotated the table so that her head was down, and her feet were almost straight up in the air.  We learned later that this was necessary because her cervix was open and that they could see the baby's membranes.  They had to ensure the membranes went back up into the uterus before stitching her cervix closed.  Initially, the first stitch they tried didn't close the cervix to their satisfaction, so they put in a second cerclage, using a slightly different, more permanent stitch.  Fortunately this worked, and her cervix was closed to their satisfaction.

Before Dr. Frankencrocs left, he also let me know that because of the extra procedure, Lisa wouldn't be released from the hospital until she had the baby.  Like it or not, we were here for the duration. Lisa was going to have to learn a whole new meaning of patience.

Thankfully Dr. Nies had already informed Lisa of this by the time she got back to the room; I was nervous about having to deliver this news to Lisa, but I knew that she would happily comply with whatever the doctors prescribed to bring us a healthy baby.  She and I are convinced that if we had not come in when we did, and had the doctors not been so cautious with us and our care, its very likely we could have gone into preterm labor.  At 20 weeks, that would not have been a good thing.  So although we tease and poke fun at Dr. Frankencrocs, we are grateful for all of the doctors and nurses at the hospital who have given us a greater chance at bringing a beautiful baby girl into the world.