Adeline Kate's Birth Story-- Part 3

* Sorry for the delay- I've sat down to finish this story 3 times, and spent hours writing it, just to find out that there was a glitch in Blogger, so when I went to publish it everything I had written had disappeared.  Cue the tears.

If you need to catch up, you can find Part One here and Part Two here.

C-section it was.  Todd was given scrubs, the doctor pushed Adeline's head back up as far as she could (yes, it felt as awesome as it sounds), and before I knew it we were heading to the OR.  The room was freezing: it was sterile & cold, and had that surgery smell to it.  I looked at the clock, it was 6:45pm.  Soon enough my arms were strapped down, the curtain went up, and things were prepped.  Todd finally came into the room as they began my surgery.  It was truly an outer-body experience.  I felt tugs, lot of pressure and pulling, and within a few minutes Adeline was born! Her cry made Todd and I just sob.  What a relief it was to hear that sweet sound! Immediately I could hear the nurses and doctors discuss how big she was.  I knew it! Even a few hours earlier two doctors felt my belly and said "I'd guess she's about 7.5-8lbs", and "Average size!" Sure enough Adeline was big! 9lbs 1oz big! She was bigger than Reese! Oh my! This made me irrationally angry for some reason.  How did this happen? Todd and I tried everything to avoid me carrying a baby that was too big for me to birth.  I get that women smaller than me deliver big babies all of the time, but for whatever reason my body cannot carry or birth 9lb babies.

A few minutes went by and I began to feel super nauseous, I started shaking and dry heaving, then eventually started throwing up.  I wanted the surgery to be over stat. I asked the anesthesiologist how much longer and I was told at least 30-40 minutes.  She told me that it takes a lot longer to be sewn back up than it does to have the baby out.  I was so anxious.  During this time Todd was with Adeline getting all cleaned off, getting her stats, etc.  I was thankful he was able to be with her, because I was in no condition to even have her on me.  :-( I remember the nurse asking if I wanted her on my chest, but I was so sick throwing up that I couldn't.   I also vaguely remember someone asking what her name was, and I just had tears streaming down my face because this was not the way I had envisioned giving birth, and I could barely see her, never mind bond with her and name her.

Minutes went by and I could hear the doctors talking, "she's losing a lot of blood", and I could feel blood gushing out from between my legs. Something was wrong.  I begged them to put me under general anesthesia.  They refused, and told me I would be okay.  However, a few minutes later they announced that Todd was to take the baby and head back to our room while I got finished up, this was at 8:15pm.  I knew something was wrong.  That's the last thing I remember.  Apparently, right afterwards the doctors decided to put me under because of the complications.  

And complications there were! I guess there was a laceration made when opening me up that was on the inside of my vagina. That was the source of the bleeding.  When all of my organs were out my doctor noticed that one of my ureters was enlarged.  I guess it's okay and expected for one side of the ureters to become enlarged during pregnancy, however mine was the opposite side.  My doctor called in the team of doctors from Urology.  While they were there they did a few tests including one where they put blue dye through my ureters to make sure that there were no blockages, and no leakages, which there were not.  However, when they noticed a spot on my bladder.  The Gynecology Oncology team was called it.  They took the spot off of my bladder and sent it to be biopsied. I was then finally stitched up and put back together.

I remember waking up in the OR groggy and unsure of what was going on.  I looked at the clock as they wheeled me out and it said 12:30am.  WHAT?! How on earth had my c-section taken 6 hours??? When I got back to my room Todd had this look on his face that I'll never forget.  Worry, nervousness, and relief all rolled into one.  You have to remember that poor Todd was stuck in our room by himself for 5 hours with Adeline! No one had known that I was headed for a c-section, and our families (specifically my mother was texting for updates). Finally at 9pm Todd sent a text with a picture of Adeline saying "Hello! I've arrived via c-section".  Todd also was instructed to give Adeline a bottle of formula due to her glucose levels being lower than a 40 and my inability to nurse her since I was in surgery.  She was tested due to being over 9lbs.  

When I asked Todd what had happened, he explained I had some complications but was okay.  All I heard him say was biopsy.  I immediately asked him, "cancer??" he told me no, definitely not. I'm too young and healthy for that and the doctors said it would be very rare. We stayed in that room until 4:30am so I could be closely monitored during recovery.  I was so exhausted, but tried to bond with my beautiful baby girl, nursing her, and just thankful to have her delivery behind me.

Unfortunately that is not where Adeline's birth story ends. 

The next day I had tons of doctors (teams of them actually) in and out of my room all checking on me. I had ultrasounds on my bladder/kidneys/ureters/etc., I had physical exams, and also had the constant monitoring by the nurses that one would normally have after a routine c-section delivery.   It was super hectic, but my surgery had been very complicated and was my condition was serious.  I ended up needing a blood transfusion later that morning since I had lost so much blood it had caused my blood count to be so low, my BP was also really low and my HR was really high.  We had no visitors that day.  I needed to get well and rest & recover.

As for the biopsy results? Cancer.  I had bladder cancer at the age of 31. I'll never forget how I received the news.  Todd had left on Friday morning to head back to our house to pick up Reese and my mom for Reese to meet Adeline for the first time, so I was all alone when Dr. Psutka came into my room and asked where my husband was.  I told her that Todd had gone home to get Reese and my mom.  She told me she had good news and bad news.  The bad news was that it was in fact, cancer.  The good news was that they had gotten it all, and that there was no longer cancer in my body.  It was caught so early that it wasn't even stage one.  It was what they would call stage T1, meaning it hadn't even penetrated the top layer on my bladder. I wouldn't require any further treatment (chemo, radiation, etc), but would need to be closely monitored moving forward.  I have my first follow up appointment this Wednesday, and then will be scanned every 3 months, then every 6.  I guess they'll go into my bladder with a camera. I've been told by every doctor that Adeline saved my life. Had I not had a complicated delivery which required the other teams to come in, this never would have been caught.  I could have lived symptom free for many years with cancer just growing in my body.  

I'm so thankful and feel very blessed at the way things turned out.  I'm so lucky that the doctors were able to get all of the cancer out of my body.  I'm very lucky that I was at MGH where the doctors are top notch.  I thank God every day, count my blessings, and hug my two little girls just that much tighter.  

This was in grams-- she was 9lbs 1oz! 20.5" long!

I look absolutely deathly in this picture.  I had lost so much blood.  This was taken at about 3am.  However, this is a picture that I will treasure forever.