Hi everyone,
Andrew was born on 8/27/05 at 39 weeks. Some of you may remember he was showing a dilated bowel (we knew he had CF) at my 34 week L2 U/S, it was dilated 1 cm. At my 36 week L2 u/s it was dilated 1.7 and at my last u/s at 38 weeks it was dilated 2.6 cm. Unfortunately, as many of you have experienced I could not get my dr to do ANYTHING. He was measuring big through my whole pregnancy, and at my 34 week appointment he was 7 lbs and 8 ozs. My dr had originally said he would induce at 38 weeks but he said he couldn't do it, AFTER my husband and I showed up, bags packed and ready for labor on Monday 8/22/05. We begged and pleaded with him and the Perinatologist but both were too afraid to make a decision, my Perinatologist actually said some babies can dilate up to 5 cm!! Can you imagine that? A baby's bowel is normally as big around as the tip of your pinky finger.
Well they finally decided they would induce me on 8/27 at 39 weeks, but on the evening of 8/26 I noticed my baby wasn't moving, and hadn't been active all day. I got kinda nervous about it and my husband insisted we go to the hospital, so at 9:30 pm we were hooked up to the monitors. I was so relieved to hear his heart beating, but terrified to learn it was beating 198 bpm. They ordered an u/s which revealed he wasn't breathing or moving and he had fluid in his abdomen. They called my dr and an Obstetrician, my dr was a general practicioner. The obstetrician then contacted the Perinatologist and a decision was made to do a c/s, only the hospital with a NICU is 2 hours from here and the rain was coming down hard. They couldn't send a helicopter so we had to wait to do the c/s until they were 10 minutes away.
Finally, I was wheeled in for delivery at 1am and at 1:30 my son was delivered, and he wasn't breathing. It was the most horrifying experience of my life, I could hear them working on and requesting different things but I didn't know what they were. I kept looking to my husband to tell me what was going on but he couldn't see anything. He started crying (he never cries) and that was when I began to feel like I was watching this happen to someone else. I turned my head just in time to see them rush out of the room holding his lifeless body.
They wheeled me into a recovery room and finally one of the dr's came in to say that he was stable and they would bring him in before they left with him.
They brought him in for a minute and we got to say goodbye to him and they left, and my husband left right behind them. It was so hard to be stuck at the hospital all alone and with no baby and no idea if he would pull through this. At 4am I got a call from the hospital asking for permission to do surgery to remove blockage, then I got another call informing me he had a seizure and they were going to sedate him. They fear the seizure may have been caused by brain damage from not breathing for 5 minutes. Then I got another call advising his kidneys were not working due to the same reason, lack of oxygen.
He has been sedated since his surgery, his kidneys are now working great but we don't know about his brain yet. He is recoverying well from his surgery, he has a colostomy bag. I can't wait for the day he wakes up, they have stopped the sedation medication 2 days ago but he hasn't woken up yet.
I was told by his surgen that his bowel had ruptured prior to birth causing fluid to fill in his abdomen and causing stress to his heart and lungs which caused this whole nightmare. I feel very cheated by the medical profession right now, I feel like this could all have been avoided if they would have listed to me and I'm very angry about the whole situation. If he would have been born on Monday he would have needed the surgery but we could have avoided everything else, especially the brain damage part. That is really hard for me to think about right now.
Please keep us in your thoughts, Andrew is a fighter and I know he will pull throught his, he just needs hope.
Oh, he was 11 lbs 2 ozs at birth and now weighs 12 lbs and 15 ozs! BIG boy!
Jen
Andrew was born on 8/27/05 at 39 weeks. Some of you may remember he was showing a dilated bowel (we knew he had CF) at my 34 week L2 U/S, it was dilated 1 cm. At my 36 week L2 u/s it was dilated 1.7 and at my last u/s at 38 weeks it was dilated 2.6 cm. Unfortunately, as many of you have experienced I could not get my dr to do ANYTHING. He was measuring big through my whole pregnancy, and at my 34 week appointment he was 7 lbs and 8 ozs. My dr had originally said he would induce at 38 weeks but he said he couldn't do it, AFTER my husband and I showed up, bags packed and ready for labor on Monday 8/22/05. We begged and pleaded with him and the Perinatologist but both were too afraid to make a decision, my Perinatologist actually said some babies can dilate up to 5 cm!! Can you imagine that? A baby's bowel is normally as big around as the tip of your pinky finger.
Well they finally decided they would induce me on 8/27 at 39 weeks, but on the evening of 8/26 I noticed my baby wasn't moving, and hadn't been active all day. I got kinda nervous about it and my husband insisted we go to the hospital, so at 9:30 pm we were hooked up to the monitors. I was so relieved to hear his heart beating, but terrified to learn it was beating 198 bpm. They ordered an u/s which revealed he wasn't breathing or moving and he had fluid in his abdomen. They called my dr and an Obstetrician, my dr was a general practicioner. The obstetrician then contacted the Perinatologist and a decision was made to do a c/s, only the hospital with a NICU is 2 hours from here and the rain was coming down hard. They couldn't send a helicopter so we had to wait to do the c/s until they were 10 minutes away.
Finally, I was wheeled in for delivery at 1am and at 1:30 my son was delivered, and he wasn't breathing. It was the most horrifying experience of my life, I could hear them working on and requesting different things but I didn't know what they were. I kept looking to my husband to tell me what was going on but he couldn't see anything. He started crying (he never cries) and that was when I began to feel like I was watching this happen to someone else. I turned my head just in time to see them rush out of the room holding his lifeless body.
They wheeled me into a recovery room and finally one of the dr's came in to say that he was stable and they would bring him in before they left with him.
They brought him in for a minute and we got to say goodbye to him and they left, and my husband left right behind them. It was so hard to be stuck at the hospital all alone and with no baby and no idea if he would pull through this. At 4am I got a call from the hospital asking for permission to do surgery to remove blockage, then I got another call informing me he had a seizure and they were going to sedate him. They fear the seizure may have been caused by brain damage from not breathing for 5 minutes. Then I got another call advising his kidneys were not working due to the same reason, lack of oxygen.
He has been sedated since his surgery, his kidneys are now working great but we don't know about his brain yet. He is recoverying well from his surgery, he has a colostomy bag. I can't wait for the day he wakes up, they have stopped the sedation medication 2 days ago but he hasn't woken up yet.
I was told by his surgen that his bowel had ruptured prior to birth causing fluid to fill in his abdomen and causing stress to his heart and lungs which caused this whole nightmare. I feel very cheated by the medical profession right now, I feel like this could all have been avoided if they would have listed to me and I'm very angry about the whole situation. If he would have been born on Monday he would have needed the surgery but we could have avoided everything else, especially the brain damage part. That is really hard for me to think about right now.
Please keep us in your thoughts, Andrew is a fighter and I know he will pull throught his, he just needs hope.
Oh, he was 11 lbs 2 ozs at birth and now weighs 12 lbs and 15 ozs! BIG boy!
Jen