I read your update #2 and am so glad for you to be reading this one and hearing that you have had a more positive experience with the medical profession this time.
Good luck with everything over the next few weeks.
so glad to hear you being so positive Charlotte. I have merged your three threads together so they are easier for people to find as I know a lot of people are following your updates
Had a scary night last night!! Started getting some pretty bad stomach pains. Went to see the local midwife (whose consulting area is her lounge room! Just gotta watch out for the kids toys!) and she checked me out. My stomach was tightening and was really quite sore. She's dealt with alot of Gastroschisis babies before and said that the safest thing for me to do was go to the Hospital, which is an hour away (and then most likely go onto Melbourne). Unfortunatly my old OB is overseas, so I had to see a replacement.
They hooked me up to a monitor, bub is doing really well. Gave me some drugs to stop anything happening, gave me a pap smear to see if anything was going to happen (my first ever!! Not a pleasent experience!!). Luckily, all the pains stopped, and labour seems like its a while off yet. They kept me overnight for observation, and tried to do a trace this morning without any success. Bub was just too hyper!
I have to take some pills for the next week to relax my womb, making labour unlikely. I'm glad! I was so worried that bub was coming.
Finally got the internet back, so I can get on here and post an update!
It's been over a week since I went to hospital, thinking that bub was coming and no baby yet!! I'm on nifepine tablets to stop anything happening. My old OB gave me some more, so I'm happy! Will have to talk to Melbourne on Tuesday and see how long they want me on them. OB gave me a months worth, plus 5 repeats. I could keep this baby in forever if I wanted to!!
Had to go for a scan at the hospital (an hour away) on Wednesday to check on bub... And here's how the drama unfolded.
We went to the hospital and we went to book in, and Melbourne hadn't sent a referral so I got told that legally I couldn't have the scan because they don't know what they're scanning for. So, I told them what they're scanning for. (placenta insuffiency, bub wellbeing, blood flow in the placenta, cord, and brain). So, I cried after being told that I couldn't have the scan. They rang Fetal Management in Melbourne, but no-one is there on a Wednesday! And I'm not under one doctor, which they couldn't understand, I told them I'm under a team of doctors. So, without a referral and a contact number for ONE doctor, they can't do it.
Got them to try and ring my old OB. But he was still on holidays.
Had a great thought and got them to ring my GP who knows whats going on with my pregnancy because I've seen him a few times and he had to give me steroids the other week.
Got a referral from him and finally got into the scan!!
Next day and I went and saw my old OB, at Melbourne's request. And got the scan results. I got a "everything's still the same, fine" from him and he sent me up to the hospital to get a CCG (?) to check on bub (another Melbourne request). Bub's still doing good, according to that. Got a really strong heartbeat! Of course, he made it difficult because it just wouldn't stop moving and the midwife had to sit and hold the disc on my stomach and basically chase bub around for 20 minutes.
Now, I got a copy of my scan results (As I always do) and there's something I hope someone can help me out with.
Here's what it says......
"Umbilical atery Doppler demonstarates good diastolic flow with an S/D ratio of 4.4 which is abnormally increased." then it says it again later adding "This is suggestive of RUGR".
Can someone help me out?? Do you know what it means??
Also it says that my amniotic fluid is normal. Hopefully I get the same result in Melbourne next week.
From the little I understand, if the S/D ratio is increased it could indicate intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) which means the baby is smaller than they would expect. I am assuming they made a spelling mistake on your report. There is a link between IUGR and Gastroschisis so they would be expecting to see this. It's not really good enough though that they wrote that on your report and didn't take the time to explain it. Could you go to your GP and ask him to talk you through it for greater clarity?
I know that bub is small. At Melbourne last time he/she was exactly 3 weeks behind, and this scan says he's 2 weeks and 6 days behind. So, I'm not worried.
But, I've been told that everything that they use to measure him is compromised anyway. Bub's head is a funny shape (most likely from being in breech and having low fluid) and they measure the abdomen which is small than normal because some of the gut is out.
I've got an appointment in Melbourne on Tuesday, so I'll see what they say.
The spinning babies website is an excellent resource, but there is still a chance bub will turn on his/her own so you can go for a vaginal birth. Vaginal breech birth is always an option too if you don't consent to an caesarean but in general doctors prefer breech babies to be delivered by caesarean so they will likely not support you if you chose to go down that route. Also with your baby being slightly smaller it increases the risk of a breech vaginal birth which no doubt your doctor will explain if you ask to go through the risks. However as with any medical treatment the final decision will always rest with you.
I'm so glad you are getting more answers now. Keep asking the questions and if you are unsure, ask again. Part of a doctors job is to gain informed consent before any procedure so they must therefore give you all the information that you ask for.
When boytwin was in NICU there was a gastroschicis bub brought in straight from surgery, and his mum was telling me that he had not yet fed, and the doctors did not want him fed just yet. They were however begging her to express for him because she was planning on formula feeding and they all thought this was a bad idea for his delicate bowel. I don't know if he had any other issues though. I know you mentioned in another thread about your plans to breastfeed, have the doctors spoken to you about how soon bub will likely be able to ingest milk?
The Paed told us that bub won't be able to feed for about 2 weeks. They have to drain the stomach and bowels, which we've been told will be a green colour or something like that. When it becomes basically clear, we can start to feed bub about 1ml every couple of hours and gradually increase the feeds until they're happy with the amount bub is drinking and then we can go home. Of course, bub will be fed via tube for the first while, and then I guess we'll have to train him/her to feed from the boob.
Hopefully we won't be there too long. The closer we get to the due date (January 20), the better. I've been told, tho, that they don't really want me to get past 36 weeks because it increases the chance of stillbirth.
I've come to terms with needing a C/S, I'm fine with that now. But, of course I'd prefer a vag birth.
Will check out the spinning babies website later on, I'd be very interested to see if bub will turn. But it would be weird for him/her to be in a different position. I'm so used to how it sits. The head is always to the right of my belly button. :-)
Sorry its taken so long! On monday morning I woke up with stomach pains and took notice of them for about 2 hours. They were coming basically 5 minutes apart, but with no tightenings. I rang my midwife and she checked me out cause they were really starting to hurt!! She told me to go Melbourne and she rang them to tell them I was coming. But, for some reason, they decided that they were too busy to check me out and said that I'd have to wait til Tuesday afternoon for my normal appointment. So, what I had to do, is go to my old OB (an hour away) and get him to say that there was nothing the locals could do and then transfer me to Melbourne.
(The hospital an hour away can only take healthy babies. And nothing under 34 weeks)
In the end, thats what happened. But, with all the pains they didn't want to risk me driving down there. So, I was ambulanced to the airstrip, and then flown to Essendon and then ambulanced to the Womens. DP had to drive down, and didn't arrive for another 4 hours.
All Melbourne did was give me a CTG for a couple hours, did a spectrum (?, the metal thing) test and swabbed my cervix- which was still closed, but bleeding. They thought it was either the start of labour, or it could have been from having an internal back locally.
The test came back negative saying that I wouldn't go into labour for at least 6 days. Which, so far, is true. :-) plus some more steroids.
I had to stay in over night and have my normal appointment the next afternoon. Everything is still OK with bub but they want to keep a close eye on me.
Which means, no going back up home. They don't want me 500kms away. So, I'm stuck in Melbourne until bubby arrives.
Tuesdays will be OB and ultrasound.
Fridays will be CTG and doppler scan to check the placenta.
Once the placenta worsens, even a little bit bub will be delivered.
I spoke to the Paed (David from the Childrens, he's really good), and he thought that bub would be delivered within a week. Well, a week is now and no sign of bub.
The OB has seen situations like this go on for over a month.
I'm so gutted that I can't go home. I'm 32 and a half weeks, and I have no idea when this baby is coming. Its so frustrating!
Bub is healthy enough to come now, but they want to keep him/her inside for as long as possible. He weighs an estimated 2 pound 10 as of Tuesday.
I just want this to be over. I never even got any notice to say that I had to stay. I just got told that I couldn't go home.
Also, the bowel is starting to dialate. It was 10mm, 2 weeks later it was 12, and 2 weeks later it was 16mm. But, the paed said that its not accurate. It happens all the time where they say that the bowel is horrible dialated and stressed and a perfectly un-dialated bowel comes out.
Sorry if this is all jumbled and doesn't make much sense!!
Registered User
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks