The Rest of That Week

Sunday morning (8/16, 8w1d) I woke up to another gush of red blood. It was greater in volume than the night before, but I was less scared because we'd gotten confirmation the night before that the babies were okay, and I knew what was causing the bleeding. Still, I called the only person I could think to call, the RE (we had not expected to be released from the RE so early, and didn't have an OB lined up). The on-call nurse called me back and I explained what was going on. She checked with Dr. P at home, and called me back. Bedrest, fluids, and orders to come in first thing Monday to be checked.

Sylvia and I spent the bulk of Sunday googling. Subchorionic hematomas (SCHs) have a range of outcomes, and for every positive story we read we also saw dire warnings. It was a scary day.

By Monday the bleeding had slowed, and the ultrasound at Dr. P's office showed the babies were okay. He put me on pelvic rest and ordered me to do no excercise until the bleeding completely resolved.

As soon as we got home from the RE's office, I started calling around to line up an OB for follow-up care. SCHs usually need to be watched, and at that point we had no information about how large it was (a key component to assessing the level of threat it was to the babies). One office I called, I found that the person who had been recommended to us was not taking new patients, but one of the other OBs in the practice could see me. Our choice was to come in immediately or wait another 8 days. We opted for the earlier appointment, and got right in the car.

The OB did an internal exam and asked the ER to fax over the ultrasound report. When it came in we discovered that it said very little about the SCH. Nothing about the size at all. But there at the bottom of the report was a much more ominous warning: "Probable septate or bicornuate uterus."

The OB explained that a septate or bicornuate uterus, while frequently manageable in a singleton pregnancy, would be essentially an insurmountable challenge for a twin pregnancy (depending on the degree, of course). He wrote orders for me to be evaluated by a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist (MFM).

After a sleepless night angsting about this new complication, we went in to see the MFMs on Tuesday (8/18, 8w3d). The MFM we saw was wonderful. Compassionate and kind and thorough in his exam. He pointed out to us what the ultrasound tech probably saw that led her to that dire suggestion. He measured the SCH and said it didn't look too bad for now. He let us hear our Little Babies' heartbeats (heaven!). They both measured right on track. We left that appointment greatly reassured that our LBs (pronounced "Elbees," our nickname for our Little Babies) would be okay.

Since that time we have essentially just been waiting for the bleeding to stop. Every trip to the bathroom has Sylvia and I both holding our breath. Every moment I'm not at work, I'm essentially on bedrest. I even ended up taking two days off from work at the end of that first week to try to encourage the bleeding to subside. It has slowly seemed to get better, and the red episodes have gotten less frequent.

Sylvia has been beyond wonderful. She does everything she can to keep me resting in bed, bringing me food and water and taking care of all the household chores. I am certainly blessed to have such a wonderful, wonderful wife.