Our 2nd Birth Story

For all my worries, it was much worse than I could’ve ever imagined. Gav dropped me off at 7.30am. I had cried solidly the whole journey there. I went to a ward with 4 beds, and asked to gown up, along with three other ladies. I was lucky to be first on the list, due to my anxiety issues, which became very apparent when the surgeon couldn’t even understand me through my sobbing. They all then did my obs; took my temperature and blood pressure. My blood pressure was so low the machine wasn’t even picking me up, which they then did manually and it caused some concerns. They then said my temperature was high. Having a temperature right now, is like carrying a weapon. After some long discussions with the entire team, they decided to go ahead, thank goodness!! At 8.45 I called Gav to come in and meet us at theatre. He got into his scrubs. 

Everywhere I’d been then got decontaminated. I was in the theatre for a long time. Much longer than the twins. I don’t want to scare anyone, but it was horrific. I got a spinal and epidural. After 5 mins, the room began spinning. I felt sick and was about to pass out. They hadn’t even started cutting yet and I was already feeling atrocious. Thoughts running through my mind like, Gav was about to become a widowed dad of 3! They gave me another drug which helped; but I had beads of sweat dripping off me. I took off my hair net and face mask, because I felt trapped by panic and heat. I then began violently shaking. Gav held my hand without the cannula tightly above my head. Finally at 10:10 she was born but it took another 40/50 minutes to stitch me up. About 10 minutes after she was out the “tugging” “washing machine” feeling became unbearable. The tears were rolling down my cheeks. The trainee anaesthetist thankfully noticed that I couldn’t even focus on baby, and Gav asking me if I was okay. They then stopped proceedings. They asked if I wanted to be put to sleep, but I was desperate not to. So they agreed to top up my spinal again and put local directly in my open tummy. It helped slightly. But I was definitely still letting out some grunts of discomfort. It felt like someone was repeatedly hitting me with a baseball bat to my stomach and then using as a rolling pin.

I could hear the crazy amount of staff talking about the next patients being delayed because they’d need to shut down theatre after me.  I ended up in a side room in the consultant led delivery ward (again! This happened with the twins too.) They removed any unnecessary furniture beforehand. Gav stayed post birth up until 10pm. It was comfort for me and worked to their advantage as he was able to keep an eye on me, whilst they stayed clear of the suspected coronavirus girl! 

Of course overnight it was much more difficult. They kept me bed bound. Catheter, Cannula drips..  I’d have to push the help button to help get me a nappy etc. I could tell that it was like “oh gosh! It’s the corona room again!” Thankfully a wonderful midwife came in at 2am and really helped me. 

Then yesterday morning my results came back again negative. I didn’t think for one second I did have it. Staff were suddenly making an appearance, and they said they’d discharge me. I rang Gav in pure glee to come pick us up. 

Then over the next 4 hours details started coming forward about my amount of blood loss (850 mls), my blood results, the amount of urine I was passing since having my catheter removed (apparently you should only go if you need a wee 200mls or more🤷🏼‍♀️)... the list goes on. They took my bloods again, and then started talking about giving me a blood transfusion. Long story short, my levels dropped again. But with some persuading they agreed to prescribe me with 6 weeks worth of iron, and I must get bloods taken in 2 weeks. If no significant improvement, I’ll have to go back for a blood transfusion. 
At 5pm we finally left! 
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️