~~~~ Don’t read this if you don’t care for a little gore~~~~
I can’t even begin to explain just how humbling yesterday was. I realize more now than ever that women are, by far, the toughest and strongest critters God so thoughtfully put on this Earth. And any man who doubts that can kiss my grits.
I wanted the d&c last week, and now I know why. If you ever have to have the opportunity to experience a miscarriage after 8 or 9 weeks, don’t. Opt out. Opt for surgery. I couldn’t have the d&c last week, despite that we knew last week that there was no heartbeat, because the doctor was busy until this Tuesday. He gave me some stupid doctor babble (I guess he thinks I’m stupid, and why wouldn’t he? I’ve been pregnant 3 times in 7 months and lost all three. What kind of gluttonous dumb ass does that to themselves?) about the cervix needing to soften a bit before surgery. Blah, blah, blah. But I knew I would start miscarrying before then (like this weekend). And I knew what a late first trimester miscarriage was like. And BTW, have you ever tried to get health care on the weekends?
Saturday night I started spotting more heavily. I tried calling my doctor, since he told me to if I started bleeding. I couldn’t even get through the answering service. The operator insisted that I was fine to miscarry at home. Uh-huh. Bitch. How about I punch you in the nose and you can bleed profusely at home, Operator?
I woke Sunday morning with pretty good cramping but not any heavier bleeding. I thought, “Ok, maybe this one won’t be so bad.” I popped a Lortab leftover from the last d&c. We loaded the kids up to go to Wal Mart as the cabinets were nearly bare…
I found myself in a bit more pain while shopping. I figured the walking around was just getting the cramps going. I asked Jeremy to go ahead and get the groceries while I went and picked out some pads and shampoo. On my way back to where Jeremy was with the kids, I felt weird suddenly. I decided to make a pit stop to the bathroom. I used the family bathroom instead of the public bathroom– I hate those nasty cramped stalls. As soon as I locked the door behind me, the flood gates opened. There was suddenly so much blood everywhere– it looked like a murder scene. I panicked. Not worried at all about what was happening to my body, I got on my knees and began trying to clean up this mess I had made everywhere. I grabbed the bag out of the trash and paper towels… I wiped walls. I wiped floors. And as I wiped, I bled more. It began getting to me, I don’t deal with blood well and this was well beyond my threshold. Not to mention I just bled more as I cleaned. I realized I couldn’t get it all cleaned up without a mop and cleaning solutions. And I couldn’t LEAVE it there! Someone would call the police! So I cleaned myself up as well as I could and, with tears and stress dripping off my face, I opened the door to the store.
Someone was looking out for me! God actually put my 2 favorite (or the only two I’ve ever talked to) WalMart employees RIGHT by the door! They were unloading some boxes for the craft department (and you can imagine how much time I spend in the craft department). I walked up to them, keeping one eye on the bathroom to make sure no mothers with CHILDREN tried to enter the murder scene bathroom! I told them what happened, that i miscarried all over the bathroom, and that I was so sorry for the mess but that I would clean it up if they would let me borrow their mop. Before I knew it there was an Army of women grabbing wheelchairs and pads and towels for me to wrap in (yes, my clothes were soiled too!) and juice for me to sip on. They paged Jeremy over the loudspeaker, discreetly checked us out at the closest checkout and helped wheel us all out to the car. When we got to the truck, I was scared to stand up. For good reason too. Gravity. I stood up and the gates opened again. Unbelievable!
We went straight to the Emergency Room, because surely I deserved getting some attention from a doctor at this point. Surely my cervix was soft now! By the time I got to the emergency room bed, I had lost a total of four to five great (and I do mean GREAT) gooshes. I wasn’t feeling so hot by now. I was pale, weak, and shaking uncontrollably. I kept seeing stars. I wasn’t quite coherent.
Before I knew it my family was rushed out, there were doctors and nurses running around my room, staring at my private regions, sticking catheters in places no one should be allowed to put things, and I had one IV in each arm. One pumping fluids in. One pumping blood in. How completely humbling!
I was rushed to the operating room because they couldn’t stop the bleeding. I was so drugged up from pain meds and loopy from the blood loss that I don’t recollect very much other than shaking uncontrollably and telling the nurses and doctors to tell my family how much I love them. I thought I might not make it.
But here I am! I’m home today, feeling really, REALLY crappy, and enjoying being waited on hand and foot by my sweet husband. The worst pain I’m feeling is from the shaking– not from surgery or catheters or needles– I feel like I competed in the Iron Man Contest or something. There is not one single muscle that isn’t in DIRE pain today. Even my shins hurt! My jaws hurt! Hell, the muscles in the front of my neck hurt!
But I’m here to tell you all about the most humbling day of my life, so far. And it’s over now. I’ve cried– most of last week was about mourning my little babe. This week I can work on healing my body a bit. I have 20 days until my next, and hopefully last, female surgery. My tubal. And I finally have peace with that, the permanency of that. It used to scare me. But not so much now. The thought of having another pregnancy terrifies me, and the knowing that our family is PERFECT just how it is comforting. And I know that means we’re done.
Thanks for all of your sweet, thoughtful, and kind comments and prayers. YOU are why I’ll always be a blogger!