Monday, 11 July 2011
Of Scalpels and Needles
This is an account of my firsthand experience with scalpels, needles, anesthetics, (spine anesthetics per se), epidurals and stitches.
Three months ago, I gave birth to a second child that 9 months past I begged to God to make her live well and healthy. Earlier in my pregnancy, I was contracted of Bronchial Asthma—took every Cefuroxime, Augmentin, Cefalexin and inhaled at least 4 Symbicort turbuhalers just to combat my recurrent coughing and wheezing. I was hospitalized for a couple of days, went home with a heplock, returned to hospital and stayed longer as I got worse when I got out and the coughing continued—waking-up every dawn just to find myself vomiting to death because of my dreaded cough. Three months after the hospitalization, I got a little better though, the doctors began sending me home with bundles of vitamins instead of antibiotics and with much delight, I had positive results with my 3D/4D and the Congenital Anomaly Scan (CAS) yielded promising images and reports of the little creature within me.
Fast forward. Came April 12, 2011 at 9am, I decided to go for checkup but was too hopeful I’d see Julienne that day, I prepared and even packed my bag just right I left it in one of the sofa seats in the living room just so my mom can go grab it fast in case I need to be admitted. But I was wrong. When my OB checked it, ugh, it was still not more than 2 cm dilated. I was in the mood to push and I thought I needed to see her today—the 12th. I got in the ER for administration of IVs, change of hospital robe. OB told me I needed to get ready for induced labor. I said, “Ok”, and was not scared at all, not even a hint of terror shook me. When all the tests and needles seized a piece of me, I was transferred to my room with a Stress Test machine hooked-up to me. Me and hubby waited for hours I couldn’t remember how many and moments I failed to recall how long but the stress test showed not even a peak, not even a crest. There was no pain anywhere. No signs of cramps or labor. But I was profusely bleeding in my diapers. To my surprise, my cervix hadn’t changed its dilation and was locked at 2 cm.
April 13, I decided then to request for an emergency CS as I knew my baby had reached her full term and my crazy cervix had no plans of opening her door whatsoever. It is mother’s instinct I guess when you feel your baby wanted to come out but you are caught-up in the middle of waiting and wishing.
Eight or so hours had passed when I felt I was being rolled into the Operating Room. Door after door after door then what came to be the like a concierge in a sterilized room was the sight of my OB waiting. From the bed where I was laid, I was asked if I can make a little effort of transferring from my bed to the operating table (I was assisted by a nurse and the Anesthesiologist). It took maybe a few minutes until I was fully draped with cloth—my face covered with a fabric that blocked the sight of the doctors working. I was being “educated” by the anesthesiologist about what he was about to do and was leading a little interview about whether I wish to still wear a bikini and go out to the beach after the operation. I had no idea why I blushed a little and maybe smiled to my delight but at the same time felt a prick in my lower back (by the way, I was asked to lie on my side and bend as far as I could like an armadillo). I was able to lie on my back again when he said he had done it. The chat went on and told me that the next prick would numb my lower half. I heard my heart throbbed fast and got the picture of the Cesarean operation in YouTube I watched couple of times. I thought, if I won’t pass the Normal Delivery, then I might take the Cesarean as an option or as a last resort. Waiting for the prick, I watched how the colossal lights that appeared to me like alien spaceship hovered in my head. I smirked and thought to myself how real and at the same time, surreal everything was.
Suddenly, I felt as if my right leg dropped heavy on the table. My lower torso rapidly felt heat, contrary to a stone-cold feeling inside the freezing Operating Room. I had subtle feeling of something being inserted inside of me. Catheter. I thought to myself. Then before consciousness left me, I had a subtle feeling of scalpel being used to pop open my skin just few inches below the navel. “Bikini cut”, I thought, “low transverse. Make it neat, you doctor. I want to be scar-free after this” and I was off to dreamland. ∞