Wednesday, January 17, 2007

The Case of the Leaking Fluid

I am absolutely spent from all the fretting and worrying and researching since last Thursday. After yesterday’s results, we did feel a burden lift. We are still waiting for the amnio results, but we are very grateful that all of the chromosomes are present and accounted for, with nary and extra. The trisomies were the doctors’ biggest concern, and it looked like we cleared that hurdle. I am still nervous, but I am being optimistic.

Of course, there has to be a little drama in between the test results. I had the amnio last Friday. The doctor said that I could experience cramping, spotting and maybe a little leaking fluid. This, he said, did happen occasionally and is nothing to worry about. If anything seemed out of the ordinary I should call the doctor.

I was lucky. I had absolutely no spotting—which would freak me out, normal or not—and no cramping and nothing unusual. So I went about my business (fretting, worrying, researching) side-effect free.

And then noticed the thin, watery, clear discharge. Apparently, when pregnant, the lower half of your body turns into a veritable faucet of fluids, so I didn’t think much of this. But I had never seen anything watery so far. It occurred to me that this might be unusual. More research and I determined that this is the classic sign of leaking fluids. I don’t now what I was expecting; no one really talks about what amniotic fluid looks like or feels like or smells like. This made me a little panic-y, but I remained surprisingly calm.

By Monday, it was happening too often to ignore. I consulted my friend Jen who is Knower Of All Things Pregnancy (she could open her own fertility office and practice illegally if she wanted. She’d probably get away with it for years before anyone caught on.) and she said when she had a leak, it felt like gushing, like wetting your pants. For me, it wasn’t that obvious. No gushing or wetting of the pants. But it was consistent and it was unusual. I needed to call the doctor.

I called my doctor and left a message with her receptionist today (yes, it took me another two days to really admit that this might be a problem; I still hoped it would go away). The receptionist calls back in three minutes and says my doctor said for me to go to Labor and Delivery to get checked out.

NOT what I was expecting. I was hoping for a “there, there, it’s nothing” or “just lay down and take it easy for a few days.” Not “drop everything and come in now.” So I IM Nicole that I am going into Labor and Delivery, which she interprets as “I am going in labor. And delivering.” She calls me all panicky, but at least I could calm her down. Later at dinner she said if there was an open window in her office she would have jumped out. She is stretched pretty thin too from all this drama—but she has to go off to work every day while I have the luxury of napping, relaxing and generally not worrying about any other responsibilities. I keep trying to pretend that work might be a nice distraction for her, but let’s be honest: It has to absolutely suck. If I were still working, I would have quit by now, probably in a dramatic way.

At the hospital, a doctor examined me (urine sample, sonogram, internal exam with a speculum that had to be inserted without lubricant, swab test) and determined that everything was just fine. Turns out my discharge just took a very watery turn. I was so relieved, because as I was laying there I did of course think this is it. It’s over.

On a happy note, the doctor did a sonogram on one of those rolling portable machines. I didn’t get to see the babies (the girls!) but she said they were both moving around and looked just fine. The baby on top (I think Baby B?) moved in a new position. The doctor said she was in a fetal position, which I thought was so cute. The fetus in the fetal position. Does it get better than that?

Since I wasn’t leaking any fluid or in any immediate danger, that meant I had to pick up dry cleaning, do the laundry and iron Nicole’s shirts after all. No more excuses. I also made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. And took a nap because all this drama is exhausting me.

If I can turn these stories into 2,000 words, can you imagine how long my delivery story is going to be? (Please let me have a happy-ending delivery story.)

Cake time.

11 comments:

Dee said...

K - I was getting scared reading your blog. Thank goodness it was nothing serious. MMMM Cake. Wish I would could home to my pregnant wife having just made a cake. Lucky Nicole.

psapph0 said...

Let me change that... you guys should come up for dinner if you can PROMISE not to drip on the new leather sofa :-)

Glad things turned out ok!

Carey said...

Glad to hear this wasn't anything major!! I too was getting all nervous reading it. Wow... does the roller coaster ever end?? Now, try to keep your dripping to a minimum... :)

Anonymous said...

christ, with the leaking fluid. wasn't suer where you were going with that. i'm still on the couch 4 hours after my amnio. i'm afraid to get up and feel a gush of fluid. the tech did say leaking was okay but gushing not okay. still i'd rather not leak at all, as i'm sure you'd prefer not to be doing. thanks for blazing the trail for me with all this crap. six pregnancies and i've never had an amnio. strangely i'm not very worried about the results, for now anyway. tomorrow i'll be eating those words i'm sure. my combined screening was so good and there are no other signs so it's very unlikely. that's what i'm telling myself anyway.

so has the leaking stopped yet?

Steph said...

OMG - everyday if full of drama. I'm glad to hear that it's just watery discharge (gotta love IF - you end up discussing your vaginal discharge with strangers and the strangers actually care about your vaginal discharge).

I can't wait for your disertation, I mean your labor and delivery story.

Calliope said...

ooooh I was on the edge of my seat.
so glad that everything checked out ok with you & the girls (!!).

lagiulia said...

SO glad you're okay!

And I liked this: NOT what I was expecting. I was hoping for a “there, there, it’s nothing” or “just lay down and take it easy for a few days.” Not “drop everything and come in now.”...

That happened to me twice: the first time was because my otherwise wonderful, trusty cervix dramatically shortened in the course of 2 weeks, and to my utter surprise I was sent to the hospital and had to stay for a week, it turned out. The second time, I didn't feel well but felt like an idiot for calling my doctor about it. He had me go to the hospital, and it ended up I was in labor and had the babies. So much for "just lay down and take it easy." I guess when you are having twins, they are more cautious. But let's hope for no more hospital visits for you any time soon, eh?

bleu said...

I am so happy all is ok. I wanted to give some info. Vitamin C is known to strengthen the amniotic sacs and has been known to help small tears in the outer sac to repair itself.

http://www.mothering.com/sections/experts/buckley-archive.html#prom

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15817864

http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/promvitc.html

and here is a great resource

http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/prom.html

hth

Anonymous said...

A must have....you need to go to Amazon.com and order this IMMEDIATELY. If not sooner.
"When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads" by Dr. Barbara Luke and Tamara Eberlein
It's time to start preparing and taking care of yourself for those babies.
This book will get you and those babies to that healthy end.
It werked fer me!

Motel Manager said...

I'm so glad there's nothing to worry about. I'm hoping that no other drama happens from here on out (yeah, like that's likely)....

Anonymous said...

Well said.