Surgery=Success

I couldn't have gotten "stitched up" at a better time as when I was wheeled into the operating room and examined, it was discovered that my I was already dilating! My body was preparing for labor and had we not elected to get the cerclage, we would be weeks, maybe a month or two away from burying another premature baby. This is why pregnancy makes me nervous.

The cerclage procedure took approximately 11 minutes from start to finish, and was only a teeny tiny fraction of our 11 hour hospital stay. After meeting with the anesthesiologist, I was given my choice of sedation methods and chose a spinal block over general anesthesia because it is allegedly better for the baby. The doctor interpreted this as "Give the patient enough juice to tranq an elephant" because after the horrifying and excruciating painful needle entered my spine, I couldn't feel a thing below my rib cage for the next 8 1/2 hours! The anesthesiologist also added enough happy juice to my i.v. to keep me smiling through the whole procedure. Before they wheeled me from favorite operating table to recovery, the nurses wrapped me in dozens of warm blankets; my "cocoon" as they affectionately called it, and wheeled me into a quite little place called recovery.

After two hours of awkwardly staring at the ceiling in recovery, the nurses finally gave up on my legs regaining feeling and sent me to my room to "denumb." Clarke met me in my room with a relieved smile and a "hey baby." We waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited while Clarke's iTouch and my Nook exhausted their battery power in an attempt to keep us entertained. Finally we had to turn to TV to occupy our time and chose "Extreme Couponing" on TLC. For three hours. And all I can say about that show is that those women are FREAKS! Who needs 400 cans of dog food and 300 bottles of Powerarde anyway?

Finally, I could wiggle my toes and we were able to go home, armed with pain pills and a little more hope than when we had arrived at the hospital that morning.

Recovery consists of: bed rest for another week, meds that make me sleepy, pain in my unmentionables and the hope that the stitch will make all the difference so we can bring home a little brother or sister for Brock this Christmas.

A huge thank you for all your thoughts and prayers! They worked.