Our Own House Episode

On March 30th, 2011 it started off like a normal day. I went to work and Matt went to school. While I was at work I was kind of uncomfortable sitting at my desk and when I talked to Matt during lunch that day I told him that my back was a little bit sore and my stomach kept on tightening up. I didn’t think really too much of it because it wasn’t painful and I thought it was the baby just moving around. I got home from work and Matt and I had dinner before we headed off to his softball game. We ended up taking Sarge with us and I was a little bit worried that he would be so crazy with people around but he was great! I sat in our camping chair with Sarge next to me watching Matt play softball. On our way home from the game I knew I had to go to the bathroom pretty bad. So when we were walking up our stairs to our apartment I felt like I peed my pants. I said, “Oh man Matt I peed my pants again”. We both were laughing because that has happened to me before. So I went straight into the bathroom and that is when everything went crazy. I didn’t pee my pants what I felt was blood. The blood soaked through my underwear and pants and I seriously was so scared because I was only 25 weeks and 5 days. I yelled to Matt to come see and he went straight to the phone to call our doctor. We got a hold of the doctor that was on call that night and she told us to come right in to get admitted. Before we left Matt and a friend from our ward gave me a blessing and then we were off to go to the hospital. Matt asked if I was in any kind of pain and I wasn’t at all.

When we arrived at the hospital they got us checked right in and we were in a room quick. They got me hooked up to an IV and strapped to a baby/contractions monitor. I honestly believed they thought I was going to be delivering our baby that night and I thought maybe I was too because how everyone was acting. They gave me some steroids shots, which were to help the baby’s lungs if I ended up delivering early. I was having mild contractions so they had doctors come in to check to see if I was dilated and luckily I was not dilated at all. They believe that the contractions were associated with the bleeding so they gave me a muscle relaxer to calm the contractions. They drew my blood, they gave me a shot because my blood type is O-, and I had to do the blood sugar test to see if I had gestational diabetes. The doctor’s came in to do a bedside ultrasound and they ended up seeing something on the ultrasound that worried them. They ended up wheeling me down to the floor that specializes in ultrasounds and they can look in more detail of what’s going on. What they found out on the ultrasound is a mass a little bit smaller than the palm of your hand that is located in my uterus. When the high-risk doctor came in to talk to us she was telling us that we were a medical mystery and all the doctor’s are coming down to look at our ultra sound because they hadn’t seen something like this before. Let me tell you this isn’t what Matt and I wanted to hear at that time. I had an image pop in my head of the TV show House and thinking we could possibly be on the show. I imagined Dr. House standing in a room with his white board asking the doctor’s to spit out ideas of what this mass could be.

We had so many doctor’s working on our case it was crazy how many people were involved. The doctor’s explained different scenarios of what this mass could be and the effects. The first couple of days in the hospital were pretty stressful for us hearing all the scenarios and what could happen. They told us that they won’t know 100% sure what it is until I deliver our baby so they can dissect the mass. The doctor’s think that the mass is a molar pregnancy. They think the pregnancy started off as twins and one became a viable pregnancy and the other became this molar pregnancy. The reason why our situation is rare is because usually molar pregnancies end up being a miscarriage and it happens in the first 6 to 12 weeks of being pregnant. The good news is that this mass is not affecting the placenta or baby right now. Our baby is still growing healthy and everything is looking normal. What they are concerned with is the affect that this mass is going to have on me.

They kept me in the hospital for a week and a day. They wanted to make sure that the bleeding stopped which they said was coming from the mass. They released me from the hospital the day before my birthday with the restrictions of bed rest. So now I am at home which I do like better than the hospital. Right now I am only able to leave our home for doctor’s visits that I have once a week. I can get up and shower, go to the bathroom, get snacks, ect. They just want me to stay down most of the day. Things are going good so far here at home. The doctor’s believe I will go early so we are making goals to make it to 30 weeks and then shoot for 32 weeks. Once I hit 32 weeks they are going to look at the pros and cons for the baby and me on how much longer the baby should be inside of me. We decided that we will stay here until the baby is born and that it is safe to move back to Utah with a newborn. Matt and I just want to say thank you to all of you that has told us that we are in your prayers and are thinking of us. For all the beautiful flowers that were sent to us. This has definitely helped us out in so many ways. We love you all!