Category: Birth of baby

Stories From The Operation Theatre… Part 4

continuation from Part 3…..

When I was at the recuperation bay outside the OT after the c-section, I saw the young lady who went in for a brain surgery on my right and the man who went in for a nose surgery on my left.   The man had a bandage on the bridge of his nose and he was still unconscious.  I was really curious why he needed the nose surgery.  Moments later, he looked as if he wanted to puke and he looked really horrible.  The nurse who was attending to me shouted out to her colleague to bring a kidney tray to catch his vomit and to bring an instrument that looked like a tube (don’t know what it’s called) to insert into his mouth.  The scene was like the scene from the series ER and it was gory.  I saw the man painfully puked out blood through the transparent tube and he made gory puking sounds too, like he was in great pain.  That lasted for almost 15 minutes.  I was horrified.  That explains why I can never ever be a nurse or a doctor.

I turned to my right and saw a nurse trying to wake the young lady who had gone in for a brain surgery up.  She was saying “Miss XXX, please wake up, your surgery is over, wake up, do you hear me, Miss XXX, do you hear me?”  in Mandarin.  The young lady did not open her eyes and was still heavily sedated.  Before I could see if she did wake up or not, I was wheeled back to my room.  Till today, I still think of this young lady and the man who had gone for the nose surgery.  I wonder how this young lady is doing after the brain surgery.

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Stories From The Operation Theatre… Part 3

Before I was wheeled into the OT room to deliver Baby C, I waited outside the OT.  As I lay on the bed in the freezing room, a young lady (in her early 20s) and a man (in his early 40s) were waiting there too.  I could see that everyone looked tensed.  Instead of feeling worried and nervous myself, I decided to strike a conversation with the young lady.  I told her I was in to deliver my baby and she told me that she’s going in to operate her brain to remove a cyst.  As she talked to me, I could see that there were spasms on her face.   When I heard that she was in for a brain surgery, I wished her good luck and told myself that I wished to see her again… alive.   I did not talk to the man beside me but heard that he’s going in for a nose surgery.  The OT staff later came to shave the young lady’s hair (only the back part).  After that, I saw the young lady fervently saying a prayer.  I too prayed for myself and for the young lady and the man for a safe surgery.

Up next….. I saw the man vomit blood after he was out from the OT!

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Stories From The Operation Theatre… Part 2

Continuation from here…

When the terrible trembling and shivering did not stop, the nurses gave me 4-5 thermal blankets.  I felt a tad better but the shivering was involuntarily and out of my control and I just could not stop my teeth from chattering and body from shaking.   My teeth chattered so hard and my jaw hurt so much that I had to feel them intermittently to make sure that my teeth were still there!  After about half an hour in the recuperation bay outside the OT, I was wheeled back to my room.  It felt warmer in my room but I was still shivering and chattering uncontrollably.  

Slowly but surely, I could feel sensation on my feet again.  After the anesthesiologist had administered the spinal cord anesthetic on me in the OT, within seconds, I felt the lower part of my  body turn warm and minutes later, I could no longer feel sensation on the lower part of my body.  That feeling was kinda frustrating, as if you want to move but just can’t.  When I could feel sensation on my feet again, I was really happy.

to be continued….

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Stories From The Operation Theatre… Part 1

Having had gone through 3 c-sections, I have lots of OT stories to tell.  I shall start with stories related to me.  For all 3 of my c-sections, I had spinal cord anesthetic administered, which caused the lower part of my body to be numb and I was conscious throughout the surgery. The side effects of the spinal cord anesthetic were nauseous feeling, difficulty in breathing, headache,  itchiness all over the body and shivering. 

For my 1st c-section, I had really bad itchiness all over my body, esp. on my face which lasted for 2 days.  For my 2nd c-section, I had headache which lasted for weeks.  For my 3rd c-section, I had really really bad shivering after the c-section.  After I was wheeled out of the OT and left at the recuperation bay outside the OT, my body was trembling profusely.  I could feel that it was almost in a state of convulsion.  My teeth were chattering until my jaw hurt and my head was even shaking as a result of the terrible trembling.  Suddenly, I felt as if I could not breathe and asked for an oxygen mask.  I was really shocked and scared but the nurses and my anesthesiologist were so blase about the whole thing.

……to be continued 

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My Nightmarish Post C-Section (Part II)

This is a continuation from Part I….

For the first time in my life I was desperately hoping to pass out wind.  I could feel my tummy harden, followed by an immense pain each time the spasm of the guts attacked me.  I was praying to God day and night for a miracle to happen.

When my Ob&G could not treat me and make me pass out wind, he suspected that I had very inflammed guts as the pain that I had even spread to my both my shoulders and I felt as if my body was semi-paralyzed when the spasms attacked me. My Ob&G then called his colleague, the Gastroenterologist who came to see me. My Ob&G told me that I needed an X-ray of the guts and if the x-ray shows that my guts are all knotted, I will require another surgery to fix the problem. I cannot tell you how worried and horrified I was at that moment. I cannot imagine myself going through another major surgery.

Thank God, the X-ray showed that my guts were all clear. The Gastroenterologist then came to see me and pressed my tummy. I had a shock of my life when he did a test where he pressed my ‘battered’ tummy deep with his fingers and then released it hard….. unceremoniously, in a way that my tummy ‘sprang back’. I shouted out in pain and had cold sweat dripping down my forehead.  He then ordered that I be injected with antibiotics and an anti-inflammation medication through my IV.  I was also ordered to be pumped with another big bottle of 133ml enema into my rectum. The sight of the huge bottle of enema sent shivers down my guts. But that was the life-saver.  Seconds after the enema was pumped into my sore bottom, I rushed to the bathroom.  I tell you, I felt so relieved as the air came out like a balloon that was being deflated.  Farting and pooing had never felt this good (sorry for being blunt but that was exactly how I felt and for the first time after my c-section, I could muster out a genuine smile on my face).

This episode is indeed a blessing in disguise.  Had I not gone through this, my hubby would never know how much I had suffered and had I not gone through this ordeal, he would still insist on having baby no. 4!  Can you beat that? Hubby loves kids and wants as many as I can bear him but for me, I have always been contented with just 2.  I could see how anxious and how bad hubby felt when I went through this ordeal.  Now, we have both agreed that this will be our last baby.  Hubby heard with his own ears from the gastroenterologist today that my body just cannot tolerate anymore surgeries.  My body’s reaction to surgery is that most of my internal organs will adhere to each other after each surgery. This happened too when I delivered Sherilyn via c-section but it wasn’t as bad as the 3rd c-section.   With God’s grace, I hope that I do not have to undergo anymore surgeries…. for the rest of my life.

 

The life saver – the big bottle of enema that was pumped into my rectum.

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My Nightmarish Post C-Section

The post c-section for this delivery was the worse of my 3 c-section deliveries. My gastroenterologist told me that the more surgeries / c-sections that one has, the more risk it has to the guts.

In my case, there were a lot of adhesions on my womb and on the muscles, flesh and what not as this was my 3rd c-section.  My Ob&G did a lot of cutting (I could hear him snipping my dunno what away for at least 15 minutes before Baby C was delivered) of the adhesions and tugging of the muscles and what not to ‘clear way’ to the uterus.   Consequently, all the snipping and tugging have inadvertently inflammed my guts. The gastroenterologist told me that in some rare cases, the guts get knotted and surgery will be required to fix the knotted intestines.  The spasm of the guts that I had attacked me every 5 minutes throughout the day for 2 days and that was the worse experience in my life.  The pain was really unbearable and I really wanted to cry.   I could feel the wind all trapped inside my guts, fighting its way out but somewhere was blocked and the wind was causing me immense pain. I was really depressed – because of the pain and because I couldn’t eat. From being able to drink water and Milo, I was ordered to be put on drips again and NIL by mouth…. until I passed out wind but that seemed so difficult…. 

…..to be continued

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The Two Proud Sisters

Alycia and Sherilyn getting all excited seeing their new baby sister for the first time.  They were fighting to touch, hold and kiss the baby when they were in the hospital.

Back home, Alycia and Sherilyn were always trying to get my attention.  I know they missed me very much during my 4-day stay in the hospital, especially Alycia.  Whenever I am in my bedroom with the baby, the gals will insist to be in the room too.  And poor me had to multi-task.  Yesterday night, as I was breastfeeding the baby on the bed, Alycia sat on a stool at the bedside table on my right.  I was coaching her in her homework, which was not done since Thursday last week.   On my left was Sherilyn on the bed with books spread on the bed and I was reading to her.  It really ain’t easy to be a mother to 3 kids.  Hopefully I will get a hang out of it pretty soon.

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Welcome Baby!

Baby C at a few minutes old, inside the OT.

Here’s baby C.  I am calling her baby C coz I have not settled on a name for her yet but it’s most likely beginning with the letter ‘C’.  I am undecided between 2 names…

I’ve had quite a smooth sailing c-section but a nightmarish post surgery.  I had inflammation of the guts where I had extremely painful spasm of the guts every 5 minutes for 2 days (a situation caused by too many csections), suffered for 2 days, had an x-ray, had my hands poked 3 times for IV drips, had 3 big bottles of enema pumped into my anus, etc, etc.  But I thank God for it as I believe it is a blessing in disguise.  Shall post about it later.  Ok, gotta go…..

Baby C at 1 day old.

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Tomorrow’s Finally The Big Day!

The big day is finally drawing real close.  Just can’t believe that in less than 20 hours, I’ll be meeting my 3rd angel.   My biggest nagging fear is the spinal cord anesthetic, which is really painful and the administration of the anesthetic seems terribly long too. One wrong move and I’ll be finished!

Please do pray for me for a pain-free and fright-free delivery and for my baby to be healthy, normal and beautiful.   I’ll definitely miss blogging and reading all your wonderful comments. 

No. of times viewed = 588

HEALTH FREAK MOMMY