13 weeks down - only 24 or 25 weeks to go! I am so excited to have begun the 2nd trimester of this pregnancy! In most cases, people feel that if they make it through the 1st trimester, they've made it through the riskiest part of the pregnancy. And in most cases they're correct. However, for someone with cervix issues, the 2nd trimester is generally when a pre-term loss occurs so I'm especially happy to be starting the 2nd trimester with my TAC in place. What a giant sigh of relief! All together now - SIGH. We've had some recent joiners to the blog so to briefly recap the TAC and why we decided to get one:
A TAC is a transabdominal cerclage. The surgery I had on Monday was a traditional TAC (vs. laparoscopic) so it was done via c-section like incision (which you all got to see a picture of in my previous post.) After the incision is made, the doctor moves the uterus & bladder out of the way and places a band around the uppermost portion of the cervix right below the uterus. This prevents the cervix from opening prematurely during pregnancy. Delivery will need to be done via c-section as the TAC will be in place forever. The c-section will need to be done around 37-38 weeks to ensure it is done before I go into labor on my own.
Why did we have this surgery? My first two children were delivered at term with no issue but after having my children I had a lot of procedures and surgeries done on my cervix. I had 2 LEEP procedures (where they slice off a portion of the cervix using a loop of electrical current), I had laser surgery (where they laser the affected areas of the cervix), and I had a cone biopsy (where they cut out a cone shaped portion of the cervix.) Needless to say after all of these procedures, I'm starting this pregnancy with 1/3 less of a cervix than a "typical" woman. I also basically have no external opening of the cervix (the portion of cervix at the top of the vagina) as that is where all of the procedures have been done. This means if we did not do the TAC and my cervix did start to shorten and open, a vaginal pursestring-type rescue cerclage could not be done because I have nothing there to stitch up. So we took the aggressive approach and did the TAC to make sure this baby we worked hard to conceive ends up healthy and happy in our arms in June/July. So that's the recap (though more information on our decision, our IVF, our previous losses, can be found in previous posts.)
On to today - I am one sore lady. Holy crap! I am moving a little better today though so that's good news. I retained a LOT of water weight in the hospital and as of this morning I'm almost 8 pounds less than I weighed the night I got home from the hospital. So I think getting rid of that extra fluid and gas I was retaining is helping me move a little easier. The incision looks fine and my plan of fruits & other high fiber foods, tons of water, and a nightly stool softener these first couple of nights has worked wonders to combat the usual problem of constipation that I have following surgeries and Percocet. Thank goodness because I don't think I could handle that on top of the pain I'm experiencing. I was able to sleep on my side for a little while last night and that's a first since the surgery. Previously I'd only been able to sleep on my back because any other position was excruciating.
So today it's just more of the same - high fiber foods, tons of water, resting, walking around the house, using my breathing thingamajig, and doing my coughing (I really, really hate that one.) I'm also going to attempt to go without the Percocet today. I'll give Tylenol a try once I need help with the pain today and we'll see if that is good enough. And we'll celebrate the milestone of reaching 13 weeks today...so exciting!!
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