Postby Sara » Wed Sep 28, 2005 2:41 pm
As requested I will share my story.....I was 24 weeks into my pregnancy, 2 1/2 years after my colon surgery when I felt as though I had eaten something that wasn't agreeing with my stomach. I also started having contractions and was experiencing back labor. Lucky for me, this was my third child so I knew enough to stay calm but get to the hospital. I was hooked up to monitors and given a vaginal exam and was told I was not in labor- HA! By the end of that day I had started vomiting and at some point, I was told that the food was completely undigested and eventually I was only bringing up bright green bile. My GI told explained that there were only so many tests they could perform due to my pregnancy. They did an ultrasound of my gall bladder, liver and kidneys and found nothing. Meanwhile two days after being admitted into the hospital I was alone in my room with my husband and sister when I started to feel as though I needed to go to the bathroom. For those who had not had the experience of childbirth, you get the sensation that you need to bare down and have a bowel movement when the baby is coming down the birth canal. I went into the bathroom and luckily realized what was happening before I gave birth in the toilet and was able to get back to my bed in time to deliver my almost 25 week old baby all by myself! My nurse came in right as I gave birth and my husband yelled down the hall for some more nurses and they came and took my tiny 1 lb 7.9 oz daughter to the NICU. The next day they were free to do a CT scan on my abdomen and discovered a bowel obstruction due to adhesions from my prior colon surgery. Since I was pregnant, my ever expanding uterus was pushing my intestines to the right side of my abdomen and apparently part of my small intestine got twisted until it finally pinched off. They had to take 5 ft of small intestine and by the time they got in there it was about to rupture and was gangrenous. Looking back, the only symptom I can say I had leading up to this event was narrowing stools. Not that they would have figured out the problem ahead of time, but I am ashamed to say that I looked the other way because I was afraid that I might have to deal with cancer again. Thankfully that wasn't the case and they were able to perform my surgery without complications. My daughter is still in the NICU but is now a whopping 4 lbs 5 oz and we expect her to come home the first of November.