What Happened?

While I am not an M.D. this is my best attempt to piece together what Amber went through medically. There is still a few things we do not know, and I'm probably going to get some terminology wrong. Still, here we go. If you do not want to know details of what happened, skip below to another post.

While my Aggies were slapping around the longhorns Friday after Thanksgiving, Amber starting having some discharge with a little blood. She called the doctors and nurses. At halftime of the game, we left for the hospital. I am glad we did. We drove to the UTMB John Sealy Hospital in Galveston which is only about 30 minutes for us. We got into an examining room and the doctor did her examination. It is usually not a good thing when the doctor goes, "Oh No!" That was the case for us as well. Amber was having some small contractions, but what we thought was pre-term labor was not the case. It turns out that our little Amanda's sac was coming through Amber's cervix. The doctor used the word "bulging" to describe this which does not help either. They pulled over a hospital bed and moved Amber from the examining bed to it while keeping her flat. Over the weekend, Amber was on her head in the bed, basically tilted back on a slight decline in hopes to keep the sac from bulging more. After several doctors looking at her situation over the weekend, the common opinion was that Amber had an incompetent cervix. Why use the word "incompetent" to describe it, I have no idea. You would think that there was some other more sophisticated word to describe this conditions, but no. Amber's contractions slowed some over the weekend, but the sac broke on Monday. Doctors tell us it should have broke earlier and it was inevitable. Amanda held on for three more days and was stuck with her hand. On Wednesday, the doctors were able to somehow reposition Amanda so her hand was put back and was turned head down. Early Thursday morning, Amanda was delivered naturally. I cannot believe what my wife endured for that. Amanda was born at 22 1/2 weeks but was well developed for that stage. Unfortunately, her lungs were not developed. The doctors were able to tie off her placenta and put it back in hopes of keeping Andy and Katelyn in place. Over the next weekend, Andy began to take Amanda's spot and his head was down. We hoped he would not go any further. On Monday, Dec 3, his head was right at Amber's cervix and ready to come. By Friday, his sac started to bulge through the cervix and it became apparent he was coming out. Friday afternoon, Amber delivered Andy. Katelyn was not far behind as well. They both made it to 23 1/2 weeks which was not quite far enough along to survive. Andy was close. It turns out that Katelyn's placenta had separated and may have had a blood clot as well. We know we and the doctors did everything to save them. We hoped for a better ending, but this is what God had for us. Unfortunately, there was no indication of Amber having an incompetent cervix as ultrasounds a 2-3 weeks before showed everything was fine. This is just one of those things that you find out about after the fact.

From here, we hope to still have children of our own, but will not pursue fertility treatment. God could change that, but Amber and I both feel God has something else planned for us. We will try to get pregnant on our own, but adoption seems to be the path for us. We do not know how all of this will unfold, but we trust God. We have no choice but to do so. Thanks for reading my ramblings. It has been good to process all of what has happened. -Scott