Surgery

Dr. Coleman met with us in the morning. He brought his ultra-sound machine again. We were hoping to have seen the bags of the water in the same spot or that they had receded. Unfortunately, that was not the case. They had come out a lot more. Dr. Coleman said he thought they had come out to far and that he didn't think we had any more than a 1% chance of getting a cerclage in.

Suddenly it seemed like there were a ton of people in front of us all standing around us. The room had closed in and we were crying. Michelle was in tears and told him that they should have let her know about the membranes and that she would have done it last night.

Coleman didn't think it would work but would try it if we wanted. He said his other colleagues wouldn't. Michelle asked him if she were his kid, what would he say. I think it struck a chord that changed everything to some extent. He thought about it for a little bit, and then said "I would encourage you to deliver." He then kind of thought a bit about it more and said "or, maybe I would try". 

We said we would try. I believe we both were under the impression that they could knock her out and it would be either work or they would deliver the baby. We were informed it didn't work that way. She would have to deliver the baby. The baby would then die. I remember that being a shot to my head. I couldn't imagine Michelle having to deliver and then both of us watching our little girl die. 

Michelle got ready for surgery. I called people and cried a lot. I'm not the kind to believe in miracles and was pretty sure I knew how it would end, and I couldn't bring myself to deal with Michelle having to go through that delivery. 

Michelle was put on a general so she was knocked out during it. I unfortunately had to be awake and sit there and sit there. I called my brother and mom and talked to them for awhile and then I just sat there, daring to hope but trying to prepare for the worst. For the most part it was pretty quick procedure, but it seemed like a lifetime to me.

Michelle was wheeled in followed by Dr. Coleman. It was a success!!! He told me he didn't think it would work and he got lucky. He also thought it was too late when they got Michelle back there. There was a lot of fluid and he thought the bags had broken. They had not so he went ahead with the surgery.

I was floored. A miracle had just happened. I've never witnessed one, but one just happened. What do you say when that happened. I didn't say much but I was smiling a whole lot. 

The only thing they were a little concerned with was a blood clot that showed up in the ultrasound after surgery. It wasn't there before surgery. They thought it would take a couple weeks for it to disappear. He also warned us again that just because it worked, didn't mean anything and that the chance of this not working out was still very high.

At that moment I was just feeling too good to care. I thought we had lost before we really even had our chance. We hadn't and Taylor was still alive. 

Michelle however wasn't feeling good the rest of the day. She woke up to a terrible headache that didn't disappear no matter how much morphine they gave her, or how much time passed. She didn't recover until the evening. 

We had no idea what was ahead of us, but somehow we got through this day and Taylor was still alive and kicking!