Thursday, April 28, 2011

A difficult decision (part 1)

In late May of last year I went into surgery to have a birthing injury (otherwise known as a rectovaginal fistula) repaired.  I didn't really talk about it on the blog at the time...I was a little embarrassed frankly.  But now I need your help so I am going to talk about.  Who knows, maybe one of you have been dealing with this and (like myself) are feeling pretty alone and I can help.

The rectovaginal fistula (RVF) that I had was not bad.  In fact, it was pretty darn small (only air could pass through).  When I met with the colon rectal doctor she mentioned that a very, very small number of people have the RVF heal on their own.  She told me not to get my hopes up. 

The surgery is day surgery, but because of the area that is being worked on, the success rate isn't that great. 

She also told me that because I have had this one fistula, the likelihood of me having another one as a result of a vaginal birth is greater and it will likely be worse.  Therefore I should have a c-section with any other pregnancies. 


 When I went through all the stuff with the colon rectal doctor she mentioned that I should have a c-section the next time around to avoid having this happen again, only worse.  When she went in to correct it, it had healed on its own so she had loosened up on the stance and it became more of a recommendation vs. a statement of fact.  I completely forgot all about this until Brian mentioned it the other day. 

So now I am trying to figure out what to do.  Since the main reason they think I got the fistula was because Sam's head was big and got stuck on my pelvic bone, thus required a lot more pushing than might have been needed.  Some of my girlfriends suggested getting an ultrasound to measure Tyler's head and compare it to Sam's ultrasound measurements.  Then if he looks like he is going to have a big head too, then opt for the c-section. 

The big thing that

No comments:

Post a Comment