Thursday, May 22, 2008 - the unscheduled check-up

Tuesday, Lisa had some discomfort and a few blood spots. She called Dr. James on Wednesday and the Dr agreed to see Lisa Thursday. The twins were at 20 weeks and 3 days.

Dr. James briefly reviewed Lisa and everything seemed ok initially. She began to examine Lisa further and became alarmed that Lisa was having contractions and her cervix was dilated 2cm. Lisa was immediately transferred to the Hospital to see Dr. Campbell - High Risk Specialist.

The nurses quickly outfitted Lisa with a catheter, IV fluids, Magnesium sulphate, and a shot of terbutaline. Dr. Campbell did an ultrasound on Lisa and recommended a cervical cerclage (purse string stitch). Normally this may not have been a difficult procedure but in Lisa's case, Baby A's fluid sac had started coming through the cervix. The surgery therefore required shoving Baby A back up into the uterus and stitching up the cervix.

Dr. Campbell showed us that Baby A is a Boy!

Dr. Campbell gave us the 3 problematic areas in performing this surgery and gave the twins a 50/50 chance of survival:

1. Damaging Baby A's sac during the surgery
2. The surgery causes additional contractions
3. There is a risk for infection

In the late afternoon, Dr. Campbell performed the cerclage, and he stated everything went well with the surgery.

We had a lot of family and friends visit and praying for us. We certainly appreciated all of the support.