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ADVICE RATING |
    4.71 (Highly recommend) from 53 votes (2014 Visits) |
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Unfortunately, It Happened to Me After Child Birth |
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by urshy (December 2006) (rank 500+) |
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When I was seven months pregnant, I couldn’t believe how much it hurt to walk. My baby always ‘sat’ on the right side. I told my obstetrician of my concerns in how painful it was but he informed me that it was perfectly normal and not to worry about it. I ended up leaving work earlier than planned as it became unbearable to walk, I even asked my obstetrician if there was any way that my baby could be taken out earlier because of the pain, as I was private, but he refused, stating that the baby was fine and basically I was to ‘grin and bear it’.
I started labour on 21st May and after steady contractions, 5 minutes apart, my husband drove me to the hospital. After a few hours, they took me over to the labour/delivery room. Then I stopped dilating, so they had to place me on a drip. After a few more hours they said that I was too stressed and I had to have an epidural to get things going again. I was terrified of this as I had a bad back from a car accident a few years earlier but they threatened a caesarean section on me as they knew that I was terrified of that to. I was never allowed to have any pethidine or morphine as pain relief, only gas or an epidural. This took a further 3 hours before we were ready to meet our baby. The epidural did not work correctly and they had to keep rolling me as only one side would go numb, then the other side, so all the way through they had to ‘top me up’ until eventually all the epidural decided to work at once, and I could not feel a thing. It was only meant to be a cocktail epidural, not a full one.
After 1 ½ hours of pushing, a midwife telling me when to push as I was numb from the epidural and an obstetrician telling me push properly otherwise he would bring out the forceps (which he knew I was scared of those too, who wouldn’t be) our beautiful baby daughter was born on 22nd May at 12:25am, 7 pound 11 ounces. I felt numb and exhausted as they wheeled me back to my room at 2:30am.
I woke up feeling very sore but also feeling very proud with the beautiful daughter that I bought into the world only a few hours earlier. I got up to take a shower and I noticed that the back of my leg was stinging. As the day progressed, each time I needed to get up to use the bathroom, it was becoming harder to do because of the pain. By 5pm that day, I was at the point where I was trying to stand on my husband’s feet so that he could walk me to the toilet. By 7pm that night, I was laying in bed crying in agony as I couldn’t even move my toes, let alone my legs as they felt like they were being ripped apart.
The doctors passed it off as hormones affecting the ligaments and the nurses were overheard that night stating that I was making things appear worse than what they really are. The next day they made me have an MRI as they thought that there could be a problem where the epidural was. When they went to transfer me from my bed to the MRI, they slid a board under me but hit my hip and I blacked out. Physios were asked to come in and help me move. They advised the specialists that they thought I had a strange form of sacroiliitis but the specialists said that it was 2 disc bulges found on the MRI that was causing the problems and refused to listen to the physios.
Twelve days went by where I was unable to move, walk, hold or breastfeed my baby because of the morphine, required a cathedar, when I took a turn for the worse. I had such severe muscle spasms ripping through my right leg. It looked like waves rippling on the water. They brought in an x-ray machine as they now thought I had a broken pelvis, but x-ray showed my pelvis wasn’t broken. I was then transferred to ICU, as the spasms were so intense, they had never seen anything like it before. Intensive care was disgusted with the state I was in.
They had to give me an enema as I hadn’t been to the toilet for 12 days, which causes your bowel to press onto your sacroiliac joints, and I was grey in colour. It took nearly three hours to ‘clean me up’ as it wasn’t done properly back in the ward. I was put on a drug called Fentanyl to try and control the spasms. I stopped breathing a few times in ICU and the nurse has to “remind” me to keep breathing by tapping me on the face until I finally took a breath. Then, the hospital tried to “discharge” our baby while I was in ICU, advising us that she no longer needed “caring for” and was not a paying patient. My husband was staying with me, on the floor, so he argued that our baby would not be going anywhere as I was still admitted. They allowed her to stay in the nursery, but advised that they would not look after her in any way. Talk about kicking us when we were already down!
I ended up being in hospital, which was a private hospital, for one month. They came to the conclusion that I was suffering from an extremely rare form of Sacroiliitis, a form that none of the specialist had ever seen before, including my OB/GYN. Most people can get it for 3-5 days after giving birth, where they experience some sciatica pain. We left the hospital with a brand new baby daughter and a wheelchair, as I was now unable to walk. We required the house to be rearranged and modified to accommodate these unexpected changes.
As my husband had to return back to work, we still had bills to pay, I required ‘babysitters’ not only for our baby, but also for me, as I was unable to do anything. I missed out on all the joys a new mother felt and that’s something that can never be replaced.
I had severe muscle weakness, lost 25kg in hospital so I required extensive physiotherapy and hydrotherapy and after nearly 8 months in a wheelchair, I was finally able to take my first steps and learn how to walk again. That was 3 ½ years ago.
The many specialists have since discovered that I now have an extremely rare form of Psoriatic Spondylosis Arthritis, which is basically destroying my sacroiliac joints, pelvis, hips, spine and making my muscles deteriorate. I’m not responding to any of their treatments, including morphine, which is being identified on CT scans, which I’m required to have every 4-6 months. It appears that what would normally progress over two years is occurring in 4 months. They have never seen such an ‘aggressive’ form of this type of arthritis before and as its reasonably uncommon, they are at wits ends to find a way of slowing it down. There is so much that I’m unable to do because of the pain.
So, sitting here now as I write My Story to you, I look up at my daughters beautiful smiling face, she blows me kiss and says ‘ I love you mummy’. I can feel my eyes water up and tears run down my face as I look away. If only she knew. But she will never know. I will do everything I can to ensure that. I don’t ever want her to feel or think it’s her fault. So, I smile back at her, say I love you too darling and catch the kiss and put it on my wet cheek, just as another tear runs down my face.
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ADVICE RATING |
    4.71 (Highly recommend) from 53 votes |
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my mum
Thank you so much for your kind words. I am really sorry to hear that you dear mum went through such an ordeal when she give birth. She sounds like an amazing woman and you must feel really pround to have her as your mum. Unfortunately, I had yet another CT scan yesterday, and now it appears there are problems with my spine.....Apparently, there is a brand new medication, mind you it cost $4000 a week!! But if you have an assessment done, a very intense one at that, there is a possibility that you may receive coverage from the government to pay for this. They advised me that based on my blood work, Im gene B27 negative, Im unable to receive this medication, but they said hopefully when they see my CT, MRI Bone scans, that will change as it's so aggressive and now there is a possibility that I could end up in a wheelchair as my muscles may not be strong enough for me to weight bear. I can only hope, but lately everything just always seems to be just out of reach....Im hoping that doesnt apply to the medication, for my husband and daughters sake.
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Unfortunately, It Happened to Me After Child Birth
Thank you Michelle. You dont know what that means to me. My best friend is also a member of Minti and she was my rock when we came home from hospital. SHe was one of my 'babysitters' and yet she had her own child and husband to tend to, yet she spent her time her, helping me look after my daughter, as I could not. I used to just sit there some days and cry. People often said tome, I doesnt matter that you dont remember the first 6 months of your daughters life when you have her whole life to witness. Not true. When your a new mum, it is the most important time, time you will never get back again. Well, not for me anyway. They advised it was too much of a risk for me to fall pregnant again as there's a 70% change I wont be able to walk again, ever! So, just to have "friends" on Minti talking to me, helps. I dont feel so alone and it helps for me to talk about it. I am constantly seeing specialists and having tests done, so if I were able to "talk" about the latest findings, it would help me. So, thanks again Michelle.
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Incredible
Yes, I agree. That was the whole purpose of me stating my story. To warn the many mothers out there that if they get the slightest feeling that something is wrong, or something hurts to an extent that causes concern, go to someone immediately. I had seen a few doctors at the time, and they all stated the same thing: its normal to have some sciatica pain, back pain during the last three months of your pregnancy. But my god, I couldnt even walk properly. It was so painful, but they all made me feel like I was bit of a wimp not being able to put up with it. Far from the truth. I put up with it alright. My advise is, if ever you have any pain around the sacroiliac joints - in your pelvis - go to your specialts and ask if its advisable to wear a special sacroiliac belt which will help hold the joints together. It didnt help that after my daughter was born, they were trying to move me, making me sit on a bed pan - which dug right into the SI Joints - so they were actually making it worse. Any form of Sacroiliitis, there should be NO movement what so ever to begin with as this makes it all worse. Then to top it all off, it grew into Psoriatic Spondylosis Arthritis as the damage was so severe in the SI joints. If anyone has any suspicions, questions on signs to look out for and they want to know any form of information about Sacroiliitis or Psoriatic Spondylosis Arthritis, by all means ask me. When it comes to either of these things, Im the Queen of Knowledge.
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Related keywords: psoriatic, sacroiliitis
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