Mayo and Mankato

Yesterday, Galen and I met with doctors at Mayo in Rochester for a second opinion on our situation.

They did another full anatomy scan and cervical check, and everything is the same as last week (or very minor changes), which is a really good sign. They also had me bear down while they were checking my cervix, and my cervix stayed closed. Also very reassuring. Baby was very wiggly and squirmy, which I take to mean is that he/she is strong!

Dr. Rose wasn't as concerned about infection as the doctors at U of M were. He said the sediment could be the beginnings of an infection... or some blood or baby's sloughed off skin cells. They see that fairly often. The fact that it's been a week and I haven't had any developed symptoms seems to indicate it's not an infection. Or if it is, it might be a slow-growing one. Something to keep an eye on, but not something that would prevent me from getting a cerclage in his opinion.

He said if we wanted a cerclage, first he would check if my cervix is still closed (via manual check, not ultrasound), then I'd be strapped to a contraction monitor for a few hours, no food/drink while that's happening. If after a few hours, no contractions, they would give me a cerclage.

Our other option was to continue taking progesterone daily. A medical study just came out in August studying the effects of progesterone in women whose cervixes are still closed but are less than 12cm. In that study, women not given any intervention had a preterm labor rate of 38%. Woment given progesterone had a preterm labor rate of 19%.

Dr. Rose said that neither option is guaranteed to work, and at this point, he would feel good about us picking either way. Both are good options and we should choose what makes the most sense to us.

He did a manual cervical check and verified that my cervix is indeed still closed. We opted to not do a surgical procedure and stay with the progesterone treatment.

This morning we met with our Mankato OB, Dr. Barnacle to come up with a plan moving forward. He is fine meeting with us every two weeks, so our next appointment will be when I hit 24 weeks. Lord willing, we'll make it that long.

I've been feeling good physically. No special medical instructions aside from don't lift heavy things, try to take it easy, but live life as normally as you can. Bedrest would probably make my situation worse, so stay active. I can still do moderate exercise (walks, yoga) and go up and down stairs.

Mentally... Still a roller coaster. It was a big relief to hear that things haven't changed much from last week. I'm still on high alert for contractions, probably to my detriment. Any strange feeling makes me wonder if it's just baby moving or labor starting. Or Braxton-Hicks! Fun fact: The only difference between labor-inducing contrations and Braxton-Hicks contractions is that one opens the cervix and the other doesn't. The only way you know what you're having is if you go into labor or not.

Sometimes I feel really positive and sure baby will stay put for a long time. Then I think about percentages and how likely is it that I'll be part of the successful group?

I made a pact with Galen that I'm not going to do any deep dives on the internet or read any more articles related to our situation. If I come across something I want to look up or read, I'll send it to him so he can filter out the pertinent information and pass it on to me. Hopefully that will keep me mostly sane. ;)

As of today, I am 22w4d. Lots of people have been wondering how things are going, so I made a Caring Bridge site to post updates. Fridays are my week 'turnover' day for this pregnancy, so my plan is to post there weekly to at least say how far along we are. Otherwise, consider that no news is good news!