Cerclage day (otherwise known as the day Edie thought she was going to die from fright) was a success. Michael drove me to the hospital first thing in the morning so that we could be there in plenty of time for the torturous preparations that needed to be done before the surgery. I am not the most pleasant person when I am nervous/scared but Michael was amazing in his efforts to keep me sane along the way 
At the hospital, we sat around for a while and then I was dragged kicking and screaming into the pre-surgery prep area all by myself. OK… I wasn’t exactly screaming out loud but I certainly felt like letting out a good hearty scream of panic. The nurse was real nice and she settled me into my hospital bed and gave me a wonderful pair of fun, hospital booties. Another nurse came in to start my IV and finally Michael was allowed to come back into the room. Whew!
A whole slew of people came in one by one to give me a bunch of info about the surgery and anesthesia. Much to our dismay, we then found out that they were going to switch doctors on us. Instead of the wonderful head of the high-risk department, my surgery was going to be done by 2 doctors that I had never heard of. Needless to say, I was annoyed (especially because we had just met with the guy yesterday and everything was fine.) We were told he had an unexpected meeting. Annoying!
They did a quick ultrasound and then we just had to wait for a bunch more fluids to get in me before they could take me into surgery. Apparently, it helps prevent my blood pressure from dropping too much with the anesthesia. After I was all filled up, they came in to roll me away. This was definitely the scariest part of the whole thing.
The operating room was freezing! They transferred me to the table and sat me up for the spinal. The spinal itself wasn’t so bad but I was shaking from nerves (and the polar ice cap conditions) so it was probably a little harder than it should have been. They gave me a super-low dose of medicine so as soon as they gave it to me, they flipped me upside-down in the bed to allow the meds to flow to the proper area. The surgery needed to be done in the Trendelenburg position (with my body slanted down towards me head) and I kept sliding off the table. It was awful. They had to slant the bed the other way and then try to push me back down. I felt like a beached whale. At some point, they even had to call someone else in to help move me. What a way to start off the surgery. At least they only had to do that twice!
The surgery itself was easy (for me at least.) I didn’t even realize that they had started and then they were all done. The only annoying part about the surgery itself was the fact that the doctors were constantly rambling in a language that I didn’t recognize. I was really frustrated because I couldn’t figure out what they were talking about… were they having problems getting the stitch in? Were they talking about my funny looking butt? Were they talking about what they wanted to eat for dinner? I would recommend that doctors do not ramble in another language unless they want to make their patient really stressed. After it was over, they did a quick in-and-out catheter (because I wouldn’t be able to get up for about an hour and thought it would be nice if I didn’t pee the bed) and then they wheeled me into recovery.
Recovery from the anesthesia was very quick. They gave me such a low dose that I could start to move my legs before I even left the operating room. In less than an hour, the anesthesia wore off, I went pee (a prerequisite for letting me out of the hospital…good to know, huh?) and they paged Michael to come meet me in recovery so I could go home.
Everything was fine until about 1/2 way home when the pain meds started wearing off. Wow did I hurt! We were stuck in rush hour traffic and had a long way to go before we got to the pharmacy for more pain meds! That was NOT fun!
We finally got home and the official start of bedrest began. All in all, the surgery went well. I bled a lot more than everyone said I would… and was in a lot more pain… but at least the stitch is in! And hopefully, it will keep our little goober nuggets safe and sound for many months to come!
