Incarcerated Uterus . . . yet another "rare" medical condition for me!

Well, my rare medical experiences struck again yesterday! Since I've been married it seems like whenever a doctor says, "its very rare & only happens in 1 out of every ..... people", that I am that ONE!

It began a week ago when I went into my OBGYN with what I thought was a urinary tract infection. After 24 hours of antibiotics, the pain got so horrible and was constant (unlike a UTI). The on call doctor (it was Saturday) prescribed a stronger antibiotic and they thought that it could possibly a kidney stone. The pain started subsiding Sunday night and was much better all week long. But I still couldn't lay down (horrible abdominal pain) so I was sleeping sitting up & eventually bought a recliner, resigning myself to sleeping that way for the rest of the pregnancy. Other pregnancy symptoms seemed to multiply this week & my stomach was growing so quickly that I was half expecting to see 3 babies instead of just 2 when we went in for a scheduled ultrasound yesterday.

Before they even started looking at babies on the ultrasound, they noted that my bladder was hugely distended. When the doctor saw me, she drained 1 1/2 liters from my bladder (thus, the 3rd baby effect that I was having) and found that my uterus was in the wrong position. I've always been told that my uterus was tipped back but it has never caused any problems before. I guess that with the rapid growth with a twin pregnancy, it had tipped way back & and had lodged itself into the cavity that holds the bladder, bowels, etc. so it was pinching everything off. It needed to be moved, not only to stop pinching everything off, but so that it would continue to have room to grow & avoid some very serious complications later on.

The doctor tried to move it in the office. And let me tell you that having your organs repositioned inside of you is a miserable experience! When it got to the point that I couldn't stand the pain any longer, the doctor left the room. She came back about 30 minutes later after talking with several doctors & they decided to admit me to the hospital to have it done. At the hospital, the doctor who saw me admitted that no one there (including the at-risk OB specialist) had ever dealt with or even seen this condition before because it is so rare, so they were "reading up on it" to determine the best course of action. They had a full plan mapped out . . . try this, then this, then this & if none of those work, then finally surgery.

I'll save you the gory details, but luckily, the first attempted method worked and when I left the hospital, I was 4 lbs lighter & my maternity clothes that were getting quite filled out were actually loose (thanks to my emptied bladder). I was also able to lay on my back & side without pain & suddenly felt a huge decrease in the pregnancy symptoms that had been increased in the last couple of weeks.

I am in bed for the weekend, laying on my stomach to keep gravity from pulling the uterus back down to that other position. They hope that after a few days of that, the uterus will have grown enough that it will be too big to get lodged in that position again. Wow! What an experience and I am so grateful that it was found now instead of later in the pregnancy when it could've caused some serious problems. I'm also grateful for all the prayers in my behalf (I know they worked) and the comfort of a priesthood blessing from my husband right before we headed to the hospital that promised me that everything would be okay.