An incompetent cervix is an affliction which goes undiagnosed until a woman has her first severely premature birth or has a history of repeated miscarriages. An incompetent cervix is unable to bear the weight of pregnancy without assistance; it’s as though the moment the baby is heavy enough to bear down on the cervix, the body says “oh! It’s time to have a baby!” The dilations of an incompetent cervix are usually painless, so they usually go unnoticed until it’s too late.

My first child was born at 27 weeks gestation, which is 13 weeks premature. They diagnosed me with an incompetent cervix. My cervix dilated so fast that it tore my low-lying placenta and ruptured my membranes, so I was hemhorraging freely. Ethan is healthy and about to be four years old.

I had a cerclage with my second pregnancy. My premature contractions with her didn’t begin until at least 32 weeks, and the cerclage didn’t budge. I was able to get to the hospital in time to receive Breathine to stop the contractions, and she wasn’t born until the week before my scheduled cesarean.

This is my third pregnancy, and I just had my cerclage performed yesterday. See previous post for details.

I had my cerclage done yesterday; I am at 15 weeks gestation with baby #3. I was given spinal anesthesia and requested no sedation for the procedure. The cerclage was done because of history of premature labor from an incompetent cervix.

They put a small shot in my back to numb me, and then used a very small needle for the spinal, since I had a history of spinal headache. This spinal didn’t hurt nearly as much as the last time, and the staff was very supportive. I had a dear sweet Melissa whose job was to stand by my head and talk to me during the procedure. She was very helpful in giving me something to focus on, which turned out to be instrumental in dealing with my panic episode later on — more on this in a minute.

After the shot was administered, they laid me back on the bed to begin prep for the surgery. They draped a fabric near my face, and then propped my legs up in stirrups. They checked every few minutes for the effectiveness of the anesthesia, and also used the opportunity to wash and disinfect the areas. When the anesthesia was completely effective, I could feel deep muscle pressure on my legs but no pain, and I was “paralyzed” in that I was unable to use any muscles below my belly button. Normally I handle this feeling well. At this point I started to struggle with some nausea, and heavily salivating, so they administered some Robaxin to help combat the excessive saliva.

The actual cerclage only took about 4.5 minutes, which is mildly amusing considering how many hours it took before the spinal was worn off enough to be safe to leave the hospital.

I ended up having a pretty bad panic attack in the OR after the procedure was over, because this time the anesthesia created a very intense feeling of pressure on my legs, as though they were trapped; since this creates an almost involuntary urge to kick your legs, I couldn’t seem to get my body to shush and listen to my brain, so I ended up with a hysterical episode that was short, but humiliating. I’m always distressed by my inability to stop a severe panic attack once it has begun; I’m usually good at avoiding them, but if I manage to have one, I’m pretty embarrassed at my inability to “snap out of it.” Which is silly for anyone who understands the whole concept, but when you have a nurse telling you “no no, you can’t do that,” it’s rather difficult not to be embarrassed.

Once the initial attack was over, I struggled to stave off future episodes by focusing my attention anywhere that would keep me from the the intense pressure in my legs and thus throw me into another episode. It was especially hard in the recovery room, as most people are generally asleep in here. This is where I started having trouble with nausea again, probably as a combination of the anesthesia and the severe anxiety. I also had some numbness in my hands from the hyperventilation, which disappated after an hour or so.

Every other time I’ve received spinal anesthetic, I have had hives afterward; hallelujah, this time I didn’t. Definitely a blessing.

They offered me some medication for my nausea, but since it came in waves instead of being a constant affliction, I didn’t choose to take it. They also offered to administer some Benadryl to help me sleep off the recovery time, but I chose to stay alert. I’m not sure whether this was a good decision or not, but at least it kept me in somewhat control of my mental faculties.

Once I was back into my day-surgery room, I was given some crackers and lemon-lime soda to help with the nausea. Unfortunately I vomited this, but I only had the one vomiting episode. I’m not sure if the vomiting was anxiety or medicine related, but none-the-less I felt 10x better once I had vomited. I continued to get nauseated with head movement, and light-headed, so they kept me in the hospital probably more hours than they would have if I hadn’t had the reaction.

When I had finally eaten enough saltines to combat my low sodium and sugar levels (no food or drink since 10pm the night before), they gave me some chicken soup. This helped immensely with the nausea and lightheadedness, so I’m thinking that it was my sodium that was the problem. I’ve been craving salty foods periodically and having low BP symptoms, so the nurse agreed that it was probably the case.

The ride home was very bumpy and nausea promoting 😛 I survived, though. I took a three hour nap when I got home, and slept 8 hours last night. My light bleeding has pretty much stopped, so except for the fatigue and menstrual-type soreness, I have no residual effects.

Thanks for listening, and I hope this helps any of you who will need the procedure in future.