Anybody have a cerclage?

Thai527 · March 2012

Hello. I get my cerclage placed this week and Im getting nervous. I had a rescue cerclage placed last preg. at 24 wks. It was such a chaotic event I think I have blocked it from my memory. My Dr assures me it will be different this time.

Anybody have a routine cerclage placed lately? Did you have a spinal? What type of stitch do you have? How was the recovery? How long before you were back to normal activity, working out etc.? How soon did they recheck your cervix? Thanks.

Housefull · March 2012

I had one at about 17 weeks. I am currently 20 weeks pregnant with triplets. I had a spinal. I don't know what type of stitch I had. I was given some pain medicine to take home, but I didn't take it. The doctor assured me it was fine to take, but I just don't like taking medication when pregnant...that's just me though. I was sore for 24-48 hours. I remember being most sore in my legs and butt the next little bit and I think that is just from having completely dead legs up in the air while they did the procedure.

I went back to the doctor 2 days later just to make sure there was no cramping/contractions. My cervix was checked maybe a week later. I have no idea if that part varies single pregnancy vs multiple pregnancy.

Good luck. I know it is nerve-wracking.

electricdoctor83 · March 2012

This will be long just warning you

I had a cerclage placed at 12 weeks and a few days for a incompentent cervix and history of preterm labor with my DS. I was at an okay length at the time of the cerclage (I think I was right around 33ish mm).

I had a spinal and that went really well except for the shaking...I've had 2 epidurals and a spinal in my life and I shake "very bad" according to my recovery room nurse and the anesthiologist in the operating room. They gave me a few doses of demerol IV to somewhat control the shakes. They never fully went away until hours after the procedure.

I had a Mcdonald stitch done by my peri. They didn't give me any anxiety meds for the procedure at all...I was totally awake during the whole thing which was sort of alarming. They put my legs up in stirrups way high in the air and my doctor talked me through the whole thing and told me when I would feel pressure or cramping (which I did). The cramping wasn't severe but it did make me have to breathe through a few parts of the procedure. It was done relatively fast and I experienced moderate bleeding because he cut through a blood vessel inside my vaginal wall right night to my cervix that he had to cauterize.

Now this next part IS NOT a normal experience post cerclage but I am going to tell you anyway because nobody told me that I *could* have a hard time and I was totally unprepared for the pain. I was sitting in recovery waiting for my spinal to wear off and before I could even feel my legs, before I could even move my toes even in the slightest severe severe cramping and pain hit me. Like almost labor like pains and I couldn't move anything below my waist. I was terrifed that I went into labor. I was shaking sooo bad still even after demerol, I was nauseated and heaving because of the pain and my poor recovery room nurse was giving me shots of nausea and pain medication like a mad woman. The pain was easily 9-10 out of 10. Awful. They gave me insane amounts of dilaudid IV to knock it down and it successful brought it to about a 4 out of 10 and it was manageable. I could breathe again. It also dropped my blood pressure too low so they gave me some more fluids. On another side note I am allergic to dilaudid but didn't know it (I've never had it before) and I broke out into an itchy red rash everywhere and starting vomiting. So cue a dose of IV benadryl and I felt drunk after that

So I get to my room since I was going to be admitted overnight and I will tell you it took forever to get comfortable, pain was intense at times, I couldn't pee at all and would sit on the toilet heaving into a basket trying to pee. I had my procedure friday at 1 pm and didn't eat anything until Saturday morning. I was feeling better by Sunday evening and had cramping for a few weeks after that. They had me on ibuprofen every 6 hours times 2 days and nothing else.

My first cervical check post cerclage was 1 week after and I was at 50 mm! That is great for me. I have had weekly ultrasounds since then and I am now stabilized at around 35-38 mm.

I was told I could resume normal activities within 2 weeks but due to my extremely irritable uterus I have not been able to be 100% myself since the cerclage. The stitch seems to irritate my uterus just being there so I am now on modified bedrest per doctor's orders. Again, I have issues with not just IC but a moody ute so my situation is a bit different than other women.

Good luck to you and I really hope you get the run of the mill recovery from it that I was told about I was prepared for "slight discomfort that would be taken care of with oral percocet at the most"....haha! Even my peri was like WTH?? I would do it again if it meant that I get a full term baby.

byrne15 · March 2012

Will people share what their cervical lengths are? I am being monitored every 2 weeks for IC and I was just curious.

Housefull · March 2012

byrne15:
Will people share what their cervical lengths are? I am being monitored every 2 weeks for IC and I was just curious.

Mine was 2.6 when the moved forward with the surgery. They did my cerclage because it was a rapid drop from 2 weeks earlier. I honestly don't know what the original length was other than dr saying "one of the best I've ever seen". So the drop from best to close to their 2.5 cutoff, and that it was a multiple pregnancy is why they moved forward with my cerclage.

karenreneek · March 2012

I have had 4 preventative cerclages placed, most recently one placed in Jan 2012. I have had a spinal with all of them and they were all MacDonald stitches placed around 14-15 weeks. I did not really have any limits except no sex and I would limit my activity level myself. I would be careful walking to much and I wouldn't do stairs, not much exercise at all really. It only took a few days to feel like myself again. I was sore the day or 2 after placement but I think it is because of the position that they put you in. My dr does not follow with transvaginal US at all, she has me come back 2 weeks after placement and does a manual check and then at my routine visits does a manual check. So far things have been good and I am hoping to get to 36 weeks with this one. Don't really know what my measurements are except for the US doen around 12 weeks and I think it was 3.5 length. Good Luck!

Karen

Emma 5

Nicholas 4

Lucas 2

Baby due 7/12

zappatini · March 2012

Almost 2 weeks ago I was at 26mm and I was put on pelvic rest. They are checking on it this Thursday. They said if I drop below 25mm they may do a clerclage but it depends on how substantial the change is over that 2 week period.

kavanesi · March 2012

Hello,

I had a cerclage placed three weeks ago and it was a routine one. I was 13 weeks and 3 days at the time. We lost our first pregnancy past June at 23 weeks (due to IC and a huge fibroid on top of my uterus) and at that time the doctors couldn't put an emergency cerclage in because my amniotic sack had already prolapsed. So, I was on bedrest for a week and at the end nothing could be done and we lost the baby.

This pregnancy my doctors scheduled a transvaginal cerclage (MacDonald) for 13 weeks and as I mentioned before I had the procedure done three weeks ago. I had a spinal and I honestly think that it was actually the most uncomfortable part of the whole process. The effects of the spinal took a couple of hours to wear off and I went home the same day. I was sore and had slight cramps in my lower abdomen (nothing dramatic), had a little bit of spotting for two days after the procedure and then it stopped.

I had an ultrasound on Monday two days ago (2 and a half weeks after my procedure) for checking my cervical length and the cervix was 5.2 cm. I am 16 weeks now, so during this u/s we were actually able to find out that we are having a boy! I also started getting my progesterone injections this week (not the most enjoyable experience I would say, the injection is pretty painful) and will be getting them weekly till my 36th week.

After the procedure I was told that I can resume normal activities after a couple of weeks. I've been taking it easy for the past three weeks, but now I started walking (20-30 minutes) and doing pretty much all my usual stuff around the house. However, I decided to take this semester off from my work (teaching). I am a PHD student and a part time faculty at a college, but I am taking this semester completely off and focusing on my pregnancy.

Hope it helps. Good luck with your pregnancy!

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