To cerclage or not to cerclage!

Before going into the topic let me clear one thing, I am pregnant only with a singleton and not with twins. Actually, I never said that I am carrying twins. When one of my blog readers asked whether it is possible to see two heart beats with a single embryo transfer, I explained that it is possible for a single embryo to split and form two babies. I did have two heart beats within me - one mine and one my little one's :) My apologies, it is just a small prank! :)

After the 7 week scan, (will include all the scan reports as separate post next week!) I had scans every week thereafter. The seven week scan was perfect. The doctor who did the scan noted multiple myomas (small fibroids) in the uterus, so I stopped the supplemental estrogen which I was taking. After every scan I was able to relax a couple of days. Then the worry starts again. After going through so many setbacks in my journey, my mind refused to believe that all will be well. The 8 week scan was perfect too. Dr.Malpani actually said it was an excellent report. It was wonderful to see how much an embryo could grow in a week. I didn't have much morning sickness. That made me nervous all the time. During the 9 week scan, I was actually shivering  lying on the table waiting for the scan. Rajender was too shocked to see that and so was the doctor who did the scan. I could breathe only after he said everything looks good. 

The time for NT scan came. I had my NT scan at 11w2d. All was fine; the doctor who did the scan said that I don't even need to have any blood tests. That was (NT scan) such an important milestone and we did feel a lot better.

After the NT scan, Dr. Malpani was asking in every of his mail when I was going to have a cerclage. Not only Dr, all my family members were on the pro-cerclage team. The only person who didn't want me to have a cerclage is my gynecologist. She is such a good doctor and I am very lucky to have found her. She is knowledgeable, kind, patient, compassionate and empathetic. She could understand her patients' fear and concerns and could make them feel comfortable and secure. She told me, "I think your cervical problem during previous pregnancy was due to carrying twins. Until this moment I don't find any problem with your cervix (It was 4cm at that point). I will check you every week. If there is some problem then we can think of a cerclage". At that moment, it sounded too good to me. Having a cerclage is not without any risk. The biggest risk is losing the pregnancy itself, although, the odds for such happening is miniscule when the cerclage is done during early pregnancy before any cervical changes occured (I will write a separate post on cervical incompetence and cervical cerclage later). Even though I liked my gynecologist's suggestion, my previous experience with incompetent cervix made me very paranoid. As the weeks progressed my mind was playing all as sorts of games with me. "What if the cervix just opens and my baby falls down!", this fear was not allowing me to have a normal life.  Dr. Malpani told me, "you will feel much better after having a cerclage, please go for it". In Germany, they don't do a cerclage before 15 weeks. I told my gynecologist that I want to have a cerclage and it will give me peace of mind. She talked to the head of the clinic regarding this, he was a very good surgeon. But, unfortunately at that time he was going on a holiday for 2 weeks. I went and saw another lady doctor in the clinic who did all my early scans with twins. She was so happy to see me. When I told her I was pregnant again, her eyes were shining with utmost joy. She got married recently and with so much happiness she shared with me the news that she was pregnant too. She immediately arranged for all the tests that has to done before having a cerclage. She suggested me a doctor too who is well experienced in performing cerclages. When I was about to leave she asked, "Manju can I give you a hug". I still could feel the warmth and kindness in that warm embrace. This world is full of kind people!

My gnecologist in the following week took a cervical swab and sent it to the microbiology lab. I was eagerly counting days to have the cerclage. The microbiology lab results came. The verdict was "The swab was positive for Staphylococcus Aureus".

Did they allow me to have a cerclage? My cerclage experience is another interesting, educative story. Stay tuned :)