Transabdominal Cerclage (TAC)

Before this last year of our lives I was naïve and oblivious to the all the problems that may arise when pregnant. I figured getting pregnant was 80% of the task, 10% was getting fat and being uncomfortable and the other 10% was just enjoying such a wonderful miracle while all eyes were on you… FALSE. After meeting with numerous amounts of doctors I’ve been told that for me, although getting pregnant is still a task, it’s the carrying part, you know, the 40 weeks part that is hard. Perhaps that has been why I have been more nervous and filled with anxiety this time around-- Because I know of all the possibilities that can arise. 

Before my traumatic delivery last year, I was unaware of the term incompetent cervix. I thought, if you’re a girl you have a cervix. But that is not the case. Some girls have nice ones, some girls have short ones, some girls have weird ones. I fall in the category of girls that DO NOT HAVE ONE. There is such a category? Isn’t it my right as a female to have a cervix? How come no one told me this until now? 

Well apparently I have a cervix but it has been so badly radiated during cancer treatments that it no longer is pliable and able to remain closed throughout a pregnancy. Most women begin dilating their last few weeks getting ready for the big day. But when you are diagnosed with an Incompetent Cervix (IC) you often begin to dilate when the baby begins to gain weight, and your weak cervix can’t hold shut anymore. (Often between 21-23 weeks) So to counteract this abnormality a doctor will often place a Transvaginal Cerclage (TVC) where a simple stitch is placed around the cervix, and released at the end of term and then one proceeds with the vaginal birth. However, for those of us less endowed in the cervix region, a TVC will not hold, but simply tear out causing danger for both mother and child and perhaps not making it to 24 weeks (a viable birth). 

So thanks to modern medicine a new and rare procedure has been perfected. A Transabdominal Cerclage (TAC). The best (and most painful) surgery I have ever gotten (and I’ve gotten some 15 surgeries). The surgery often is not performed until a failed TVC have been attempted; luckily we were able to just skip that whole requirement. A TAC entails an abdominal incision; think six inches similar to the location of a c-section, and a permanent stitch like loop being placed around the bottom of the uterus. The stitch will remain there indefinitely. And the pregnancy will result in c-section. I joined the other few women out there to have a TAC, on January 4^th. I was really excited and nervous about the procedure; I can’t imagine how I will be on the actual BIG day. Our doctor is just the best. I am so grateful we found him (or were directed to him by my doctor in Georgia). He let us know that if there was too much scar tissue from radiation that he wouldn’t perform the surgery. But when I woke up in recovery with a throbbing abdomen I was pretty sure it had been done.

 All went well and I was finally reunited with Spencey Baby. I never knew that Zofran came in the IV version but it was such a blessing. Any of you that have had abdominal surgery know how painful coughing, sneezing, laughing and heaven forbid vomiting can be. We enjoyed room service and constant television while I improved. Three days later I was released and finished the recovery process at home. Six weeks later and things are going well. I travel to the University of Utah every other week to see our doctor who is confident about the future. 

 

Spencer got to even eat my crème brulee dessert one night. What a lucky little guy.