Surgery went well...

Surgery went well. They gave Anne her epidural around 11:15 and rolled her into surgery around noon.



Having never seen an epidural administered, it was pretty intense, at least relative to the kind of things I see on a daily basis being a real estate lawyer. They sat her up on the hospital bed, leaned her forward to me, and then started poking things into her spine. I say it was intense, but I could really only tell that by the brief flashes of pain I saw come across Anne's face. Anyway, the epidural process happened pretty fast, and she survived...which is good because now she knows that she can survive an epidural if/when they do one when the babies arrive.



She was back out of surgery at around 1:00, but she was pretty drugged up...they had to give her a second hit of the epidural and some additional pain mediciation when she was in the OR. According to her OBGYN and perinatologist, the cerclage was a total success. Cervix is all secure, and they say it is completely reasonable to assume she will go the full 38 weeks (which would be late January/early February).



So, now we are back home, just woke up from a nap. I have to sit down and make Anne a 2800 calorie per day menu, and I also have to pick up some new vitamins for her. Her mom and Renee are going to be helpful in terms of keeping her fed with the high calorie stuff, and I'm going to need to spend every waking hour on the treadmill to maintain my girlish figure.



The doctor's orders are for pretty strict bed rest for another few days or couple of weeks...basically until Anne feels ok to move around the house. Even after that, she's confined to "house rest" (or house "arrest" - not sure which), which means she can move from large furniture piece to large furniture piece every so often, can get up every now and then to make herself a glass of milk, but needs to stay on her butt other than that. Fun fun. Again, all about the babies, and any sacrifice we have to make, we make.



Co-MVP awards of the day go to Mrs. Leslie and Herbie and Renee, who were good soldiers with us at the hospital. And, of course, my Anne, who was a total trooper and has been through this whole process.

Anne's big day at the hospital

For those not aware, Anne is having a "cerclage" put in today to strengthen her cervix. Turns out that twins + gravity = lot of pressure on the cervix, and if it is not strong enough to hold the kids, there is a risk of premature labor. Force = Mass x Acceleration. Gravity is 9.8 m/s squared, so if I just knew what the mass of the kids was, I could calculate the force on her cervix. Standby for further details.



Anway, we're at 2o weeks on Monday, so going into labor now would be very bad. Hence the cerclage procedure. As far as I can tell, the doctor takes some 20 lb test fishing line and wraps a nest around the cervix to reinforce. No pictures forthcoming.



The surgery was kind of a surprise procedure. Anne saw the perinatologist on Monday, who measured her cervix and saw that it had gotten appreciably weaker over the course of the last week. So, he scheduled the procedure for today (Thursday) and, low and behold, here we are.



Since Monday, Anne has been on pretty strict bed rest as we try to reverse the forces of gravity. That hasn't been much fun for her, and if this continues then I'm going to (a) renew our blockbuster.com subscription and (b) hire some help. Applications welcome. One hope is that the cerclage procedure will strengthen the cervix so that she can at least move around the house. We spoke to a friend yesterday who had a similar procedure with twins, and she was able resume her full daily routine after a couple of weeks recovering from the surgery. Fingers crossed. The bigger picture is obviously more important (i.e., that the cerclage keeps those kids in there as long as possible), though. If we have to endure a few months of bed rest to make that happen, we'll do it with a smile.



Today has been tough, mostly because Anne hasn't been able to eat or drink since midnight. Keeping food from a twice over pregnant woman is a little like climbing in the cage with the lion at the zoo and trying to keep it at bay with tv and magazines. Pretty soon she might eat me.



Right now we're hanging out in the hospital room waiting for the IV so Anne and the little ones can get some nourishment. Then comes the epidural, then the procedure. If all goes well, she'll be out of here later today. Again, fingers crossed.



She's doing very well and is generally much calmer about this whole thing than I am. Saying a prayer for her and the kiddos.



Blackberry Picture of Anne in a wheelchair in the hospital this morning: