Sunday, January 6, 2013

My Mirena Nightmare

I gave birth to my 4th boy on March 27, 2012 and during my pregnancy I planned on getting my tubes tied....signed all paperwork and that was that. Then comes delivery and the delivering Dr, told me that because of my age (31 at the time) that I had a higher chance of the tubes fusing back together to make me fertile again....I made a fast decision and thought I would take a bit longer to re-think our options. I then had some unrelated problems with hemiplegic migraines that I was also seeing my OB with in which I briefly inquired about other forms of long term birth control, of which the mirena was on that list. Then once I recovered from those migraines I decided it was time to get serious & think about birth control since my husband and I felt our family was complete. I debated between Essure, Mirena IUD, copper IUD and getting tubes tied. My dr who delivered me is who I talked with and he talked up the Mirena...and then I made the decision to go with the Mirena. The office had an opening with a P.A. (Drs had a 2+ month waiting list) so I took 1st available (mid July). I was on the last day of my period when I had it done. It was an ultrasound assisted procedure with the u/s tech, the P.A. and a nurse. During insertion it was a little uncomfortable but overall not painful. The PA put it in, tested it with a very light tug while the ultra sound was still going on, made sure everything looked ok, then trimmed the strings. I then left the office and other then a few cramps I felt ok.
Fast forward to 4 weeks (my re-check day) either I wasn't feeling well or one of my kids wasn't feeling well (my kids and I had a stomach bug, They got it first then I did)so I had to cancel the appointment (this is the only reason I cancel appointments, otherwise I always make my appointments). I figured I would feel for the strings, so I did and I felt them fine and still at that time had nothing to give me a reason to question the mirena (no pain or anything at that time). I knew my annual check was around October so I figured unless I had problems I would wait until then, little did I know that lingering stomach bug was most likely something else.
 I was having a lot of loose stools and cramping (sorry for this info but it is important in the story)since that episode of the stomach bug that I thought I had. I got my period in the 1st week of August, and throughout the month of August and September I was cramping on/off, but chalked up the pains and cramping as well as loose stools to that stomach bug that lingered on (I have had stomach bugs in the past last a few weeks at a time). On Sept. 13 I just wasn't feeling right and thought that stomach bug was going on too long and just being pregnant not so long ago, felt like I had early pregnancy symptoms. I picked up a dollar store pregnancy test while I was shopping and figured that would give me peace of mind....It came back + but really light. I  panicked and ran and got a box of each brand pregnancy test that I could find in town. I took 3 that day, all +, I called my OB right away. They wanted me into get a blood test immediately. As I told my husband I was in tears because this wasn't suppose to happen, I thought!
I then went back several more times 3 or so days apart for a hcg beta test until #s were high enough to show where the pregnancy was (if I had a tubal pregnancy or uterine pregnancy) When #s reached over 1000 I went for an ultrasound (on a Monday). The u/s tech found a sac (after several minutes of trying to relax), then I said jokingly...don't find another or I will pass out. She then looked around a bit more and called another u/s tech in and said something about hyper-ovulation and then saw another odd shaped sac. I asked if that was a second sac and was told yes. Then I started crying and trying to get a grasp on everything. I then went and saw the dr and was told that obviously the mirena wasn't found where it was suppose to be and that there were 2 sacs, but the other one was either several days behind the normal sac, or it was being absorbed by my body and I was miscarrying. I was then given the option to keep the pregnancy going or to abort the pregnancy due to the fact the mirena was still unaccounted for which I was told had a 50/50 chance of survival if the mirena was still somewhere in my body (as the mirena has a hormone that birth control pills and the morning after pill has, with the intention of ending a pregnancy). There was no questioning it...I was keeping that pregnancy going.  I was told that after the pregnancy is done then they would explore (x-rays) for the missing iud. I was told I was approximately 5 weeks along and a week from then I was suppose to have another u/s for viability.
That week between those u/s felt like it took forever, we went from being shocked & scared I was pregnant, to eventually thinking this pregnancy was meant to be and getting excited. Then the next Monday I was back for another u/s. Up on the screen popped up the one sac immediately and I felt so incredibly happy. Then we saw the baby with a beating heart and I immediately loved that baby! (I was told a very healthy baby's heartbeat) But then the other sac was no-where to be found and I was sad for loosing that baby. We then saw the dr where he said the same...a healthy baby!
Then I went home...and was spotting. I was told it was possible to spot or lightly bleed from both the sac that didn't make it and from the internal u/s. Then Tuesday I was bleeding a lot more and got scared and called the Dr. they said come and & we will check everything. Again baby was found with good heartbeat and my cervix was closed from what he could tell (he did an internal check). So I was told I was bleeding because I was m/c the twin that didn't make it or having normal pregnancy bleeding and that I was fine.
Then came Wednesday morning...I was talking to a friend on the phone when I started cramping very strong, I told her I had to let her go. I then felt the urge to go to the bathroom along with a very strong contraction. I went to the bathroom, just barely closed the door, pulled down my pants and out fell a sac. As I did that my 3 year old opens the door, saw the sac fall on the floor and saw me start crying. I asked as calmly as I could for my son to go get a container and my phone, he did as he was told and I called my husband to come home because we needed to go to the dr. I called the dr, they told me to head in there and they would work me in the schedule. I had an u/s immediately where it showed I passed my baby (no more sac inside the uterus), I kept the sac in a container and baggie for my dr to send to pathology. They were concerned with the abnormal sac being a partial molar pregnancy and for this reason they wanted to have a d&c. So I was scheduled for the d&c later that afternoon. The dr that did the d&c made the comment that there was "products of conception" still in the uterus so it was good I had the d&c. He wanted me to heal up for 2 weeks then to come back and they would look for the iud.
So 2 weeks went by and I was very constipated and having a BM was painful and hard. But I never even gave it a thought they were connected. My dr sent me for an xray and then when that came back, nothing was visible in the x-ray. The OB said my bowels were extremely constipated, so they wanted me to do a bowel prep with a x-ray following the next day. So I did the bowel prep with the magnesium citrate and got so sick I was throwing up, having watery BM's, and was dehydrated. I had to go to the ER the night before my x-ray to get fluids because I got a migraine (and we are fearful when I get a migraine that it will turn into a hemiplegic migraine). We then went for the xray the next morning and there was the iud, clear as day on the xray.
The DR then talked about removing the mirena with laproscopy on his next surgery day. He said it would be a fast procedure. I had to do another bowel prep for the surgery. That bowel prep was extremely painful and I was now bleeding from my bottom every time I went and the pain was torturous. I had my surgery and the surgery was a bit complicated as they couldn't find it and had to do xrays. Then they found it. It was in my large intestines down by my rectum. I had lots of scar tissue according to my operate report. The DR even provided pictures. He said he never seen or heard of this situation of perforating my uterus and my bowel/intestines!
Even when I went back for my surgery follow up appointment he said he cannot find another story like mine in the medical journals. I was glad it was done with and definitely will NEVER recommend the mirena to anyone I know. I realize my situation was probably a one-of-a-kind situation, but for me it happened. Who's to say it doesn't happen again to someone or worse ... perforate a vital organ and kill someone?
So this is my nightmare...I got mirena, it sometime perforated my uterus and I wound up pregnant with twins. Then I had to go through that emotional roller coaster of being upset, to accepting, to happy and excited, then to the feeling of loss of my child(ren) for miscarrying them which no one should ever have to go through that pain. Then I had to endure the pain in my rear when is sometime perforated my intestines and had to have surgery to get it removed.
Who knows what the long term effects will be...