Wednesday, March 12, 2008

More Vaginal Bleeding.

When someone comes to the hospital complaining of vaginal bleeding there are three possibilities:

A) They have forgotten, didn't hear, or their doctor forgot to tell them that spotting is normal following a cervical exam, stripping membranes or sex.

B) They are crazy.

C) It's not good.

Every time I hold my breath and say prayer that this patient is forgetful, deaf, misinformed, paranoid or crazy.

So, a young (very young) woman is brought in by EMS for vaginal bleeding. She is alone as the father of the baby is (and has been) out of town. She says she wore a pad in and sure enough it is saturated with blood. Crap. I give her a fresh pad, find fetal heart tones, and then call her OB.

Her doctor comes in with the ultrasound to check for placental abruption and placenta previa. Once cleared of both of those she proceeds to a cervical exam. When she spreads the labia the cause of her "vaginal bleeding" is painfully obvious. She has deep puncture wounds from a BITE on her labia that are gushing bright red blood.

"Who bit you?"

"Huh?"

"You have a bite here. Who bit you?"

"I don't know what you are talking about."

The doc pokes at one of the puncture wounds. "Does this hurt?"

The patient yelps that it does in fact hurt but again denies that she has any idea what may have gone wrong down there.

Many stitches later, the "vaginal bleeding" was cured, the baby was thankfully fine and the patient still refused to explain what had happened. I wonder what story the boyfriend will get when he returns to town.

39 comments:

LDRN said...

OMG!!! I am a high-risk L&D nurse and know what you are talking about....I have some stories I could share...
But wow! A bite on the labia?! That's a new one....

Anonymous said...

Ewwww.

RN2CNM said...

I absolutely love your site!!
I used to work high-risk L&D and your stories always take me back to remembering some of the "unique" situations that would show up in triage.
A bite on the labia...and I thought I had seen it all...

Rebecca said...

OMG!! That's all I can say! I am new to your blog and I love it!! These stories are totally crazy!

Stacy said...

He may have been looking for strawberries.

I will not sleep tonight, I do not know how you could stand seeing it.

JoyousJulia said...

Holy. Crap.

mrsmac said...

if only she had explained it because now i can only imagine...

omg!

The Driftwood Collector said...

Oh, how I wish she had given an explanation!

Addicted to crafting said...

wow, just wow.

I guess y'all don't get the truth a lot eh?

FunnyGal KAT said...

My husband thinks I'm making these stories up... I may just have to give him the link to your blog. (We had a long discussion and some incredulous laughs over the strawberry story...)

Your stories are like a car accident... so hard to look at sometimes, but impossible to look away!

Unknown said...

Was this bite human or animal? Maybe she didn't want to explain because she was gettin freaky with the neighbors dog.

iambellaluna said...

Hmmm. I've never been bit in my labia but you sure as hell know if you were bit there, you'd know EXACTLY how it happened.

I can't decide which story is worse, this or strawberry girl.

Anonymous said...

just found this blog and i'm already addicted. these stories could not be made up! thanks for sharing them!

Just Me said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Just Me said...

Vampirism is VERY in right now..... LOL!!!

Mortiferouslatte said...

Wow, she should have said "someone bit my vag" instead of having people go through all of that trouble.

Cristina Mathers said...

wow! that is crazy! i love your blog, just found it, and i can't stop laughing!

Flo Paris said...

Holy cow.
I am speechless.

MBKimmy said...

OMG - found you from a blog roll ... I think I will keep reading!
Nice to meet you!

Addicted to crafting said...

stopping by and wishing for an update. :)

Sharon M said...

Wow, these stories are like watching a train wreck -- it's awful what's happening, but you can't... stop... looking...

And I just read the "strawberry" story. Girl, you should publish a book someday.

Scary Mommy said...

Ouccchhhhhh!!!! Your blog is hilarious!!

Paula Keller said...

That's awful!

Also new to your blog, clicked over from Maybe if I Just Relax.

Love it!

Dijea said...

OMG! Seriously YUCK!

Melzie said...

I just found your blog, and I am cracking up. I'm sad to say that the 5 times I've been to the ER for VB, it was "C" and a D&C ensued.

I read this to hubby, and he promised I would never have puncture wounds. I promised him I wouldn't either... wow.

LOL!

Lisa said...

Holy Crap (said while crossing legs) makes ya wonder what kind of freaky stuff she's into!

Melanie said...

Just found your blog! These stories are great!

Gotta wonder if they were human bites or not... I'm thinking they weren't!! Ewwwww...

Anyway... Thanks for the laughs! Hoping for an update!

Joy@WDDCH said...

WOW! I found your blog a LONG time ago and then lost the URL. I finally found it again and so excited! You're on my blogroll.

Anyway, this post made me cringe and want to laugh at the same time. What the heck?!

Kristen said...

OMG this just make me smile...I am so glad I found you.

Kristen
www.whosekidsarethese.com

Stacey said...

This is crazy! I swear the things one sees in a hospital.

I am so happy I found your blog, I love it! I work in ultrasound and I can relate to so many things (different obviously, but still the same patient craziness!)

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Aouch!!!

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Unknown said...

But it ended by the 90-day point and I was right back where I started. Immediately following the procedure I had dreams of rising from the wheelchair I’d been confined to for ten years and walking like a real man; but even with the incredible improvements overall, it seemed that the only healing occurred above the waist. Perhaps I would just have to accept that even if I could improve to what the full extent of the liberation therapy would allow, I would always be in a wheelchair. While researching the New York clinic and other places, my parents and I came upon CCSVI Clinic through a Google search. We discovered that they are essentially a research clinic operating under an IRB but with a major difference. For the past year, having seen even better results than just doing the liberation therapy alone, they have also been transplanting adult autologous stem cells, cultured and re-injected into the body shortly after the neck venoplasty. If I chose to go there instead of New York, the procedure would be done at CCSVI Clinic at Noble Hospital in Pune India and I would have to get there essentially as a partially paralyzed patient transported in a wheelchair. There would also be a requirement to stay in the hospital for 10-12 days. But after researching the improvements demonstrated in MS patients in stem cell clinical trials, I simply decided that as long as they would take me, nothing was going to stop me from making that trip. On calls with the clinic, it was also explained that stents were not necessary as the stem cells injected intravenously could be enough to keep my veins from restenosing. My confidence in their method increased when I discovered that Dr. Gupte, the neurosurgeon, had been transplanting autologous stem cells for 4 years for a number of different neurodegenerative conditions, including MS and based his therapies on completed stem cell trial methods done in a number of hospitals and universities outside of the US (to be absolutely sure, I confirmed this through searches on Google Scholar). He had already done over 2000 successful transplants! Regarding my communications with CCSVI Clinic, I need to confess here that we did not tell the doctors the truth originally. My mother, who arranged the treatments, told them that I was an EDSS 6.5 in order to qualify. Basically she knew that they wouldn’t accept me into the program if she said I was higher. But if they saw my actual physical condition could they refuse me on the clinic steps? I hoped not.

So in late March it was off to India with my father who is a strong man, and my capable assistant. We arrived on March 26, 2012, and met Surjo Banerjee, CCSVI Clinic’s Managing Director at the airport. He drove us from the airport to Pune, a surprisingly modern city just south of Mumbai. I was amazed to see that the hospital and the CCSVI Clinic itself, (a full wing of suites within the hospital complex) was as clean and modern as any hospital here in the States. After checking in with a number of other patients, I was triaged for the procedures. However, based on my new assessment, it was determined that I would need about twice the amount of stem cells that they had originally programmed, figuring my EDSS scale requirement of 6.5. But paying more was out of the question. We are not rich and had basically ‘sold the farm’ to get here in the first place, and the recommended additional stem cells were going to cost another $12,000 that we had not planned for. Not their fault...I didn’t tell them the extent of my condition in the first place. So the first miracle happened when CCSVI Clinic management offered to personally cover these additional costs. I had never even met some of them, but as a result of their generosity, I received an additional 50,000,000 mesenchymal stem cells and I cannot thank them enough for the difference they have made to my life.

Unknown said...

On Tuesday March 27

, I once again had the liberation therapy followed by the harvesting of red bone marrow cells from my hip bone. The clinic has strict aftercare protocols around each type of procedure with regard to position control and movement. It didn’t much affect my activity because I was unable to move much anyway. I was supine positioned, tilted slightly head high for two days following my venoplasty and then laid out supine again, in just the opposite tilt...head-lower-than-the-body for several days following the transplants of the stem cells. I was told that this would allow the newly transplanted stem cells to filter through the full length of the nervous system and locate to the points of injury. A Doppler ultrasound of my neck veins was done every day for 10 days following my liberation procedure. This was to check for any clotting or re-narrowing of the veins which had been widened. If they clotted or restenosed at any time I was in the clinic, they would take me back into the cathlab for a re-do. Happily this wasn’t necessary.
Following the liberation therapy, the changes within my body were just as immediate and dramatic as in my first procedure in 2010, hopefully without the fear of re-stenosis; but my ‘headspace’ almost didn’t accept it. The first time with my liberation therapy in the US, the IR found one narrowing in each jugular, the right side being more severe. This time around, two blockages were found on my right side, and again one on the left. I have heard that second and third procedures for venous angioplasty are more difficult for the surgeons because there is more build up of scar tissue in the interior of the veins, but the medical team took their time and did a perfect job. Words cannot express the emotional joy in getting the blood flowing again and getting those symptomatic improvements back a second time!

Four days later I underwent a lower lumbar puncture, but this time not simply to gather information on whether I have MS. This time, stem cells cultured from my own body were on their way to do what God designed them to do, and that is to heal. For all of you that might be skeptical about this, I am here to tell you that is exactly what they are doing. The positive changes were noticed as soon as I returned to my suite in the clinic and anyone who is paralysed below the waist will understand this next part. To manoeuvre myself as I usually do, I went to pick my leg up from a sitting position and throw it in front of me. The hope here is that the ‘dead-weight’ of the leg will land just right and in a position where I can best situate myself to haul my body into a position where I can further awkwardly throw my whole body into my wheelchair. If you’ve ever seen a spinal patient do this or are unlucky enough to have to do this yourself, you know what an ugly, uncomfortable process this is. But this time the ‘throw’ of the leg proved to be an over-compensation. To my absolute shock and delight my leg lifted itself just as it’s supposed to work...without aid from my helpful hands and placed itself exactly where my brain told it go! At first I didn’t think much of it...this was a fluke, maybe my imagination, but it was something sure not to last. But it has to this day without any hint of regression as I work out and get stronger. This was the first sign of any recovery whatsoever that has occurred below the waist in over ten years, and it happened only hours after the stem cell transplant!

Unknown said...

Upon returning home on April 14, 2012, I closely followed the Clinic’s physiotherapy program. Since then I have been working out at levels I had been told by my doctors here in the states would not be possible again. When exercising before I had stem cell therapy, I always had to be careful not to overdo it because I would get a sickness that sometimes lasted 2 days, completely wiping me out. This even occurred after the first liberation therapy, but no more. I’ve been working myself silly and have not yet felt sick. Real strength has returned and muscles have been popping out in places on my body where I haven’t seen them in many years. As of this writing today, and for about the last two weeks my right hand has been functioning normally in every respect. I’m not saying it has improved some, I’m saying it is now completely NORMAL! I can hardly believe it myself.

Since I returned, and after only one month, the positive changes have been happening regularly and most every day. Most significantly, I think, my incontinence has completely improved and I am now able to almost totally control my urinary and elimination functions. All other disabilities aside, I think that this is one of the most important deficits that anyone with MS wishes they could get back! Incontinence is so embarrassing and not having control of that particular function somehow makes you feel lesser as a person. So I’m very happy to see the improvements there. My speech is back to normal. Although I never slurred my words, the thought process was oh-so-slow. Now my words come so quickly that I sometimes find myself stumbling over them...trying to say too much at once. I can’t complain about that!

I am convinced that CCSVI Clinic is on to important discoveries about MS. They have figured this out and are doing the sequence of therapies correctly and the addition of the stem cells completes the need to repair the nerve damage that’s been done by the disease. In retrospect what they are doing suddenly makes complete sense to me. It’s still early yet and I guess time will tell to what extent my motor functions will come back, but if the last month is any indication, it could be everything, which excites me so much. I don’t know if that’s too much to hope for, but it’s the first time in 10 years that I’ve even really allowed the thought to cross my mind. The first fleeting thoughts of this after the original liberation therapy 2 years ago weren’t realistic. The good changes didn’t last. And consider this; a few months ago, I was in a wheelchair, in a permanent brain fog losing more of my independence and quality of life on a daily basis. All I had to look forward to was a deteriorating condition where others would have to take care of my every bodily function. Now I can’t wait to wake up every morning to check myself out. If anything I’m too impatient and working out too hard. But at least I can! Given my current state of health and ability to live and function on my own, the thing that is very certain is that I have a much better quality of life back and that wouldn’t have even been possible if it hadn’t been for the lucky discovery of CCSVI Clinic through an Internet search. My family and I will be eternally grateful for what has happened no matter how this turns out. Thanks to Dr. Gupte, the other doctors, the medical team and staff at the Clinic who made this all happen for me, I’m looking forward to each day with new health and optimism! May God Bless them all!

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