On August 6, 2010, I gave birth to a baby girl. Immediately after my daughter was born, the doctors discovered that my placenta couldn’t be delivered because it had grown into my uterus. I was given a D & C procedure to clean it out, but began hemorrhaging and ended up in the ICU. I was in the ICU for five days and had a total of eight blood transfusions. All this with a newborn baby! It was not what I expected.
I went home six days later. At my follow-up exam later that month I was healing well, but I was still bleeding quite a bit. A few days later the bleeding got worse, and I noticed a sensation of fullness and pressure in my pelvic area. My OB/GYN doctor did an internal exam and told me that he thought my uterus had inverted (turned inside out). The next day, I had an MRI that confirmed I had a uterine inversion. My doctor explained that this is a rare occurrence—made even more rare by the fact that the inversion happened a month after giving birth to my daughter. He also said that the problem could only be fixed by surgery. Because my condition was so rare, he started calling all around trying to find someone who had performed this type of procedure. He ended up talking to about 10 different doctors, most of whom recommended taking out my uterus—something I wanted to avoid if at all possible, since I’d just had my first child and wanted to preserve the option to have more children.
Time was getting short—I was bleeding very heavily by this point and my doctor wanted to have the problem taken care of ASAP. He had gotten the name of Dr. Ken Levey, a gynecologic surgeon at NYU Langone Medical Center who he’d heard was excellent, so he called him and the two of them spoke at length. Dr. Levey explained that he would perform the operation robotically, using the least-invasive approach possible, in order to lessen the trauma on my body. This was important, since I had a new baby that I needed to care for. Whatever happened with my uterus, I wanted to be able to recover from the surgery as quickly as possible.
Two days later, my husband and I saw Dr. Levey in his office. He assured us that he would do everything he could to avoid removing my uterus and would only perform a hysterectomy as a last resort. But he also explained that there was no way to be sure he could save my uterus until he actually began operating. Dr. Levey added that since my condition was so rare, he’d never actually done a uterine inversion procedure himself, but he’d spent the previous couple of days researching it. He had pulled up a number of articles from medical journals—including some from the 1940s—describing the procedure. “If they could do this in the 1940s, then we can do it now with all the technology we have!” he told us.
The meeting went very well. I’d been extremely nervous going in, but my husband and I both felt very comfortable with Dr. Levey and sensed that we were in good hands. He was clearly an experienced surgeon who had done many surgical procedures and had cutting edge technology at his disposal. So we went ahead and scheduled the operation for the following week.
By the time we met with Dr. Levey again a few days later, he’d had a chance to consult via e-mail with doctors in Canada and India who had performed this type of operation. I appreciated the fact that he was doing so much research. He told us that as a precaution against any risk of excessive bleeding during the operation, he would have an interventional radiologist put in an intrauterine balloon immediately prior to the surgery. The balloon could then be inflated if necessary to stop any bleeding that might occur. He also arranged for me to check into the hospital the night before and receive a blood transfusion, if necessary, in order to boost my blood supply prior to the operation. The fact that he was being so proactive was very reassuring.
The operation took place on September 27 and lasted about five hours. First, Dr. Levey went in manually to try and push the uterus into place. When that didn’t work, he ended up using the robot to cut my uterus free, put it back in its correct position, and sew it in place. After it was all over, Dr. Levey came out to tell my family that I was doing fine and that I still had my uterus. They were thrilled to hear the good news—and so was I, after I came out of the anesthesia and learned what had happened.
After the procedure, I stayed in the recovery room most of the night so the nurses could monitor me to make sure there was no bleeding where the balloons were placed. I was finally taken to my hospital room the following morning. That same afternoon, they said that since I was able to eat, use the bathroom, and manage my pain, I could leave the hospital that day! I was amazed that I was able to get home so quickly. It was important to me that we were all back home together as a family as soon as possible.
It was also extremely important to me to have a fast recovery, since I wanted to be able to care for my baby. I was able to stop taking heavy-duty pain medication the day after I got home. Two days later, with the consent of my pediatrician, I resumed breastfeeding. By the following week I was feeling significantly better. I had a little residual bleeding, but by the time I had my follow-up exam with Dr. Levey on October 15 this was reduced to light spotting. At that exam, he removed my stitches and gave me the green light to lift objects heavier than 10 pounds, which meant I could finally start holding my baby.
It may sound silly, but to be able to take my baby for a walk and feel no discomfort is the most wonderful feeling in the world. Before my operation, the pressure had been so great that it was hard for me to walk from one room to another. It’s now a month after the surgery, and my energy level is great. Except for a little soreness now and then I feel fine, and everyone tells me I look so much better. It all worked out really well. I appreciate everything that Dr. Levey did, and am thrilled that my doctor found him!
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