Seven months after giving birth to my second son, I found out that I was pregnant. Just after my second son’s first climb in Mt. Ugo. I didn’t have my checkup immediately, because I got traumatized during my first pregnancy when I got all too excited that I lost the baby after only two months of conceiving. On my consequent pregnancies, I would wait for the first tri-semester to pass, before I go to the Ob-Gyn. I didn’t want to go during the first trimester, because that’s when the doctor ordered for a transvaginal ultrasound–my suspected culprit for the miscarriage of my first pregnancy.
I found out I was pregnant on February 6, 2016, but I went to my first OB-Gyn visit on April 30th of that year. The OB-Gyn told me that I was having twins. I had mixed emotions, actually. I didn’t know if I could handle twin pregnancy, and I wanted to hear that I was going to have a baby girl, so I could decide it to be my last pregnancy. However, the doctor told me that I was having twins, and that I was having twin boys. I was dumbfounded.
I was already informed that twin pregnancies were usually terminated earlier. Meaning, twins usually wanted to see the world a little earlier than scheduled. We were looking at 36 weeks. The twins didn’t give me a hard time during the pregnancy. In fact, my pregnancies with Yeshua and Coby were a lot more difficult. Little did I know, that they intended to see the world three months earlier than expected.
At 26 weeks, Lance’s water bag broke. We went to the OB-Gyn to have it checked. She advised us to rush to a hospital. She wrote a recommendation letter for Philippine General Hospital (PGH). The wait at the triad area was unbelievable. I was complaining of pain, because Andrei’s water bag was causing pressure pain on my hips and diaphragm, I could hardly breathe. The nurses at PGH were telling me that my case wasn’t urgent, so I decided to leave and look for other hospitals that would attend to me. We went to Chinese General Hospital and got rejected. They didn’t have enough bassinet. We went to Sto. Thomas University Hospital, and again, got rejected. They said that they wouldn’t be able to save my babies as they should’ve at least reached 28 weeks AOG (age of gestation). We went to San Lazaro Hospital, and again, got rejected because they didn’t have enough space in NICU for premature twins. Finally, we reached Philippines Children’s Medical Center in Quezon City, and got accepted. The staff immediately scheduled me for ultrasound. And after a few minutes, I was already confined in the maternal ward.
The OB-Gyn told me to hold it for three weeks. If my twins could stay more, their chance of surviving would have been better. However, I was already exhibiting signs of infection, so after 3 days of confinement, my twins had to be delivered stat via Caesarian Section (CS).
Upon birth, Lance had to be revived. Andrei got a low APGAR score. Both were injected with surfactant, so that their immature lungs would function. Both weighed less than a kilogram. Andrei was barely 900 grams, while Lance was only 720 grams. Both had sepsis and had to be on strong antibiotic therapies. They didn’t pass any urine for days. Lance died because of this, after 10 days of being born. Andrei, on the other hand, was responding well to treatments.
…TO BE CONTINUED…
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