C-section scar pregnancies, like other more common ectopic pregnancies, are often ended by injecting the fetus with methotrexate — a drug more commonly used to treat cancer. But Dr. Timor-Tritsch had designed a new method for terminating these pregnancies — the double-balloon catheter method — and I would be the 14th person he’d be performing it on.
The main advantages are that it is a minimally invasive way of ending a pregnancy without losing the uterus and it has a low risk of bleeding.
So I lay on the table in his office with my husband next to me, and the doctor, his two assistants and a couple of nurses making preparations. I asked them to turn on a monitor so I could see what the doctor was doing and though they advised against it, I insisted. When he started dilating my cervix, I cursed every person in and out of that room and begged for something for the pain but was given no anesthesia.
I watched as under ultrasound guidance he inserted a double balloon catheter into the uterus. He filled the upper balloon with water to ensure that the catheter didn’t slip out. Then, he inflated the lower balloon, filling that one with water, too. It pressed the embryo embedded into my C-section scar against the wall of my uterus, until the heart beat no more. In the second embryo, which was close by, the heartbeat had already stopped. My body would eventually absorb both sacs.
Then he sent me home for two days, the balloons inside me, fat tubes snaking down my legs and taped to my thighs. Exhausted, I curled up next to my girls, my tears wetting their hair after they’d fallen asleep.
I had been eight weeks pregnant, so it would take eight weeks for my body to become un-pregnant. In that time, we were in a state of limbo. All I could do was keep watch over my levels of beta hCG, a pregnancy hormone, every week, hoping they would go down to zero. They did.
And the doctor, who had preserved my uterus for a future and wanted pregnancy, warned that, if I chose to have another child, though rare, this could happen again. I also was told that if I did get pregnant again I should immediately get an ultrasound exam to make sure that this rare kind of pregnancy hadn’t reoccurred.
I did want another baby eventually but was advised to wait at least six months for my body to recover.
Four months later, again, despite precautions, I was looking at another positive pregnancy test. That one ended in a miscarriage, as did another one after it. Luckily, neither of those was on the scar. My body and mind needed time to heal after carrying a gaping, black hole of four losses in one year.
Now, two years later, I’ve successfully conceived and given birth to a healthy baby boy, and I carry those losses with peace in my heart.
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