They Came Like a Wrecking Ball

In July 2024, I found out I was pregnant, and our first ultrasound had us in shock: we were having twins. All in all, it was a pretty uneventful pregnancy — no morning sickness, no nausea, no weird cravings. The only symptoms I really experienced were vivid dreams, night sweats, and the occasional craving for a burger, donut, or Portuguese egg tart from Mr. Bread.

Then came the third trimester, where everything seemed to get harder. I had preclampsia without severe symptoms, our babies were both laying on my right side pinching a nerve in my hip so I had to move with crutches, and I was anemic.

We were scheduled to deliver at 37 weeks and until then, I had to go to the hospital twice a week for non-stress tests where they monitor your babies’ movements and once a week for blood tests (we just combined this with the second non-stress visit). Of course, nothing goes as planned, and I ended up needing to deliver early…but the actual story of how it went was the total opposite of what we could have ever imagined and is also something I will be holding over our twins’ heads for the rest of their lives!

TL;DR: I fell at home, and it led to an emergency C-section, after which I learned that I fractured my hip and needed a hip replacement. Keep reading for the whole saga!

The (Unexpected) Delivery Day

It was supposed to be a regular non-stress test day at the hospital (we were supposed to deliver at the Sutter California Pacific Medical Center Van Ness campus) until I slipped on the last step in our house with my crutch while I was headed to the car. I caught myself from falling to the ground by using my right leg, which was my bad side (babies sitting on my hip, remember?), and that was when I felt a pop/crack in my hip. I immediately was in pain and started crying while keeping my foot off the ground because I could not put any weight on that leg anymore.

To this day, I still am not sure how I dragged myself to the car, but we made it, and then Alan made it to the hospital where he grabbed a wheelchair for me because the pain was just getting worse as time passed.

During the non-stress test, I had pretty high blood pressure readings, and the nurse said it was likely due to the pain I was in (duh), but she sent us to OB triage just in case. We headed over in the wheelchair, but I was still in pain the entire time, and it was only getting worse. Once I was in triage, I had to give a urine sample, and they had to bring in a Sara Stedy, a special chair for immobile patients who can't stand, to get me back to the bed from the bathroom, but even that sent shooting pain through my hip.

Emergency C-section

A few moments later, Dr. Secily Bason-Mitchell came to tell Alan and me that my bloodwork had come back and wasn't looking good. The preclampsia had gotten worse and my kidneys were overproducing protein, so I had to deliver that same day. Luckily, I had been in the hospital the month before for monitoring so the doctors had already given me steroid shots for the babies in case of early delivery. With no other options, we decided to do a C-section since my hip was in so much pain that an epidural likely was not going to help much. The nurses proceeded to cut my clothes off and shaved me in preparation for the surgery while the doctor called my OB, Emily Hu, to see if she could make it in to deliver (thank God she did come).

And then while we're waiting for the operating room to be ready, of course there's an earthquake and we feel the room shake and I felt the bed under me shake! Later, we learned that it was a 3.9 earthquake that hit Dublin, but it was one of the few times I felt shaking that strong. Luckily, it ended quickly and I was wheeled to the operating room about half an hour later.

The team had to get me onto the operating table, and, once again, I was in excruciating pain from being pulled over onto the table. Unfortunately, the pain didn't end because the anesthesiologist then had to give me a spinal tap. Because it might not be effective if I'm lying down when they inject, 3 nurses and the anesthesiologist had to try to move me into a sitting position and hold me while I was still crying in pain the entire time. Thankfully, once the anesthesia hit, I finally was numb and could no longer feel the pain. The C-section itself went smoothly — I had chills and shakes but the babies were delivered without any problems. Thank you to Dr. Hu and Dr. Bason-Mitchell for working so quickly!

My Broken Hip

The next day, my hip was still in pain despite the pain medications I was on, and it was time for the doctor to tackle this problem since the babies were delivered. A physical therapist came by and thought it was potentially my pelvis that had split due to the pregnancy and my fall, but she recommended ordering an X-ray to be certain. Because I couldn't move from my bed, they brought a portable machine to me, but I was in pain again when they had to move the hard X-ray board under my body for the scan. Fast forward a few hours later and the nurse comes by to say they think I fractured my hip, but I was going to need a CT scan to make sure — and yes, the scan confirmed I had fractured my hip 🥲

The doctors told me I needed to get hip replacement surgery so, two days later, I was transported to another campus (Sutter CPMC Mission Bernal Campus & Orthopedic Institute) where an orthopedic surgeon could perform the operation. At this point, I had only seen our twins once after delivering because the NICU was only accessible by foot or by wheelchair and I was stuck in bed due to my hip. I have to give a special shout-out here to the NICU doctor, Terri Slagle, and the team of nurses Meghan, Michelle, and Mary who knew I hadn't had the chance to see or hold my babies since delivering. They measured my hospital bed to make sure it would fit in the NICU room and through the doors, and wheeled me down to hold my babies before I had to go to the other hospital campus. I was upset about needing to get another surgery, and being able to hold my babies when I knew I wouldn't be able to see them for who knows how long made me so happy that I cried right then and there!

Shortly after, the ambulance came to pick me up, and, as you can imagine, the transfer to a gurney and the ambulance ride was painful, but the two EMTs who picked me up were very kind. One sat in the back to hold the bed from moving too much and the other tried to drive slowly while avoiding as many potholes as he could.

We didn't get a chance to talk to Dr. Peter Callender until right before the surgery when a consent form needed to be signed, but we were told that a hip replacement was the only option due to the nature of the break. Cue another spinal tap and surgery (this time I was completely unconscious), but that surgery also went well and now I have a metal ball in my hip that will be the bane of my existence whenever I need to fly. And, in another turn of events, I was told post-surgery that I needed to get a bone density scan because Dr. Callender noticed that my bone was abnormally soft during the operation, and he had to reinforce the hip replacement 🫠 But once again, the surgery went smoothly and Dr. Callender and his team made sure I was taken care of physically and emotionally before and after!

Recovery

I had to stay in the hospital for a few days getting blood transfusions and other things, but recovery was especially hard because I had to recover from two back-to-back surgeries. Despite being short staffed, the nurses at the Mission Bernal Sutter campus were incredibly kind and helpful, and happy to chat when I needed some human interaction — shout out to Aneet who was taking care of me almost the whole week!

But not going to lie — it was rough. Postpartum blues are real, and this had me at my breaking point more than once. Luckily, Alan was there the entire time (literally) to comfort me, to wash all of my pump bottle parts, to transport my breast milk to the other hospital where our girls were staying in the NICU, and to sit through nurse check-ins and the god awful experience of trying to get a bowel movement out after too many meds. Shout-out to my parents who visited our twins in the NICU daily and reported back to me how they were doing. I'm also very grateful to the Sutter doctors and nurses that took care of me during this time that was both physically and mentally challenging!

A week after my hip surgery, I was officially discharged in a wheelchair, and our girls came home from the NICU a few days later. I did cry when I got home, and I still have PTSD when I look at our staircase. I still don't like wearing socks or slippers while walking around because I'm scared of slipping on the stairs and falling again.

But, when I'm writing this, I still have to use a walker to get around, but my body seems to be getting better day by day. With physical therapy exercises, I can now walk up and down the stairs unassisted, and I can shower without any help — I do need to use a shower chair though. With a few more weeks of exercises, I'll hopefully be back on my feet and can stop using the walker! Also, literally everyone in both hospitals knew about me because they had never seen or heard of a 35-year-old pregnant woman who delivered and then needed hip replacement surgery — it's one for the history books.

Needless to say, I will not be having any more children, but thinking about how my girls need me has been motivation for me to recover as quickly as my body will allow. And I will forever hold this story over their heads as a reason for them to be kind to me until the day I die 😂

Fun fact: The girls were born on St. Patrick's Day, but it's also the day I randomly picked in my calendar to be Momo's birthday when I adopted her 7 years ago!