A Medical Mystery

I've had a new experience for the pregnancy archives. Baby decided to go transverse. He also thought it would be cool to take out my lungs while he was at it! I woke up Sunday morning with my rib cage on the right side aching and it hurt to breathe. By 10 I was getting a sharp stabbing pain in my right shoulder with each breath and I couldn't expand my lungs more then short gasping breaths.

It was quite scary...but it only got worse. By evening all of the right sided pain I had was on both sides. It felt like my lungs were being crushed...kind of what I imagine an asthma attack would feel like. I couldn't lay down at all because that made the breathing pain unbearable. Sunday night was very, very long. I spent most of it in my birthing tub because the water alleviated the pressure from my lungs so that I could breathe. I also got a very strange symmetrical red line about 16 inches long across the top of my belly in a semicircle shape.

I did get a couple hours of sleep in the birthing tub. At 5am the symptoms were as I described, but by 7 they were getting better and by the time the doctor's office opened it was all nearly gone. I went to see the doctor anyway because I didn't want to chance it happening again that night and not being able to fix the problem. I didn't really think it was pregnancy related...I never read about anything similar in baby books or websites.

The doctor said it was pregnancy related. He had no idea what caused the breathing pain because my lungs were clear. He confirmed that the baby is transverse (laying across my belly) and that could have possibly been the cause. The red line is a bruise and his profound medical opinion was..."That is weird."...with no idea what caused it.

So here I am today with a breeched baby. The inability to breathe deeply, laugh, or cry. My rib cage feels bruised. And I have a red smile across my belly!