Retained Placenta

During my healing process after the birth of Austin, I kept reaching out to the doctors because I felt that I shouldn't still be bleeding and cramping the way I was. Three months had gone by and I continued to receive the same response, "Your continued bleeding is probably due to the complications of the birth of your son and your excess bleeding during your C-section." So, in my mind, that made sense and I would let it go. 
Fast forward to New Years Eve- remember, I had Austin in September- something fell out of me. It wasn't a clot, but had some resemblance of an organ? It had a grey/purple hue, and was hard. So I knew it wasn't normal. After sending a photo into the nurse line that I had contacted previously, I was told to come in for an ultrasound. 
The ultrasound did in fact show a "scattering" of pieces of unidentified material. After speaking with my doctor, he told me that it was unlikely to be a retained placenta because I had not gotten seriously sick in the three months following my son's birth. But he said that we could do a D&C to ensure that everything was cleaned up inside. At that point, I preferred he go ahead with it because I wanted to cover my bases and start fresh. 
Turns out, the D&C was a good idea because I had many pieces of retained placenta left inside of me. 
For those who are unaware, retained placenta can be extremely dangerous and lead to sepsis and death. 
My doctor apologized and stated that he was unsure how this happened because he and his assistant did a "wipe" through to ensure nothing would be left behind. The only thing he could think of was that there was so much blood during my complications, that the goal was to just stop the bleeding and close me up. 

All this to say, if you feel that something is off with your body, make sure you continue following up on it!