lightheadedness, MMC, D&C - please help

[Nimyra]

This is my first time posting here. I have just been through the week from Hell.

I found out on Wednesday that I had lost my baby. I was supposed to be 10.5 weeks along and my dr. said the baby stopped growing at 9 weeks. I had been feeling very lightheaded for the previous week - my doctor didn't know if that was related or not. I wasn't showing any signs of miscarrying naturally so I decided to have a D&C done on Friday.

It went fine and I was feeling fairly well later that day. Over the course of the weekend my feelings of lightheadedness got worse and worse and I went to the ER to get checked out.

They told me that my bloodwork looked normal, as did my blood pressure, but my pulse was elevated (120 bpm resting). They ordered an ultrasound and found that there were still tissues that the D&C had missed.

The ER doctor told me that the missed tissues and my hormones explained the high pulse and dizziness/lightheadedness.

The OBGYN said that she didn't think the dizziness was related to the D&C or miscarriage at all since I had symptoms prior to the first procedure. She said that we could go ahead and do a second D&C anyway (which I wanted to do anyway since my body doesn't seem to be taking care of things and I wasn't bleeding or anything).

We did a second D&C last night. It went fine and I'm feeling okay today. I still feel a bit lightheaded but not as bad as yesterday.

I don't know what to think about the differing opinions of the doctors. Seems to be they either don't know or want to minimize blame.

Has anyone experienced lightheadedness like this? For you was it due to shock, body trauma, hormones, or something else? How long did it take to go away? What can I be doing to help my body heal?

Please help. Thank you.

 

[LucyLake]

Hi sweetie,

I'm sorry for your loss. The headaches and dizziness are the hormone levels crashing. They were dropping at a normal rate before the D&C.....In your case, having a D&C would really accentuate the light-headedness because the levels crashed literally in minutes. I'm having a missed MC, (8 wks, no heartbeat) that I found out about 2 weeks ago and am waiting to take cytotec for it this week....My headaches were UNREAL the first two weeks, it's only today that I feel like I've lost my sense of pregnancy smell, hunger, cravings, sore breasts, and all the other little symptoms.

Gradually, as your levels hit 0, you will feel better.

I'm so sorry for your loss, all of us are here if you need to talk

 

[Nimyra]

Thank you Lucy. That helps.

The stupid OB (not my usual ob, just the one on call) was all like, "oh, the lightheadedness is unrelated, you should see your GP to rule out an inner ear thing." I was like, seriously?!

I think I'm also having a hard time just second guessing my decisions. I told them I wanted an D&C (both times) because I feel like I just need to get this experience over with so that I can grieve in peace without worrying about my health in addition to the loss. I hope that I did the right thing and that the multiple D&Cs won't hurt my fertility if we decide to try again.

 

[LucyLake]

I'm happy for you that you have physical closure and that you don't have to worry about hanging onto extra tissue As hard as this is, I'm glad that in the event of a D&C you don't have the mental anguish of feeling how final death really is because it's two weeks out and my baby is still in my tummy I was prescribed cytotec and it just became ready an hour ago at the pharmacy, but my son has a stomach bug and is home sick. The last thing I want is my 8 year old going through this with me

I'm so sorry about your doctor too. I must say, I've found them to be pretty dismissive through this experience and sometimes downright wrong. Mine was adamant that I conceived January 9-13 timeframe when my husband was on a business trip, when I KNEW it was January 1. I was measuring behind, but raising concerns about it were all dismissed by her and the staff.

I'm so sorry and rest assured, I think your headaches are normal. Signs of infection would be more along the lines of stinky blood, fever, chills

 

[LuckyW]

I sort of passed out recently, right after taking a shower. Luckily I was able to call out to my mate before total lights out, so I didn't end up hitting my head on the faucet or anything.

I don't know what happened exactly, but I was guessing: sudden change in blood pressure, low blood sugar and/or dehydration. Lucy's explanation of crashing hormones resonates too.

For some reason, mango juice has been making me feel better throughout this whole miscarriage. It's not something I normally drink, but I've been finding myself getting up in the middle of the night and just being really thirsty for something cold, sweet and tangy.

I also feel better when I take walks and get fresh air. When I fainted, I think I may have been spending too much time in bed. The shower was the longest I'd stayed standing on that particular day.

Very sorry for your loss, and that you had an awful week. That must have been so disheartening to find you needed that second d&c. I'd opted for misoprostol, and was so bummed when the first two doses didn't work. (Eventually everything resolved itself, though.)

 

[Nimyra]

Interesting that you mention mango juice. I usually hate mango but the week before my miscarriage I was suddenly craving mango juice. I've run out now, but maybe i'll go out tomorrow and buy more. I'm wondering if blood sugar is part of this.

 

[EarthMama]

I'm so sorry for your loss. I also experienced lightheadedness and headaches after my hormones crashed, even a bit of nausea. I am still going thru it actually. And craving mangoes here too! Just ate a bunch this morning. I hope your dizziness passes soon xx

 

[Nimyra]

It's been a bit better today. I'm taking it easy and staying seated or lying down more. I'm also making an effort to keep my sugars more stable.

Tomorrow I am determined to go to the store for mango juice.

I'm an emotional wreck of course. Spent most of the day crying. My daughter goes to daycare and I had a babysitter come this evening to help get her cared for and off to bed this evening. I went in to rock her a little before sleep and I suddenly burst into tears. She asked what was wrong and I said that I was okay, just sad. She gave me a big kiss to "make it better" and said we had to get Mommy some medicine.

I feel awful for crying in front of her like that, but it just happened. I reassured her of course that everything was okay and we went back to singing and rocking.

I'm a mess.

 

[LuckyW]

Awww! I really wish I could go to the store for you, I really do.

 

[Nimyra]

Still feeling light headed. Saw my doctor today. She said she doesn't think its hormones and suggested a cardiologist referral.

I guess I need to rest more in the meantime. I'm also going to go for acupuncture tomorrow. Here's hoping my acupuncturist can help me.

 

[Nimyra]

I'm thinking now that the doctors were right after all... Today I learned that there is a cardiological/neurological condition matching my symptoms and for many women it develops during or after pregnancy due to the hormonal changes on the vascular system. I'm going to pursue things with the cardiologist to try to get a diagnosis and treat my dizziness as if it is caused by this in the meantime.

Now I'm wondering if maybe this miscarriage served protect my health... apparently the condition can be irreversible (especially when pregnancy-induced). Maybe it would have gotten a lot worse.

Now I'm for sure thinking that I'm going to wait to get a cardiologic all-clear before thinking about TTC again. It would be very sad not to have another pregnancy, but I would also not like to be disabled and unable to care for my daughter.

Anyway, nothing really to decide now. Just going to try to take care of myself and wait for my cardio appointment and see what we can figure out.