Thistledown
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2011
- Messages
- 546
- Reaction score
- 0
It's been a bit of a crazy month for me. I went from a surprise positive HPT on the 15th, to being told I miscarried on the 19th. I'm sure my story is similar to others, but I really just want to get it all down somewhere. Sorry it's rather long!
First off, a little bit about me. I'm 31 years old, and my husband and I have been married for 4 1/2 years. We haven't been trying to get pregnant, though we're pretty relaxed about prevention (I tried BCP when we were engaged, and it gave me migraines - unfortunately quitting BCP didn't end the migraines, but that's neither here nor there). We occasionally use condoms, but usually just go with the withdrawal method. I also suspect I have endometriosis (my sister does, and I have a lot of the same symptoms) but have never bothered to have it confirmed.
I was due to start AF around the 10th this month. I tend to vary a couple days either way, so I wasn't terribly concerned when I was late. I was having some light brown spotting and sore breasts, all which I usually get a couple days before my period, so figured it would be "any time". My OH went back to work on the 13th (he works up at a mine, and is away anywhere from 4 days to a week at a time).
January 15th: I finally checked my calendar and realized how late I was! I did a HPT that evening, and it came up positive. Very positive - the vertical line came up within a minute and was darker than the horizontal! To say I was surprised is an understatement. A couple hours later when the shock had worn off a little, I decided to go into a walk-in clinic and get a requisition to have a blood sample taken (of course, I would chose to test on a Saturday when most everything is closed). They did a urine test too, which came up "faint", so they gave me the form for the blood test. I decided I would wait to tell my husband until he was home (we mostly text when he's at work, didn't seem like a good way to break the news!
)
January 16th: I did another HPT 1st thing in the morning, which also was a definite positive. Then I went to the only lab open on Sundays and had my blood drawn. They said I'd hear back in "a day or two".
January 17th: The clinic doctor called, and told me my HCG level was only 55. She wanted me to get another blood test done on Tuesday, 48 hours since the previous one. I also called my family doctor and booked an apt for Tuesday morning.
January 18th: Went to my family doctor, and they also did a urine test. For them, the test came up negative. Family doctor added his name to the new blood work request, and I went to a lab for another poke. Also picked up more HPTs. Did one later in the afternoon (after not peeing or drinking anything for 3 hours, so hard since one of my pregnancy symptoms was having to pee a LOT) and it also came out negative.
January 19th: Woke up with cramping. Did a HPT, this time a digital, and it came up positive and "1-2 weeks". But a few hours later I started bleeding. Called my family doctor, but he was already gone for the day. The receptionist suggested I go in to the ER. The ER did blood work, and were able to get the results from my previous 2 tests. My HCG levels had gone from 55, to 12, to less than 5. The ER doc told me it looked like a miscarriage, and asked if I wanted to come back for an ultrasound the next day. I decided I would.
January 20th: Hospital called Thursday at 7:30am to tell me there was an opening for an ultrasound at 1pm if I wanted it. Showed up with a full bladder and they did an abdominal ultrasound. Tech said there really wasn't anything to see on the abdominal scan, and since it was so early going through the abdomen could miss something. But with my permission they could do a trans-vaginal U/S. I went ahead with the trans-vaginal scan (which really was a lot less unpleasant than I expected it would be). They sent the results down to the ER doctor, and I got the verdict in a couple of hours. There was nothing left inside other than a thickened endometrial lining (which they expect to see during menstruation anyway), and my ovaries and everything look normal (at one point several years ago I did have an ovarian cyst that sorted itself out, so it was good to know it hadn't just been another cyst or something).
My husband came home around 6pm on Thursday. I was just shaking with nerves. He knew something was up with me, and he'd actually guessed I might be pregnant, since I was late when he left for work (clever, observant man that he is!) I had to tell him that I was, but not anymore.
I'm still not really sure what I feel about the whole situation, everything happened so fast. It has got us thinking more about starting a family. We both want kids "some day", and my OH said we'll have to talk about it "soon" now. Mostly I was surprised when I got a positive result, but I was also excited. It went so quickly from "I'm pregnant" to "I'm pregnant, maybe, what's going on??" though, that when I finally had an answer it was a relief (even if it was disappointing and not a good answer). I spent the week so stressed, waiting for for different results, waiting for OH to come home to tell him what was going on, etc.
From what I've been reading since, it was likely a chemical pregnancy, and when I discovered I was pregnant I was probably already miscarrying (low HCG and all). I do know there's nothing I did that would have caused it - I take a multivitamin every day that's got enough folic acid and not too much vitamin A, I don't really drink, I don't even usually take pain killers other than acetaminophen.
I'm not really sure if the bleeding I'm having now is still the miscarriage, or if it would count as the 1st period? It's been very similar to my usual periods, but then AF is usually pretty heavy and painful for me anyway.
I actually DO take comfort in the fact that now I know I actually can get pregnant. With my suspected endometriosis, and not being terribly careful about contraception for so long, I was really starting to think I wouldn't be able to have kids. Knowing that it's possible is actually a weight off my mind. Now that my emotions are settling down a little, I'm starting to feel really broody. I think I'm going to be ready to try to get pregnant again whenever OH is ready too!
First off, a little bit about me. I'm 31 years old, and my husband and I have been married for 4 1/2 years. We haven't been trying to get pregnant, though we're pretty relaxed about prevention (I tried BCP when we were engaged, and it gave me migraines - unfortunately quitting BCP didn't end the migraines, but that's neither here nor there). We occasionally use condoms, but usually just go with the withdrawal method. I also suspect I have endometriosis (my sister does, and I have a lot of the same symptoms) but have never bothered to have it confirmed.
I was due to start AF around the 10th this month. I tend to vary a couple days either way, so I wasn't terribly concerned when I was late. I was having some light brown spotting and sore breasts, all which I usually get a couple days before my period, so figured it would be "any time". My OH went back to work on the 13th (he works up at a mine, and is away anywhere from 4 days to a week at a time).
January 15th: I finally checked my calendar and realized how late I was! I did a HPT that evening, and it came up positive. Very positive - the vertical line came up within a minute and was darker than the horizontal! To say I was surprised is an understatement. A couple hours later when the shock had worn off a little, I decided to go into a walk-in clinic and get a requisition to have a blood sample taken (of course, I would chose to test on a Saturday when most everything is closed). They did a urine test too, which came up "faint", so they gave me the form for the blood test. I decided I would wait to tell my husband until he was home (we mostly text when he's at work, didn't seem like a good way to break the news!
)January 16th: I did another HPT 1st thing in the morning, which also was a definite positive. Then I went to the only lab open on Sundays and had my blood drawn. They said I'd hear back in "a day or two".
January 17th: The clinic doctor called, and told me my HCG level was only 55. She wanted me to get another blood test done on Tuesday, 48 hours since the previous one. I also called my family doctor and booked an apt for Tuesday morning.
January 18th: Went to my family doctor, and they also did a urine test. For them, the test came up negative. Family doctor added his name to the new blood work request, and I went to a lab for another poke. Also picked up more HPTs. Did one later in the afternoon (after not peeing or drinking anything for 3 hours, so hard since one of my pregnancy symptoms was having to pee a LOT) and it also came out negative.
January 19th: Woke up with cramping. Did a HPT, this time a digital, and it came up positive and "1-2 weeks". But a few hours later I started bleeding. Called my family doctor, but he was already gone for the day. The receptionist suggested I go in to the ER. The ER did blood work, and were able to get the results from my previous 2 tests. My HCG levels had gone from 55, to 12, to less than 5. The ER doc told me it looked like a miscarriage, and asked if I wanted to come back for an ultrasound the next day. I decided I would.
January 20th: Hospital called Thursday at 7:30am to tell me there was an opening for an ultrasound at 1pm if I wanted it. Showed up with a full bladder and they did an abdominal ultrasound. Tech said there really wasn't anything to see on the abdominal scan, and since it was so early going through the abdomen could miss something. But with my permission they could do a trans-vaginal U/S. I went ahead with the trans-vaginal scan (which really was a lot less unpleasant than I expected it would be). They sent the results down to the ER doctor, and I got the verdict in a couple of hours. There was nothing left inside other than a thickened endometrial lining (which they expect to see during menstruation anyway), and my ovaries and everything look normal (at one point several years ago I did have an ovarian cyst that sorted itself out, so it was good to know it hadn't just been another cyst or something).
My husband came home around 6pm on Thursday. I was just shaking with nerves. He knew something was up with me, and he'd actually guessed I might be pregnant, since I was late when he left for work (clever, observant man that he is!) I had to tell him that I was, but not anymore.
I'm still not really sure what I feel about the whole situation, everything happened so fast. It has got us thinking more about starting a family. We both want kids "some day", and my OH said we'll have to talk about it "soon" now. Mostly I was surprised when I got a positive result, but I was also excited. It went so quickly from "I'm pregnant" to "I'm pregnant, maybe, what's going on??" though, that when I finally had an answer it was a relief (even if it was disappointing and not a good answer). I spent the week so stressed, waiting for for different results, waiting for OH to come home to tell him what was going on, etc.
From what I've been reading since, it was likely a chemical pregnancy, and when I discovered I was pregnant I was probably already miscarrying (low HCG and all). I do know there's nothing I did that would have caused it - I take a multivitamin every day that's got enough folic acid and not too much vitamin A, I don't really drink, I don't even usually take pain killers other than acetaminophen.
I'm not really sure if the bleeding I'm having now is still the miscarriage, or if it would count as the 1st period? It's been very similar to my usual periods, but then AF is usually pretty heavy and painful for me anyway.
I actually DO take comfort in the fact that now I know I actually can get pregnant. With my suspected endometriosis, and not being terribly careful about contraception for so long, I was really starting to think I wouldn't be able to have kids. Knowing that it's possible is actually a weight off my mind. Now that my emotions are settling down a little, I'm starting to feel really broody. I think I'm going to be ready to try to get pregnant again whenever OH is ready too!
I'm really glad you can take some comfort from it though so that you now know you can get pregnant, as soon as you and your OH feel ready to you can try again, like Catcatcat said your meant to be more fertile after a MC
I'm trying really hard to keep thinking positively, but there are moments that are just really hard. I saw someone shopping the other day with a very tiny baby, and I just wanted to cry. Logically I know there was something not right for it to end, especially so early on, but knowing that doesn't stop me wondering at times if it would have been a boy or a girl, or feeling a little down walking past the baby sections in stores.
). I'm afraid I might be a nervous wreck, dreading another MC. I can't even imagine how difficult it is to pick up and keep trying after a second one! Good luck getting your doctor to take your concerns seriously today!
