i went to PA for a wedding at the end of june where i got to spend time with my family. it was a great trip and i was successfully able to hide my pregnancy. (wasn't hard considering i was only 5 weeks and my worst symptom was pounding headaches.) somehow the topic of pregnancy came up in a conversation between my sister-in-law, mom and i. laura (sil) mentioned that she had a bunch of blood disorders during her pregnancy which reminded both her and my mom that factor v (5) leiden runs in my family on my dad's side. this a is blood condition that can cause clotting, and is especially dangerous for pregnant women. it can be the cause of several miscarriages and even still births. they suggested i get tested for it "before" i get pregnant again. woops.
of course i played it cool from the outside but was freaking out on the inside. i go back to the hotel room and start researching. i learned that clotting can occur in the placenta and deprive the baby of everything it needs to survive. crap. now it's a saturday. i'm out of town. i can't call my doctor. i felt helpless. and it's not like only one person in my family has it. my grandpa, dad, uncle, brother and cousin are all positive. and those are just the ones who have been tested. i read that taking baby aspirin thins the blood and is recommended daily to reduce the chance of clotting. but i'm with my family who doesn't know i'm pregnant. how am i supposed to get baby aspirin? i found my window when we went out to lunch and i saw a target in the same shopping center. i ordered food and said i needed to go to target to grab sunflower seeds and chapstick. haha.
so monday finally comes and the second my dr.'s office opens i call and ask about this newly learned info. the nurse left a message for my dr. and i got a call back a few hours later. instead of waiting until july 18th for my first appt at 8 1/2 weeks she wants to see me right away. yikes. so i went in the day after i got home, wednesday the 29th. i was nervous to get an u/s because it was so early and i knew there was a chance of not being able to see a heartbeat. well, the u/s tech said i was measuring on track but we weren't able to see a heartbeat yet. all 3 of us thought we saw a tiny little fetal pole but no h/b and so she couldn't confirm it. i was bummed but felt a little better that everything looked okay.
until the doctor came in to talk to us. she informed us that the gestational sac was "irregular". whatever that means. she made it sound like there's a good chance this could end in miscarriage. again. my heart just sunk. this can't happen again.
they did blood tests for progesterone, rh factor and factor v.
i got a call 2 days later with my progesterone results and they were 24.4, which again meant nothing to me but the doctor said they look really good. the numbers don't show a threat for miscarriage. she also informed me that i am rh -, which means i will have to get a few shots throughout my pregnancy (assuming it is viable) so that my body doesn't try and produce antibodies to attack the baby.
i won't find out about the results of the factor v test until our next appointment. if i am positive, i will have to switch to a high-risk ob and will also have to give myself shots daily throughout the entire pregnancy.
talk about a long, crappy week. our next u/s is on thursday to determine if this is a viable pregnancy or not. basically, we need to see a heartbeat and if we don't, we lost this one too.
on a positive note, my boobs have hurt like hell and i get queasy about 3-4 times a day so that makes me feel better.
i'm praying that the next post includes a sonogram picture and not a tear-filled ending....
 | |
| 6 wks. |
No comments:
Post a Comment