i was 8 weeks pregnant (had just found out) and at the gp's discussing what i was supposed to do/not do since I'm an expat living in London. While I was sitting in her office I started to bleed everywhere and the doctor told me it looked like a miscarriage. I started crying and she walked me to a dark broom closet and left me inside. A few minutes later another woman came in with kitchen roll and handed it to me and sat down. No talking, told me it might not be a miscarriage but looked like one. I didn't know what was going on, except that i was bleeding everywhere. Two men came in half an hour later with a wheelchair and whisked me away to an ambulance. Both were nice guys but both said it looked like a miscarriage but not to rule anything/everything out. I got to st marys and was put in a small room with a giant blood stain on one wall. The nurses handed me more paper napkins and just left me there. By this time my husband had come home from work to be with me and I passed some material/clot? (the bleeding hadn't stopped and was just getting heavier). The doctor came in and first asked us a bunch of questions...some which weren't relevant
this is how the conversation went:
Doctor: why are you here?
Me: I'm bleeding, I think I'm miscarrying?
Doctor: your paperwork says you had been taking dianette, phenteramine, you were a smoker and that your about 8 weeks pregnant. I think your miscarrying also.
Me: yeah, I think it might be that also
Doctor: so your name is unusual...
Me and My husband: (say our last name not understanding why our name matters)
Doctor: no,no, it's pronounced this way (mis pronounces our last name) it's Pakistani in origin.
Husband: can we look into private care please? My wife is distressed and we would like not to be kept waiting.
Doctor: it's too expensive for you, and it's the same care as the nhs provides.
Husband: we'd be interested in it anyway
Doctor: what do you do?
Husband: I work
Doctor: how old are you?
Husband: how much longer do we need to be here for? when can you give us a final diagnosis?
Doctor: we can't let her out till she's had a scan, (it's around 10:30am) we might be able to give her an emergency scan at around 4pm. The emergency scanning service closes at 5:30
Me: so I just have to wait and keep bleeding until then?
Doctor: yes, we'll make you as comfortable as we can. (he leaves never to be seen again).
About two hours later a male nurse and female nurse come in:
the female nurse is very pregnant, btw.
Female nurse: we need to take blood to confirm your pregnancy.
Husband: there is a letter and scan picture in her records that confirm an interuterine pregnancy.
Male nurse: the doctor has asked us to run a blood test to make sure she 'was' pregnant.
Me: you can do that? Sure, take all the blood you want. (i'm still bleeding everywhere, no one has thought of giving me a pad or a towel).
They take blood, we sit and wait.
at 4:45ish someone comes with a wheelchair to take me to my scan. I'm STILL bleeding. They give me a pair of pants that are like large diapers. I wear them happily. I'm still bleeding profusely though. (have been bleeding constantly since the morning). They take me to the early pregnancy unit, the emergency scanning service, I'm surrounded by pregnant women, children and on the other side where i'm sitting closest to some sad looking women who aren't bubbling with joy. Some leafing through a yellow and black pamphlet that says "sorry you've miscarried". One which I am given before my husband takes a seat next to me.
It's about 5:15 and I'm getting anxious. I want to stop bleeding, I want to just get on with the day and focus on not being pregnant. I'm called in for my scan. I didn't realize this, but husband is carrying the clotted material (or stuff) I passed earlier in a little jar. He hands it to the nurse. Nurse tells me to wait and she gets a doctor to come in. We proceed to the scan.
Doctor: your cervix is closed
Me: what does that mean?
Doctor: well, lets see if we see a heart beat or not...ohh look, theres a heart beat. this is a viable pregnancy.
Husband: why is she bleeding?
Doctor: I don't know
Me: can you make it stop?
Doctor: I don't know why your bleeding
Husband: your scanning her, surely you can see why?
Doctor: I'm just here to see if the pregnancy is viable or not. this bleeding could be internal
Me: internal bleeding? isn't that serious?
Doctor: you can go home
Me: but I'm still bleeding like crazy, are you sure theres nothing wrong?
Doctor: you can go home, if it continues along you can come in tomorrow, but we close at 5:30
Me: what about private care? they would be open, wouldn't they?
Doctor: why would you want private care? (she steps back and raises her voice) it's the same treatment you'd get here!
Husband: ok, if you say she's ok we'll go
Me: yeah, so the pregnancy is viable, we'll just go now.
we leave. I'm still bleeding like crazy at this point, and neither of us know why.
we get home and look for a private obgyn who answers his phone right away. He's in Greece on Holiday but still talks to me about the reasons why the pregnancy is still viable and why I could be bleeding. 20 minutes after speaking with him, his secretary calls me and sets up an emergency appointment with the obgyn who is covering him at the time and asks me when I'd like to be seen. I figure I'll stay at home for the evening and go in the next morning. So I go in the next morning and am told the bleeding has been caused by the placenta pulling away and that i have some internal bleeding but it'll resolve itself. but we'll keep monitoring you.
i haven't miscarried, but this is how i was treated. your more than welcome to any of my records dealing with this incident.