Recurrent miscarriage testing and beyond.. Part 6.. Over here!

[orangebowl]

We have filled up the last thread so here is the next.. Deep breath and grit your teeth for the roller coaster of emotions that continues... Hope tea and butterfly and all find it!

Picardy I'm so sorry for what you're going through. It is so hard especially after seeing a hb. Has anyone every given you a reason as to why sometimes you mc and sometimes the pregnancy was fine? Can the conditions that you were diagnosed with sometimes not affect a pregnancy? How are you feeling today? I hope you have lots of support in RL although I know that no matter what its just total crap.

Hi Butterfly!! Sorry you're feeling stressed about it all. How are the wedding plans coming along? Sorry I can't remember when you said it was but is that why you can't try for 3 months? Have you got a honeymoon booked?

Baking I'm in the same annoying unexplained camp. It is frustrating and I worry that the tests weren't done properly or missed something. But it is good that we (hopefully) dont have any underlying conditions. I just hope it works next time! Your comment about DH made me laugh btw!! I'll keep everything crossed for your scan next week. I also have progesterone to take but not sure about the aspirin didn't take it with DD but consultant said to take last time as might as well but it didn't work. Are there any side effects with taking 75mg aspirin?

Squiz how long has it been now? Definitely push for a scan if you're still in pain even just to put your mind at rest. Although from what I've read, if you had an infection you would definitely know about it!!

News here is that I got a bfp this morning!!! Can't decide how I feel about it really. Relieved that I've managed to get pregnant as its taken a while this time. But I don't feel at all excited obviously and am just going to try not to get attached or lose the plot! Obviously now time is going to start going ridiculously slowing... I've started the progesterone but as I said above I'm not sure about the aspirin although I guess it can't hurt. Think ill ring consultant next week to try and get a scan although he's not heard from me for a year so has probably forgotten who I am!

It's been 3 weeks. I rang the gynie Dr on Monday - POAS tests have gone from instant dark red stripe the week of the op to palest line 5 min later this week. She said this was the slow end of normal. I asked about the pain and she said (and this is the same as all my other MCs) that some people do experience pain up until the next period. Irrationally scared of an ectopic, but that was all but ruled out - and I would have been in hospital by now if it were that!

PS. Have read up on aspirin. No side effects at 75mg BUT no long haul flights. But then again that's the same for pregnant ladies isn't it?

Tea sorry phone breaking up my messages - congrats and GOOD LUCK!! :)

Thanks Squiz. Keeping everything crossed although cant say I feel massively hopeful. Going to take aspirin as the consultant was very blasé about it last time so can't do any harm. Such a shame you can't drink when pregnant as wine would certainly help pass the next next few weeks....

Congratulations, Tea! I know very well the feeling of not knowing how to feel on that positive test. my successful pregnancies seem such a world away now, they really do.

Keeping everything crossed, Baking.

Thank you everyone for the good wishes. It's hard, really hard (of course, as you all know), although I am being looked after marvellously by dh and friends. We have no idea why I mc so often but have also carried to term. I had the first three mc interspersed with the two dc, all in quick succession - there were 3 years and 3 months between my first ever positive test and the birth of dc2 -, and my gynae back then put it down to bad luck, esp because I never (and still haven't) had 3 in a row. I suppose, because several years have gone by since then, my age might theoretically be augmenting the issues, but getting pregnant still doesn't seem to be much of an issue, so I suppose the answer is we really don't know. I get asked a lot if all my pregnancies were with the same partner which I think means I present a bit of a puzzle to the medics too. Whatever the cause, I am very glad and grateful indeed to have my two boys.

Squiz, IIRC it took weeks and weeks for my hcG to become non-pregnant after my third mc (blighted ovum). It was all fine, I conceived dc2 4 months after the mc.

Picardy thanks!! Very reassuring. In spite of advice via phone from EPU nurse just now too (who said 'go to your GP if you're worried - it sounds typical')... got myself into a state of terror. I KNOW that with my initial levels of HCG (9500 at week 6) anything would have been SEEN and if there was anything untoward in a tube it would be agonising by now, my PG was much too high for that (180 or 79 depending on your system) and my (overactive) cyst was on that side but .... well I'm nuts.

Tea! Congratulations! I know exactly what you mean about not being pleased about a BFP and wondering if you have just got yourself another whole heap of misery, but you have to be in it to win it.
My consultant said 75mg aspirin, progesterone and 5mg folic acid were all firmly in the "can't hurt, might help" camp so I'd do (am doing) all three.

Squiz what was the bit about no long haul flights? Not that I'm planning any, but I would think taking aspirin lowered your risk of DVT? Sure that it's not that most people on that treatment are on it because of previous DVT or heart problems and so at increased risk?
Hope your pain settles down, you get a negative soon (took me 3 weeks each time) and your AF arrives to reassure you everything is still working.

Baking hmm probably more to do with the usual reason it's used (for non pregnant people- because they have DVT and strokes) than in your case I'd guess? Playing it safe they link it to the drug not the condition. So the connection might not be cause-and-effect but the advice is. Seems quite common in the world of reproductive medicine! Safe-than-sorry. I can see why! No one wants to blame themselves.

Interestingly on playing-it-safe advice like this I was reading in a science book 'Coming To Term' that some docs think coffee isn't that much of a MC risk because surveys have purely correllated obvious MCs with women drinking lots of coffee the week before. These docs wonder if pregnant women don't find the taste overpowering and are feeling run down so crave it (in comparison to many who can't stomach it when pregnant), these docs wonder if maybe their coffee craving was a symptom of hormones starting to down before the MC is physically noticed by anyone, not any cause of the MC. Apparently lab style research has put the danger at 1 gallon a day - but survey evidence links 4 cups a day. But of course, it's best not to risk it so everyone errs on the cautious side. No one would knowingly take risks, and because a human lab-test to 'create' MCs would be utterly immoral we will never know!

TEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know you can't be all that excited at the moment so let us be excited for you and FX.

Aww guys you are so sweet! And Chandelier you're hilarious!! Thank you for the support. It's funny as I've only told DH in RL and don't want to tell anyone else at the moment but its nice to have you all rooting for me. I feel ok at the moment. Kind of like I could cope with any outcome. But I'm well aware that that will change loads over the next few weeks whatever happens. Going to keep repeating my mantra - you've got to be in it to win it! And at least I get a break from dtd!!

Just POAS to check if my hormones are falling. Looked the SAME as 4 days ago. Rang the hospital. Doctor agreed it is taking a long time ("you should not be showing on a urine test by now") but said HTP are unreliable for measuring drops in hormone. However he went through my case on the computer and did not seem immediately worried (ectopic, molar, infection, retained products = he thinks NO): told me to see my GP Monday for 48hr bloods. I'm half tempted to go into their weekend emergency GP tomorrow TBH. A nurse can take the bloods. So anxious.

...just checked online, several 'reputable' sites (e.g. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6462569?dopt=Abstract ) say it takes up to 6 weeks. Why does the hospital registrar think otherwise then? Confused.

TEA! that's fantastic news! in it to win it mantra all the way...! that's really made my day!! brilliant! Sorry for overexcitedness as completely understand all too well the feeling that comes with the BFP. Good that you are on the progesterone. Like you say you may as well start on the aspirin as does no harm.

squiz sorry to ask but i cant remember how pregnant you were when you last miscarried? When I had one at 9 weeks it took over 4 weeks for me to stop getting positive HPTs from what I remember- not sure if that helps put your mind at rest at all?

picardy hope you are feeling ok/better today. lots of hand holding available on this thread

baking I know that its not what you want to hear as I was also same but my amazing consultant told me very very clearly that those people where they found no cause for the miscarriage had the HIGHEST chance of their next pregnancy going to to term. We naturally want to know the cause and have a magic pill to fix but statistically you are currently in the best "pot". Those first weeks are so hard.. thinking of you

Guppie how long have you been ttc this time round? I cant remember.. I took 2 months with DS then for the next 4 pregnancies ending in m/c it took 2 months, 3 months, 3 months, 3 months. Then with this pregnancy about 5/6 months.. i was starting to worry but think its just luck of the draw sometimes.

Right, way past my bedtime now.. think ive got 5 more days till I am officially in the 3rd trimester but absolutely exausted!

xxx

Thank you. Bit tough today, unfortunately. Par for the course.

Squiz, I'm trying to remember the aftermath of that mc more clearly and am fairly certain that about a month after I had a blood test which came back at about 100. HPTs register from 12 or 25, I think. I remember being concerned. But another two weeks down the line I was at non-pg levels.

School thanks for your words of encouragement!! I am not at all excited at the moment. I do feel a bit relieved that its worked and I don't need clomid. But otherwise just feel apprehensive and dreading the next few weeks! Can't let myself get excited....

Squiz not sure if this is reassuring or not but I didn't do a hpt after any of my 3 mc, I just waited for my AF to arrive. So who knows what my levels were! All the consultants said no point in testing... I know you are really anxious though and I hope you find a way to get through all this. Do whatever you need to do to get the reassurance you need.

Tea I just popped in to say hi and read your news that's fantastic all I can say is I know exactly how your feeling but I am nearly 17 weeks now and been told its a BIG boy if he continues to grow big they won't let me go past 37 weeks!!! But my point is I feel the asprin has to help cos I wasn't even getting to 10 weeks and now we are here!
I am so happy for you xxx

Thanks guys! Went to hospital today, I'm at 300 HCG down from 9500+ before the MC ... this gynie Dr said I was slow-but-normal and booked a routine scan to check uterus is empty next week. She did a lot of poking around, put my risk of ectopic at under 1/1000 (as they'd got products from the uterus and my PG was so high before) hence sent home and told only to return before routine appt if violently ill. Phew.

School and LandsN... whhooohooo, exciting times. Still keeping it all crossed as usual! :)

Hi Lands! Thanks so much for the message. 17 weeks is amazing especially with everything that you went through at the beginning of the pregnancy. Praying I get that far. Are you taking 75mg aspirin? I'm taking that and progesterone so hoping something works!!

Squiz glad all is ok. Fingers crossed that you return to 'normal' soon and can try to move on from all this stress.

hi tea yes I am I have also been taking a pregnancy multi vitamin which midwife said she doesn't think would make a difference but I believe it has, I never in a million years thought I would get this far but have managed to so all my hopes are with you that you are here very soon too :) xx

Thanks Lands. I'm also taking loads of vitamins - although I was for 2 out of 3 mc. But can only do good things!!

Me too on the vitamins, though I've always taken them and it's not made any difference. One less thing to blame if it does go wrong though, I would hate to worry that I MC for lack of vit C or something.

my only theory was that I was taking them when I conceived my 2 dcs and not with the 3 mcs so thought I would give it a try again this time and may be a total coincidence but this one seems to be fighting fit so far :) x

I'm waiting till after my clinic tests but on multivits and b-vit complex already. When I get my bfp I'll rattle!

I don't honestly think multivits could sway it, but can't hurt, and it makes sense to keep yourself as healthy as you possibly can. I'm just waiting for someone to decide you can OD on folic acid. I've been taking it continuously for nearly 2 yrs and am now on 10 tablets a day!
Multivit + aspirin + 5 folic acid + progesterone pessary in the morning and 5 folic acid + progesterone in the evening. Rattle and squelch ladies, rattle and squelch, all in a good cause it had better bloody work
Squiz I'm glad your levels are dropping, hope you are feeling reassured things are getting back to normal for you.
LandsN I think when I joined the thread you were where I am now and freaking out, it's so good to hear that everything is working out for you.