Recurrent Miscarriage Support thread 13 - tests, treatment, trying again

[bakingtins]

Welcome everyone! A thread for anyone who has experienced recurrent miscarriages and is in need of information, companionship, tea and sympathy. Newbies welcome to join at any stage.

Start with the traditional recap please......

Hey bootles know nowt when it comes to drugs, but I am the zame as you, symptoms have always given me a heads up on mcs. However this time round 6-8 (my danger period) weeks they pretty much all went except dry mouth. I felt so well, people kept telling me how well I looked, wasnt remotely tired. Was convinced it was all over. Until I woke up one saturday feeling like crap and have been the same ever since. I think symptoms can be fickle.
boozle good luck at the epau. The cramps must be worrying. This time round i have been getting trapped wind which feels a bit crampy. (Until I let one rip and it instantly eases off).

Thinking of you today, Boozle, sending you good luck vibes and hugs!

I've also been driving myself loopy with come and go symptoms. The latest being that I have been waking up before my alarm and so, clearly I am not as tired as I should be and so it must be all going wrong again. I felt nice and sick last night, so I think (rationally) I'm fine (although possibly bonkers). Next scan is on 9th Dec and it feels so far away! I'm about 9.3 today and every time I sneak a look at a book (which is bad luck in itself) it tells me I should be more tired than ever. I'm turning in to a total nutter!!!

All the cramping seems to have stopped and no more spotting so I think I'm going to hold fire until my planned scan on Tuesday - I've decided I can't change the outcome anyway and if all is ok they won't scan me next week which is bang in the middle of my danger zone. Anymore cramps or anything I'll hot foot it straight over though. I know exactly what you mean by symptom spotting - I've looked six months pregnant since the OH's sleek looked at me and have been in mat clothes since six weeks. Over the last few days I've almost got a flat tummy again - all the bloating has suddenly disappeared. Think symptoms are super fickle when they want to be - I'd gladly be stuck with my head down the loo atm but nada!

Boozle, your resolve and will power is a credit to you, I'd camp out at the EPU if I could get away with it! I hope the symptoms normalise for everyone who is feeling the pressure. How I will cope with limbo after 13 weeks, I do not know...!

just as you can see from the timing of my posts I am awake with the larks. Struggle to make it to the end of east enders tho. My 12 week scan and tests is on 11th. I cannot believe how slowly time is moving. Was reading all about how middle class women are medicating with wine. Thought not me - haven't had a drinkie in ages. It was 10th october, not even two months ago. (I know I was preggers, didn't know it, was in venice, was my birthday had a few spritzs
). Not missing the sauvingnon at all this time round.

boozle you are made of sterner stuff than me, esp as you missed out on your last scan, but you are right nowt you can do and every day later you are scanned is another day closer to relative safety.

boozle I do see where you are coming from with the scan - you know you had a bleed, it was all fine, so therefore yesterday could easily have been the remnants coming out. And that's the thing, a scan will make no difference, so its a matter of timing them so that you feel most psychologically able to cope. Its such a shame you had to miss that scan though, poor you. I'm also holding back and no scan for me for 2 wks, when it at least is likely to tell me more than if I keep the appointment next week. Just can't bear the whole Maybe thing.

just, belle and boozle in terms of symptoms, with my 2 pregnancies that went past 12 wks (DS and tfmr) I felt pretty darned ill and exhausted much of the time, BUT also had a number of days where I felt entirely normal. And there's the whole thing about every pregnancy being different...symptom spotting is a nightmare. But I'm doing it anyway. As prednisolone is given as a treatment for hyperemesis, and can make you a bit hyper, I just can't rely on my usual intense symptom spotting. Wah!!

Hello all, I posted for a bit back in summer, after my successful IUI ended with a second mc in June (first mc was sept 2013 after clomid), but then slunk off again as I had a long wait for the rmc and nothing happening in the meantime so tried to ignore anything ttc related - no temping, no sticks, no timing related demands on DH, no trawling the mn infertility /mc boards... For the first time in almost 3 years of ttc I almost relaxed, but the numerous pg women around me, mostly blissfully unaware of how difficult some people find it to get pg, and seemingly blissfully unaware that anything could go wrong (excitedly telling the world at 5 weeks without any hint of caution or worry ) mean you can never really forget about it .

Anyway, I'm amazed to see how many of you are pg since I was last here - even a few past the danger zone - excellent! Especially chuffed for you Catlover as I know it's been a very long time coming.

If you don't mind I'm now inbetween the rmc results and going back to the acu consultant to discuss the next round of iui and I'd like some advice. I've been diagnosed with Factor V Leiden thrombophilia, and in the event of another bfp I'll be injecting heparin from then until 6 weeks post birth. However, they said aspirin was empirically unnecessary as recent research suggested it could cause mc, so they don't recommend it anymore. With two early mc though, one with a foetus but no heartbeat (7 weeks), one with an empty sac (6 weeks), I'm keen to be doing something ASAP, and was hoping I would be taking aspirin from Ov. With 2 mc already behind us I'm more inclined the take the risk, and so is DH.
What would you ladies do in my position? Do I do what the consultant says and not take it, challenge the consultant about the risks of aspirin, or take it anyway...
Also, I've heard about people on high dose folic acid, is this worth trying?

Boozle good for you, but it is absolutely fine to change your mind and go running to EPU if you feel worried. I had lots of crampy pain early on, and every time I thought it was the harbinger of doom. It lasted for what felt like ages...

Bootles I was still sick on pred, but it kicked in by about 8 weeks, and before that was just nauseous. It was better than my previous successful pgs, where I had my head in the loo from 5 to 20 weeks! Otherwise, my main side effect was extreme hunger, which maybe offset the nausea, and my need to eat 6 full meals a day

Just and others thinking about limbo others might call it second tri, but we know different I asked my consultant for an extra scan at 16 weeks, as I had it locked in my warped brain that I had to get past that milestone, and he saw me at his AN clinic when I was 15+3. Yes, I used the secretary, and also wasn't afraid to email him directly. It saw me through to 17 weeks, when I saw the MW, and heard HB, and then 20 week scan. The longest I've managed to last before getting twitchy is 3 weeks, and everyone has been great at the responding to that.

Hello Barking, it's nice to see you again. I can identify with the need for a break. The support here is wonderful, but sometimes it's good to try not obsessing for a while!

We have all had similar advice about aspirin, and regularly warn people against "won't do any harm" aspirin use, as you consultant is right, the research does indicate implantation issues. Personally, I'd steer clear.

High dose folic acid is fine though, and I recommend early testing, so you can get an early scan and get heparin in place asap. To have an identifiable and treatable reason for MC is good, and with the support of your RMC team, you stand a good chance of having a successful pg.

Keeping things crossed for you. This thread is doing really well at the moment!

Glad the cramping and spotting has subsided boozle. I'm very impressed that you are managing to hold off going to the epu. You are totally right that nothing you do or have done can change this. Was going to say that last night but didn't want it to come across as a negative, but I actually thing this is a very positive mindset. Hope the stressful symptoms stay away.
cloud totally agree with you about being happy for people on the board announcing pregnancies but not those in RL. I find it frustrating that i feel this way as it makes me feel like a bitter twisted witch!

Thanks tanny, I trust the advice on here more than anywhere! I'll definitely be early testing, although will need to test very early to get a bfn first so that any bfp is definitely a real one, not the trigger shot still in the system! Should be starting the next iui late January, unfortunately the end of my current cycle will fall badly with Christmas holidays in terms of treatment so just a bit more waiting...
I'll be on progesterone to help implementation (my lp is otherwise 7 days) so just have to trust that the iui will work again, and the heparin will keep the pg going this time. I'm so focused on trying to keep a pg after a bfp, I seem to be skipping over the 13% success rate of the iui! It worked once, it can work again, right?!

boozle glad things have settled down. V impressed with your nerves of steel.

barking nice to see you back and best of luck with the iui. I think the jury is swinging against aspirin. I took high dose folic acid in my successful pregnancy on instructions of my local consultant, alongside the Coventry protocol of progesterone from day 21, heparin from early scan, pred from BFP ( for high NK cells). Anyone with high BMI also adv to take high dose folic acid so widely used and regarded as safe.

Ok, nerves of steel lasted all of half an hour when I dropped DD at breakfast club and hot footed it the hour and a half drive to epu... Just waiting to be seen now...

There's no shame in that boozle. I would have done exactly the same. Fx is all ok.

baking, what's the high dose folic for? No sniff of that for me from the consultant but maybe i should self prescribe as a precaution?

It's your prerogative to change your mind! Good luck boozle thinking of you.

no shame at all, hopoe you get seen quickly

I'm not actually too sure what the high dose folic acid is for - I've been on it since my first pregnancy when the midwife thought it was a good idea. I've got epilepsy so may have had something to do with that.

Some people have a gene that affects how you metabolise folate meaning you need a high intake to maintain normal levels. It's having two copies of MTHFR gene which is potentially a problem and this affects 12% of the population. Low folate predisposes to neural tube defects and could be a cause of miscarriage. I guess being overweight must affect your requirement since it now seems to be standard to recommend higher levels if BMI>30. It's pretty harmless as it's a water soluble vitamin you will pee out any excess. Another of these things where the jury still seems to be out on whether it's significant!

Thanks baking. You ladies Always know the answers! And what is the dose?

St Mary's are getting me in for a scan - they are so good here. She completely calmed my neurotic apologies and said that the service they offer here is tailored exactly for people like me and I must never sit at home wondering and this is far more important than anything else. She says she couldn't imagine how horrendous it must be to be in our situation and to always come in if I feel I need to. Thank goodness for this hospital and this forum. Together you keep me sane!

Mine's 5mg I think

I was just thinking that, March!
If it's a vitamin your body doesn't hold more of than it needs sounds like it can't hurt. My bmi is fine, about 19 I think, but I just want to do something different from an early stage rather than just wait for the bfp to start heparin.

Boozle that sounds like exactly the sort of nurse you want in an epic . Hope you get some reassurance very soon.

Good Boozle, always good to hear from places who don't fob you off

EPU, not epic. Still makes sense though, I suppose...