I wanted to write this pregnancy history more to try and put anybody else's mind at ease who may be going through a similar situation to me.
I had continually searched the internet for words like 'late implantation', 'heavy implantation bleed' 'HCG levels not doubling' and 'loss of pregnancy symptoms'. I had all of the aforementioned.
A brief history, last November I was pregnant and saw a really strong heartbeat at 5weeks 6days. I went on holidays and my next scan was scheduled for Christmas Eve (I planned on telling my family on Christmas Day). I had no bleeding, no idea that anything was wrong, but unfortunately, when I had the scan on Christmas Eve, I was informed that the heartbeat had stopped a number of days after the initial scan. I was diagnosed as having had a missed miscarriage, I was totally devastated and sadly took the pills to bring on the miscarriage on Christmas Day. Happy Christmas!
I recently found out I was pregnant again and obviously I've been really apprehensive. I had a VERY heavy bleed 2 days before my period was due (I knew exactly when I ovulated as I was having my follicles tracked) so I thought the game was up for another cycle and that my period had just arrived early. I bled the whole day (bright red heavy blood and had to change tampax around 5 times on this day.) (Sorry if TMI) I had a wedding abroad and so drunk vodka for the entire day and got utterly smashed, convinced I was not pregnant yet again, I was also taking painkillers every 4 hours as I had a very bad tooth infection (I realise drinking and taking painkillers is not advised :-)
I had no further bleeding after my one day of extreme heavy bleeding. I did a pregnancy test the day my period was due - negative. I emailed my fertility consultant and asked whether the heavy bleeding could have been implantation bleeding and was told 'no way if it was so heavy and lasted all day'. I explained that I had exactly the same heavy bleed with my previous pregnancy (this occurred 7 days after ovulation though and not 2 days before my period was due) but still I was dismissed.
1 day after my period was due and with still no further signs of bleeding, I purchased a first response HPT. Low and behold, there was a ridiculously faint positive. You could barely see it, unless it was held up to the light. I waited one day and booked in for a HCG blood test and explained that I had only had a very faint positive and I thought I had only implanted 3 days prior and that if HCG did show up in my system, it would be very little as I knew I wouldn't even be considered 4 weeks yet (due to the late implantation). I received my HCG levels back and they were 51 - I was told this was very low considering it was 2 days after my period was due and that things didn't look good. I tried again explaining that I knew I had implanted late, but was just told to come back in 48 hours for a repeat HCG. In the meantime, I drove myself crazy googling, late implantation and heavy implantation bleeds, all of which came up with negative story after negative story of hundreds of people who had unsuccessful outcomes and usually they had miscarried around the 6 week mark. Anyway - the next HCG levels tripled and so did all my other HCG levels for a couple of weeks after that.
My consultant then called and said that doing any more HCG levels were pointless as once they hit a certain level, they take longer to double. I didn't want to go through the heartbreak of seeing an early heartbeat and then it disappearing again, so the bloods levels were more to reassure me that things were indeed going up. However, I had a HCG level at 5 weeks 5 days and the levels were around 23,000 - at 6 weeks 4 days they had only gone up to 62,000 and I was told I needed to come in for an emergency scan as the levels were taking 101 hours to double.
I refused to go in for the scan, thinking that if it was failing again, I'd rather not see a heartbeat and think of my bean as a real living human again, and if I could hold out for another week, then there would either be no heartbeat, or I would see a much stronger, larger baby.
I convinced myself all over the weekend that it had failed - my sore boobs, tiredness etc had all disappeared, however maybe this was just my mind playing tricks on me as yesterday (after a very anxious 6 days) I had my first scan and I measured exactly 7weeks 3 days - so my day of implantation and the very heavy bleed was 100% implantation bleeding and bang on with my timings. I saw a very strong heartbeat and everything in the right place. I'm still kicking myself for not holding out for my scan until 8 weeks, as then the pregnancy has a much better chance of succeeding. However, I just wanted to give anyone hope frantically googling for 'late implantation', heavy implantation bleed' 'slow doubling HCG levels' etc that hings can turn out okay and it just goes to show, HCG levels can take way over 4 days to double once they hit a certain point. Also - you are the only person that knows your body better than anybody else - the consultants are not always right! Wish me lots of baby dust - my next scan is next Thursday and I'm keeping everything crossed that that heart is still beating. GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE GOING THROUGH A SIMILAR SITUATION and I hope my story may have given you some hope - don't google too much and not everything consultants say is accurate!