Hi all,
I wanted to share my positive story after taking so much comfort from others when I was going through this. What I was missing at the time was the detail, I wanted someone to go into all the details so I could compare mine. I know everybody's experience is different but I hope this can help someone.
I found out I was pregnant the day after my period was due. A week later I started to get some light cramping in the evening and I felt something was wrong. I went to the toilet and found bright red blood in my knickers and then in the toilet and on the paper. I thought the worst, broke my heart, put a pad on and went to bed.
The following morning I woke up to no cramps but some blood on my pad, bright red blood when I went to the toilet and a small clot. I wore a pad for the rest of the day, I didn't have any further bleeding but I did get on and off period cramping throughout the day.
The next day, I had no further cramping or bleeding and I took a pregnancy test which confirmed 3+.
I went to see my GP the next morning who advised they would refer me to EPU the following week if I had further bleeding (as it was a Thursday and bank holiday weekend).
By midday I was cramping badly and the bleeding returned. This time very heavy, I was wearing thick pads, passing clots and blood would run out when sat on the toilet. I didn't move for the rest of the day, apart from going back and for to the toilet! This lasted all day and night, and I believed there was no way it could be anything else other than a miscarriage. I cried all day wondering how I would break the news to my partner and our parents that we'd already told.
The following day I was passing brown blood with on and off light cramps. I had to wait a whole week for the EPU referral and my GP was pretty useless. No matter the amount of crying phone calls, they just didn't seem to care. So I booked a private scan.
To mine and my partners disbelief we saw the heartbeat flickering away and they confirmed the baby was fine but I had a hematoma. The sonographer could see I had bled and reassured me how normal it was. I couldn't believe it! At the time I was just over 6 weeks pregnant, so the hematoma was larger than the sack, but it was outside of it and just above my cervix so it would not harm the baby. I was advised to avoid sex and excercise until it healed.
I didn't bleed again. I did have some brown discharge on the occasion I walked for too long or tried some Pilates, so I took it very easy as this did scare me. I went for another private scan at 10 weeks and they confirmed it had completely healed! The relief is something I could never explain.
My NHS 12 week scan (at 13+4) also confirmed everything was perfect. I never thought this would be the outcome, and I'm not sure the 'wipe anxiety' will ever leave, but I'm so lucky and proud my body was able to get us through this. It's the most scary and traumatic thing I've experienced but also very common from the hundreds of forums I've read.
I do hope someone else can take comfort from this if they are going through the same thing. I will forever be grateful to other people who posted their experiences for me to read over and over at 4am in the morning to keep that glimmer of hope alive! Our bodies are stronger than we give them credit for! Xx