NOTICE: VERY GRAPHIC, this is an
uncensored description that can tend to be very graphic.
This last month and a half have
been a major roller coaster ride. It started off when I took a pregnancy test
on Sep 11, 2013 that stated negative. I
continued about my life and then when my period had not started but I was
tender and sore, my husband suggested I take another test. I took another pregnancy text on Sep 30, 2013
it was positive.
We were very excited to learn of
the news of having another baby. This
was my third pregnancy; I have a daughter that is 7 and a son that is 2. I have a very hard time conceiving and we
were very happy about this news. We
hadn't been trying to get pregnant that long and this was the best news we had
received in a while. I made a doctor’s
appointment for the next day.
At the doctor’s appointment they
confirmed what the home pregnancy test had said that I was pregnant. I immediately applied for prenatal Medicare
since my husband and I have hit some hard times financially with the economic
downturn. Even though the movement was
shut down at the time, Medicare still approved me very quickly. I made my first appointment with my regular
doctor for a little over a week later.
In the mean time we notified our employers of then news along with many
friends and family.
At the first appointment everything
went normal; the normal pap and blood work was worked up. The doctor measured me at the time between 3-4
weeks along. She scheduled my first
ultra sound for dates and sizes of the baby.
The Ultra sound was two days later.
We were excited about the ultra
sound as many expecting parents are. We
wanted to know how far along I was, when the due date would be, if we had one
or two babies and so forth. We didn’t expect
to get the information we did. At the ultrasound the tech was not very comforting;
we could see the sac but no fetus. The
tech checked my ovaries and my kidneys as well as several other areas before
informing us that we would need to try an internal ultrasound. Anyone that has not had this experience you should
be grateful. I went into the other room
and disrobed, they gave me a sheet to cover with (This would have been fine if
I could figure out how to make a toga). The internal ultrasound didn’t reveal
anything else, other than making me horribly uncomfortable and feeling
violated. The ultra sound tech simply told us; well maybe you are less than 5
weeks. You will need to make another
appointment with your doctor to discuss the findings.
The next open appointment I could
get was almost two weeks later. This
entire time being concerned and worried with no more information being provided.
While we were waiting I received a letter in the mail telling me that my Pap
results came back irregular. This added
even more to my anxiety. At the doctor’s appointment they took some
more blood to test for HCG levels to try to help determine how far along I was
in my pregnancy. My doctor reassured me that
my pap results were most likely due to being pregnant and that they would do
another pap on me 6 months after I have the baby. That it is normal to have an
irregular pap during pregnancy. At that
time they rescheduled me for an ultrasound to see if maybe the baby was just
too small last time.
Two days later (on Halloween) at
the ultrasound my worst fears were realized.
The tech went straight for finding the sac, there was nothing in the
sac, just a black circle that was the empty sac, they called my doctor right
over and she confirmed that there was not embryo in the sac. This was devastating to me and my
husband. My doctor explained that what
happened was an unfertilized egg attached resulting in having all the pregnancy
signs except the baby.
My doctor informed me that I would
miscarry (with no baby) within a week or two, but not to worry because I would
only loose the tissue, no baby. This was still devastating. I went home and broke down crying. I left the job of telling our daughter to my
husband. I was able to put myself
together long enough to take the kids out trick-or-treating. The next week was very depressing just
waiting for the miscarriage to happen. All my family, friends, and coworkers
were very understanding and very sympathetic to my emotions.
10 days later after a week of
feeling crappy, on November 10, 2013 I started bleeding. Nothing too bad, I prepared for the day by
loading up my purse with the essentials and we carried on with the plans to go
up on the mountain and collect fire wood.
I was a little lite headed before we left the house but I changed my pad
and we left the house, then 15 miles later, I made my husband stop so I could
change my pad because it was overflowing.
We continued up the mountain about another 10 miles and I was covered
with blood to my knees. Since I have
never had a miscarriage before I figured this was normal and I changed my pad
again and tried my best to help my husband load the tailor with firewood. At this point I was feeling very light headed
and I was running out of pads quick.
About 10 minutes later we joined my mom and dad a little way away from
us and I changed yet again. I tried to
help load up more wood but I got even worse.
I couldn’t stand without feeling like I was going to pass out. My mom laid out a blanket on the ground next
to my 2 year old son that was in the play pen and let me lay there while they
finished collecting firewood. We were
ready to go about an hour later and I was officially out of pads. I was covered with blood, and my mom helped
me roll over and we used a diaper instead of a pad. We continued down the mountain and I started
to feel better.
Once we made it home I figured I
could make it into the bathroom to change and clean myself up, good thing my
mom was there with me. She helped me get
to the toilet and she provided me with a washcloth and clean cloths. I informed her that I was going to pass out. She had me set there for a few minutes until
I started feeling a little better. We
attempted to get me to our bed that was 12 feet away. It didn’t happen. I passed out half way there, my mom couldn’t
hold me, she slowed my decent down, but I still hit my head on a box on the way
to the floor. My mom was very scared and
screamed at my husband to get in there and help her. I was out cold, my husband
and mother couldn’t get me to respond, they couldn’t find a pulse and were
afraid I was gone. They lifted me halfway onto the bed, at this point I was
able to hear them and feel them touching me, I could also see, but I had no way
of responding. I could feel my husband
trying to get me to react and testing for my pulse. The first thing I was able to say was “just
give me a minute…” they were so relieved that I was not dead. A minute later I helped them get me on the
bed, I told my husband, “call the hospital, I’m going in.” He got the phone and
the phone book as I lay on the bed with very little of a way to respond. He
called the hospital and they said they would be ready for me. My mom called my dad and asked him to keep my
daughter with him. We also called my
sister-in-law for her to come get my son, she arrived immediately, and we were
on our way to the hospital.
I was very glad that the seats in
our Yukon recline back; I was able to lie down all the way to the
hospital. When we arrived my mom went in
to get the nurse and a wheelchair. They
helped me out of the Yukon and into the chair.
They wheeled me into the ER, and had me climb onto the bed. They came in and asked many of the normal
questions. It was hard to explain to
them that I was having a miscarriage but there was no baby, The ER doctor
finally understood what was going on. That is when I became a pin cushion; I had a
few vials of blood drawn and the IV put into my right arm. My blood pressure
was a little low when I was lying down but not bad. The doctor ordered for me to have my blood
pressure taken when I was standing and lying to see what the difference was. Lying
down was fine, but I didn’t want to stand, I knew I was going to bleed
everywhere and most likely was going to pass out again. The nurse seemed to not
believe me. But we took the blood pressure lying down, then I stood up, Blood
went everywhere, and the nurse replied with “aren’t you wearing a pad?” “Yes I
am!!!” she then realized the amount of blood I was losing. Needless to say I
passed out about halfway through doing the standing test. The doctor came in immediately
and said they would be doing a D&C and a blood transfusion. I requested 4
units of blood for me. They tried at that time to take more blood and to put in
an IV in my right arm. My veins were so
dry they were not allowing them to put another IV in.
They typed my blood and started the
typing when they realized I had an antibody in my blood and that there was no
way of getting my compatible blood in stock in time. They decided to proceed with the D&C and
then to try to use the most compatible blood for me after the procedure. I was rushed into the OR immediately and was
knocked out cold. I was told by the
doctor that the procedure took less than two minutes (The set up took 45
minutes), and that there was no embryo just the other stuff such as the
afterbirth that needed to be removed. My bleeding stopped almost instantly. I
was in recovery for a little while when they brought my husband and mother into
see me.
I was wheeled into the patient wing
of the hospital where they monitored me and started the blood transfusion
process. The nurse stayed with us most
of the night. My body accepted the two
units of A+ blood without issue. When the
doctor asked for the other two units of blood as well the nurse tried the A-
and my body rejected it, I started with a stomach ache and then started
itching, at that time the blood transfusion was stopped and never started
again. I was able to get out of bed for
the first time at 4am on Nov 11, 2013. I
made short trips to and from the bathroom, and worked my way up to being up longer
amounts of time. I had more blood drawn at that morning, the nurse had a hard
time getting enough blood out of my right arm so I got poked another 3 times,
with no results. The lab tech was finally
able to come in and find a good vain to take 6 vials of blood out, I wondered
why they were putting so much blood in to just turn around and pull so much
more out.
The doctor asked that another
laying, setting, and standing blood pressure test be administered. My best results were when I was setting, but
the standing or laying results weren’t much different. My blood pressure was still on the low side
but nothing too serious. I was released
at 2pm that afternoon. It was a crazy 24
hours in the hospital. I’m now home recovering and recuperating. I have been unable to go back to work yet but
I have plans to in a few days. I have
been taking it easy and working on my school work. I have a doctor’s appointment for a fallow up
checkup today, and we will go from there.
