Dealing with an ectopic pregnancy [edited title]

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m just over 5 weeks pregnant. Been spotting since Saturday and it got a bit heavier today. I called my doc on Saturday and went for an Hcg (pregnancy hormone) level check today. I’ll repeat that on Wednesday to make sure the levels are going up. I’ll get the results from each test about two days after the blood draw.

My doc is convinced that this is normal and I’m fine but until I get the results from the test and this godawful bleeding stops I’m in a bit of a panic.

I know this is fairly common and not usually anything to worry over but it’s going on three days now and showing no signs of stopping.

I bled a bit with my first pregnancy as well but then I was further along (8 weeks) and was able to go right in for an ultrasound and saw her tiny heart beating. Then the bleeding was really light though and only lasted a day or two (IIRC).

Bah! If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I just had to talk to someone and get this out even if it is a group of (wonderful) strangers. We’re still so early on that only our parents know and I don’t want to stress them out with this.
Damn it this sucks!!

2

I bled for six weeks, starting with a big, bright red gush that scared the crap out of me. The bleeding slowly, gradually dwindled away to nothing, and the product of that pregnancy is entering his junior year of high school in a couple of weeks.

Hang in, DoperChic. Sending sticky thoughts your way!

3

:frowning: Sorry to hear that you’re going through this. Out of 4 pregnancies that carried to term, I had 2 that were “spotters”… and they pulled through just fine.

However, my first pregnancy had spotting accompanied by cramps and that one ended in a miscarriage. You didn’t mention any cramping, so I’m feeling pretty hopeful for you. Hopefully you’ll post some good numbers and clear things up. :slight_smile:

Hang in there, little tadpole! :slight_smile:

4

Yep, it sucks major major ass. We’ve been through it a few times now.

5

Sending sticky thoughts your way. :slight_smile:

6

Sending prayers in your behalf. Please keep us posted.

7

I bled a few weeks with my last baby too. She’s six now! :slight_smile:

I hope everything works out as well for you and yours.

8

I’m sorry, it’s a horrible thing to have to go through. But, many, many women do bleed and carry to term with no issues. I’m glad you’re getting your beta’s done. Please keep us posted (and please don’t continue to take tests to see if they darken, you’ll stress the hell out!).

9

Sticky. Sticky. Sticky.

10

How stressful - hope everything is OK.

11

Oh my goodness!! :eek: Thank you for sharing this, freckafree. It is certainly reassuring.

Thank you to all who have posted both with their own accounts and kind words.

I know it’s a common thing but it still is wonderful to hear success stories and kind words from others who have gone through this.

I’m still spotting as of this morning. So I put on a new pad and am going to try to resume my normal life. I spent much of yesterday in bed even though rationally I know that won’t really help anything. I just felt so helpless that I had to do something even if that something was absolutely nothing.

I’ll continue to post updates.

Here’s one more bah!! for good measure. :slight_smile:

12

Have you had any actual flow, or just spotting? Did you get your progesterone checked along with your beta? If not, you could ask for it.

13

Hang in there, be well, take care of yourself, etc. etc. etc. usual advice. We’re here for ya if you need to vent or just say “bah!” again.

14

I’m pretty sure the order also checked my progesterone levels as well. It’s been more on the lighter side but today and parts of yesterday it’s been a very light flow.

MAJOR TMI ALERT!!

I’ll wipe and see what looks like a lot of blood but there isn’t much at all on my pad.

Thank you **EmAnJ **for participating in my thread. I followed your thread about your eventual ectopic pregnancy but never posted to it. It’s the only reason I know as much as I now do about Hcg levels and such. I hope you are recovering well and that your InVitro attempt this fall is a great success!

Thanks, purplehorseshoe. Reading all about your workplace Scentsy drama has been doing wonders for keeping my mind off of all this. Any luck in getting rid of the darn thing?

15

No, but she’s out all week at a conference, so, temporarily, that’s good enough. :slight_smile:

16

:slight_smile:

Just remember that I’m the exception to the rule about bleeding in early pregnancy and the results of that.

I’m glad you got your progesterone checked. I have been told that low progesterone is one of the leading causes of early pregnancy spotting, and it is easily fixed.

17

Sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky :slight_smile:

18

Against my gut instinct I went out to dinner last night (Tuesday night) with my husband, daughter, and husband’s extended family. Dinner was nice but I felt increasingly shittier throughout the meal. It all came to a head afterward when we all walked outside to chat and say good night. I tried walking around a bit but eventually could barely stand up.

For the past couple days I kept thinking that I had a nasty case of gas. By yesterday evening I was so bloated that just finding some pants to wear out to dinner was difficult. By the end of dinner the cramps and severe pain told me in no uncertain terms that this was not just gas.

Thankfully our dinner locale was only about 10 minutes from my hospital so I called my OB, described by symptoms, and she advised me to head on in to get checked out.

The wait was a bit long but everyone there was extremely nice which helped. After being brought back into my own room they took a urine sample, performed an ultrasound, and then drew blood to do a beta check. I could tell pretty quickly that the doctor doing the US wasn’t happy with what she saw. For where I was in my pregnancy I should have had a sac in my uterus. She couldn’t find anything. She did find a 3 cm cyst on my right ovary which may somewhat explain the sharp pains I was having in that area. The lack of a sac along with a thin uterine lining triggered the beta test.

They got the results back from that test along with my results from Monday’s test pretty quickly. Monday’s betas were in the 500s and last night’s were only in the 400s. Based on the betas, lack of a sac, the bleeding, cramping, and a very thin lining in uterus the doctor is almost certain that this was actually an ectopic pregnancy. I was given two shots of Methotrexate, one in each hip to help speed along the absorption of the embryo.

I was given instructions for what to look out for in the unlikely case of a rupture, a prescription for more Percocets, and scripts for repeat betas in a few days. I need to repeat the tests until the levels go down to 0.

My husband has already offered to tell everyone who knew about the pregnancy what has happened. Now I just have to figure out how the hell I’m going to deal with this myself. To him the pregnancy isn’t much more than a clump of cells. But to me it was as much of a baby as if I had already held him in my arms.

Somehow I think I knew something was wrong from the beginning, especially when the bleeding started back up on Saturday. I just kept holding out hope that I was wrong, somehow.

The doctor said we can try again in three months. That along with the love of my husband and adorable daughter is what will help me get through those long months.

Thank you to those who have posted to this thread and to those who have gotten through this very long post.

I’m going to bed now. We just got back from the hospital a few minutes ago. It’s been an unbelievable long night. I’ll post again when I can. Just had to get this out now.

19

I’m so sorry, DoperChic.

20

I was hoping for better news. So sorry, Chic. So sorry.