Wednesday, February 29, 2012

12w6d u/s, a fall, and b/w results

Last Wednesday (2/22), I went for my "piece of mind" u/s.  The tech was very thorough and we got to look at the little baby for 20+ minutes.  She gave us a CD with about 5 min of video.  Little One (LO) was bouncing all over and moving his/her arms and legs.  It was such a reassuring visit.  All of LO's measurements were on track and we left on cloud 9!

***

Yesterday, I took our dog to the park while our realtor showed our house.  As I fumbled for my keys and tried not to drop his water or my phone, he got under my feet and I tripped and fell to the ground.  I felt a gush of a discharge.  These days, I swear I could pee every 10 minutes so I wasn't sure if it was urine or something bad.  Panic set-in quickly and I called my DH.  In my melt down, he got the point - I had fell.  He told me to call the OB's office.  I called them and they wanted me to come in to check the heart rate and make sure all was ok.  On the way, I stopped at a gas station bathroom and to my relief, no blood.

The OB used the fetal doppler for a good 3+ minutes, which felt like an ETERNITY, and could not find the baby's HB.  At one point, he thought he did but then wasn't sure.  He couldn't make eye contact with me when he said, "Let's go to the u/s room."  I made brief eye contact with my DH when I was getting off the table and had to bite my lip.

Immediately on the u/s, we could see the baby and he/she was moving around.  LO waved at us once and brought his/her hand up to his/her face.  It melted my heart.  He measured LO's HB at 159.  THANK GOODNESS!  I asked if we needed to be concerned or is everything ok?  The OB said everything is fine with LO and just to "be careful".

***
When the OB first came in (before the doppler), he said that some of my b/w results were back and we need to address some things.  He ran through the results but really, I didn't listen until AFTER the u/s.  Then, we discussed things.

I have Factor V Leiden disorder, a Protein C deficiency, and a Protein S deficiency - which all cause blood clotting issues.  The fix - I start Loven.ox injections today and will continue throughout my pregnancy. 

The OB thinks these are the reasons for my 2 early miscarriages.  He asked about why the 2 REs didn't do this....I don't have an answer.  I remember that I asked about blood clotting issues with our first RE and they dismissed it.  At our RE #2, they just really picked up where #1 left off with treatment.  They didn't have us repeat tests or order new tests.  Maybe because we were 100% OOP and they were trying to save us a buck?  Maybe because we didn't ask for more tests or this b/w panel? 

I don't know...but we are here.  These are the cards we're dealt.  As long as our baby is healthy and in our arms in 6 months, I will joyfully be a pin-cushion until then!

8 comments:

  1. So sorry you had a scare. I have five different clotting disorders and have been on Lovenox since before our transfer. It isn't too bad--stings a bit for around 15 minutes after. My best tip is to poke around lightly to try and find a spot that doesn't seem tender. You won't bruise as much. Best of luck to you. It's a crumby hand to have been dealt, but you are already being a great mom by doing everything you can to keep your LO safe!

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  2. I'm glad everything is okay with LO! That must have been so scary until you saw the reassurance of movement on ultrasound.

    Regarding the Lovenox, it can cause brusing, so I'll offer a few tips. I usually ice the area for about a minute, wipe the area with an alcohol swab, wave my hand back and forth to dry off the alcohol so it doesn't sting going in, then pinch the skin and inject it at as close to a 45-degree angle as I can get.

    Once the needle is in, I take my time pushing in the medication - it usually takes me 30-45 seconds. I find that it doesn't burn nearly as bad that way. If I push it in all at once as quickly as possible, it feels like a bee sting. I don't know if others feel that as well or if it's just me, but I prefer to avoid that, so I go slow.

    Then once all the medicine is in, I still leave the needle in for about 10 seconds before pulling it out, and as soon as it is out, I take a kleenex that I have folded up and press it on the spot for about 1 minute.

    Sometime that will leave a purple spot that is literally about half the size of a pencil eraser, but that's usually about it. I do Lovenox injections twice a day, and literally I've had about 3 large brusies this whole time.

    Also, I was nervous about where I could inject once I started to get bigger and my belly was noticably growing, but it hasn't been as much of an issue as I thought. I usually stick to the areas on my torso right above the line where my body meets my legs. I have enough "padding" that that's not an issue. :-)

    But seriously, I mentioned to the doctor one time that I was nervous about "popping" my uterus like a balloon or nicking the Kiddo if I did it in the wrong spot, and she said the needle would have to go through the layer of fat that's below the skin, through 1/2 to 1 inch of uterine wall muscle, and through the amniotic fluid to get to the Kiddo. The needle isn't nearly long enough to do all of that. She said that an amnio needle is much longer, and they need to use ultrasound to guide that needle in, so everything should be fine, especially if I stick to a 45-degree angle. So that helped make me less nervous as I got bigger.

    I can't believe you're getting so close to the 2nd trimester! It's going fast, isn't it?

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  3. Just to clarify, when I said "3 large bruises this whole time", I meant, I've only had about 3 injections in the past 8 months that have resulted in the typical large bruises, not that I've had 3 bruises that have been there for this whole time... :-)

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  4. ah the alkeyhol wipe before the injection goes in. skip that crap. as long as you are clean, and you appear to be keeping up your personal bathing etc, just place the needle in your skin, aspirate, then push the plunger. I had form of this and needed 81mg ASA.
    go to the website www.needymeds.com, see if you can get on some kind of prescription assistance progarm




    great news!, not the fall,the reason for the RPL

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  5. Knock knock how goes it? I'm still praying for ya

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