Posts Tagged ‘gestational sac’

Tuesday….waiting…..

{ July 15, 2008 @ 1:43 pm } · { Pregnant at 36!!! }
{ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , } · { Leave a Comment }

I spoke to the nurse at the ob/gyn office this morning. She was a VERY nice woman with a soft, calming voice, which helps immensely. She said the NP hasn’t reviewed the ultrasound results yet, but that the u/s did show the gestational sac and a yolk sac, no fetal pole, but the radiologist felt this was appropriate for the getstational age. She said what usually happens is I’ll have bloodwork tomorrow to recheck my HCG levels, as they should be doubling about every 48 hours right now. If they keep increasing, that’s a good sign this is a viable pregnancy. Provided they keep increasing, I should expect more bloodwork and another ultrasound next week to reevaluate things. It’s not overwhelmingly comforting news, but I’m okay with things right now.

I’m trying like hell to stay excited and to be positive. Of course it’s a double-edged sword because on the off-chance something does happen I’ll be all the more upset. It’s funny, part of me doesn’t want to get attached to this pregnancy. I guess it’s a sort of self-preservation. I’m tough though, and I also don’t expect anything to go wrong. The spotting has almost subsided; there’s only a bit of faint brown on the tissue when I wipe. I already had a BM this morning and that went fine, no bright red blood or anything else unusual. My cramps from yesterday have gone away. I did manage to get about 7 hours of sleep this morning, which is the most I’ve gotten in one stretch since I can’t remember how long. It’s a beautiful day today. Not too hot, and not many clouds in the sky.

I think since I have the day off of work I’ll try to be productive, within reason. I’ve already tackled the moster pile of papers on my desk (ok, for the most part) and I’m working on getting more jewelry listed online. One thing that I’ve been neglecting the past week and a half is my business, Square Effects. I have a website I haven’t updated in well over a month. www.SquareEffects.com.
I sell my jewelry online at three different venues currently; an American site: http://www.squareeffects.etsy.com, a Canadian site: http://www.icraft.ca/squareeffects, and the British site: http://en.dawanda.com/shop/SquareEffects. It takes quite a bit of time to photograph, edit the photos, and upload everything. You can’t skimp on any one step from preproduction to listing for sale, if you want your product to sell itself. I have more inventory that’s not listed for sale online than I actually have listed because of the time involved.

I just heard back from the ob/gyn office. I need to be on ‘pelvic rest’ at least until the vaginal cultures come back tomorrow. This means nothing in the vagina, no heavy lifting or straining. Damnit, I know it’s something I have to do but I really wanted to get some laundry done without having to wait for Coz to wake up (it’s 10:15 and he’s still asleep). Oh well, I do what I have to. I guess that means I can work some more on the baby blanket I’m crocheting.

Spotting, cramping, and doctor’s offices

{ July 15, 2008 @ 1:02 am } · { Pregnant at 36!!! }
{ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , } · { Leave a Comment }

So, it’s Monday evening, and it’s been a long day. I called the OB office first thing this morning, and they rescheduled my appointment to this morning at 10:30 as I was still spotting, and also having some cramps. I started having some vague discomfort in the area of my right ovary, which for me isn’t unusual, but together with the spotting it made me nervous. I had to have a bowel movement this morning around 9:30, and I became VERY nervous when I had a few drops of bright red blood with it. THIS freaked me out, because I was having cramps as well.

10:30 comes around, and I had my appointment, which left me underwhelmed to say the least. The NP I saw is one I’ve seen before, and she dresses far too casual for me to consider her a professional. Today she had on knit palazzo pants that looked like grey cutoff sweats, and flip flops. I told her everything that had been going on, and she did an internal exam and also took some vaginal cultures to see if I have an infection that might be the cause of the spotting. She said my cervix was “nice and closed” which was a good sign. She also said my cervix looked easily irritated which could’ve been the explaination for the bright red blood when I pooped earlier.

I was done there by 11:15 or so, after having my blood drawn, but I wasn’t able to have a sonogram until 3 p.m. They had to do an internal vaginal ultrasound, which wasn’t painful but it did make the cramping worse. Basically I don’t kjnow anything other than the gestational sac measured 4W5d, and they didn’t see a fetal pole. The tech told me this isn’t uncommon with me being as early as I am although I’m not that reassured because the websites I’ve been frequenting say there should be something there on ultrasound.

The nurse/phlebotomist (I forget what she is officially) called me around 4:30 to tell me my hcg level was in the 8,200 range but the idiot didn’t even run the results by the NP I saw before she called me. When I asked her if this means things appear normal she had to go and ask. The NP had her tell me my levels are right where they should be. Unfortunately, I really don’t know anything else at this time and it’s extremely frustrating. I’m a nurse, I know how things work, so I’m hopeful to have some of my dozen or so questions answered tomorrow, specifically what the next step is. From the research I did online, the recommended thing is to repeat the ultrasound in 3-7 days, since the fetal pole wasn’t visualized.

I also need to know what I should or shouldn’t be doing, activity-wise. I’m taking tomorrow off, but my main goal other than relaxing is to get some damn sleep. I only managed about 5 hours this morning, and between that and the stress I was exhausted much of the day. I did get some sleep when I finally got home after the podiatrist appointment. I’d like to know if I can take a shit without causing bleeding, and the fact that I have to worry about this makes me crazy. I’d also like to know I can have sex again some time this year.

It’s about 12:30 a.m., and for now the cramps and the spotting have stopped. I’m cranky tonight though, because my significant other has been somewhat of an ass, while trying to be funny and joking. We finished watching the 6th season of MASH tonight, and now he’s engrossed in his computer while I’m typing this. I think my plan is to take my mp3 player upstairs and try to get some sleep.