Never a dull moment!

So, the "LONG and UGLY" isn't quite over. I will spare you the FULL details of the birth story since those are only socially acceptable when the baby comes out alive.  But, I hope we all know by now, that I am an open book... and if ANYONE ever goes through this, and needs someone to talk to, I am a great and open resource.

The day we found out there was no heartbeat, my Dr. specifically told me, "I know this is your 3rd miscarriage, but we ONLY test those who have had 3 miscarriages IN A ROW.  Do NOT save anything.  Don't bring anything in. We won't be testing anything."

Mother's Day weekend, I went into FULL BLOWN LABOR.  I have given birth to 5 babies with no pain meds... and the pain of this labor was NO different than the deliveries of my full size live babies...except there was no "ring of fire".  NOT COOL!

There was only a 2 week difference in gestational age between my first miscarriage and this one, so it scared me to death when the placenta (and other solid masses) came out the size of a cereal bowl.  Ok...sorry, gore over.  I thought it was odd, but the Dr. specifically told me NOT to bring anything in, so I was a good girl, and just took some pictures... just in case.

After a few weeks of healing, I went in to visit the Dr. again.  He gave me another ultrasound, and said everything was cleared out (THANK HEAVENS).  When the visit was over, I sheepishly asked him if he wouldn't mind taking a look at some photos.

It was a little disconcerting when I saw his jaw drop. "Did you happen to have save any of this?" He asked.
"No, you told me not to save anything," I responded.  "Yeah, but I didn't realize..." he paused, " I can't believe you didn't run SCREAMING into the emergency room!  You weren't joking when you said you went through full blown labor!"

Based on the pictures, he is pretty sure I had a partial molar pregnancy...which is a genetic accident where the egg receives two sets of chromosomes from the father.  The baby begins to develop and grow (there was a normal looking fetus on the ultrasound) however, there is no chance for survival. Eventually, the father's chromosomes take over the mother's, and the baby stops developing.  Instead, an abnormal mass begins to grow, and rapidly takes over the baby and the entire uterus.

Just to make life more interesting, partial molar pregnancies create a high risk of gestational trophoblastic disease....where from my VERY limited understanding, traces of abnormal tissue can embed itself into the uterine wall, develop into choriocarcinoma cancer, and metastasize through your whole body rapidly. AWESOME!

Never a dull moment.

So, I was being tested every other day.... and am now being tested weekly...to watch my HCG levels. The good news is my levels are going down...but the risks continue to be high until the levels reach ZERO.

The OTHER good news is that once my levels DO hit zero, ALL the associated risks ALSO become ZERO... and at that point, we can try to get pregnant again.  Time will tell how long all THAT will take.