Panic in the ER: Sub-Chorionic Hemorrhage

Okay, guys. This isn't good, but I'll tell you at the beginning of the story that it looks like things are stable at the moment. It's precarious, but I am still technically pregnant. I have another doctor's appointment today and am hoping and praying to get a good report.

On Tuesday night, I was going to take a shower before I went to bed and decided it would be a good idea to pee right beforehand (you know, like you do). I was horrified to look down and see a large volume of bright red blood. I have had no cramping and no spotting this entire pregnancy, including the hours leading up to this event. Harry and I immediately got in the car and headed for the emergency room and I called my Ob-Gyn on the way.

Once we arrived, I got into a room and a gown pretty quickly. A nurse put in an IV and took several blood samples and a urine sample. One of the doctors examined me internally and said that the cervix was closed (thank G-d). However, we wouldn't really know anything until I was able to get an ultrasound.

It was 3 AM before I was brought up to see an ultrasound tech. I've never been so glad to see Mr. Wandy in my entire life. The sonographer did a thorough exam internally as well as over my belly and although I couldn't see the monitor too easily, Harry stood right behind her and said immediately that he saw our embryo moving around just like it had on Monday. Additionally, this was about 40 hours after Monday's ultrasound and the embryo had grown by 3mm in that time. Huge sighs of relief and giddy laughter all around. My bleeding had also been tapering off and by the time I got the ultrasound, it was basically done. What the tech did not tell us at the time, however, is that she also saw a large sub-chorionic hemorrhage that was continuing to threaten our baby's survival. We had to wait until we were back in the ER for one of the nurses to hand us a printout of the radiologist's official report to learn that.

Interestingly, it was right after I got done with the ultrasound that I realized I badly needed to pee... despite having gone 3 times in 3 hours, and barely having anything to drink. No sooner did I get back from the bathroom than another nurse came back and said that my urine culture was positive for a UTI. I've had two UTIs before and this felt mildly familiar, though I was surprised that the symptoms really didn't start until I was already in the ER (in fairness, I guess if I were home I probably would have slept through most of them and woken up in the morning with a raging and angry bladder, which has happened before). Shortly afterwards, I got a dose of antibiotics and the head doctor came in to talk with us. Sub-chorionic hemorrhages happen fairly often, she said, and the odds are actually pretty good that they will resolve. The fact that the baby survived the initial hemorrhage is a good sign, and they think the uterus might have been aggravated by the irritated and infected bladder right near it, which we are now taking care of with antibiotics. That said, identifying a cause isn't that important, it's more important now to see what will happen over the next few days. If the hemorrhage gets bigger or I see additional bright red blood or feel cramping, it's probably game over. If the hemorrhage stays steady or starts shrinking, that's a good sign. All of this puts me at higher risk for problems later in the pregnancy (later! in the pregnancy!) but at least right now things are stable. I might continue to pass some old and brown blood from the existing hemorrhage, which happened this morning, and although women often report that as the worst part of this experience because it makes you panic every time, it's actually nothing to worry about.

I did have to have a shot of RhoGAM since I have Rh- blood and Harry has Rh+, and even when you have a threatened miscarriage there can be some mixing that would put me at risk for Rh problems in a later pregnancy. I also stopped the Lovenox temporarily while we track the hemorrhage's progress over these next few crucial days. And I'm back on the twice-daily Crinone (earlier this week they were talking about weaning me off of it) because what the hell, the placenta is having problems and a little extra progesterone is not going to hurt. Other than that, I'm taking it easy and keeping activity to a minimum. They said that I'm not actually on bed rest, but I should stay as quiet as possible for a little while.

And how am I doing? Um, not too well. But I'm okay I guess. I started looking up statistics for having a full-on miscarriage with a hemorrhage like this and had to stop when I found one site estimating 20% and one site estimating 50%. I'm overanalyzing every little twinge in my belly to see if it's the start of strong cramps (and there are a lot of twinges thanks to the UTI and the antibiotic horse pills, which are making my GI tract a wee bit unhappy). I am also considering investing in a home ultrasound machine (they can't be that expensive, right? I mean, what's $100,000 compared to peace of mind?) so I can check on the baby once an hour or so and keep reassuring myself that he or she is still alive. I would say I'm freaking out, but even I can't keep up this amount of panic for days on end. I'm just crossing my fingers, trying to keep my belly still, and hoping against hope for a good outcome. I'll keep you posted.