Thursday, July 17, 2008

3 posts in a day!

Quick update - Dr M called me a short while ago. Here is what he says:

  • At the D&C yesterday there wasn't much tissue in my uterus, so chances are this is ectopic, unless the HcG today was "lower" than yesterday's. Yesterday we didn't take an HcG test. 
  • He wants me to check tomorrow morning and if it is significantly lower (like 150 or so) then it's fine. But he doesn't think it will fall so dramatically tomorrow. 
  • I asked him why we can't see where the embryo is. He says at levels of around 500, they can't see anything even inside the uterus. For them to see anything inside the uterus the HcG has to be around 1000 or more. For anything to be visible elsewhere, like tubes etc, the HcG should be much higher. So unfortunately at this time there is no way to check where the embryo is.
  • He feels it is "good" that this is ectopic, vs a regular miscarriage, because this gives a prognosis of "eggs and embryos are not necessarily of bad quality". Had it been a regular miscarriage, then egg/embryo quality is in question. 
  • I told him it was very hard to keep going through this again and again, and he said he knows that, but he wants to deal with taking care of me right now vis-a-vis this pregnancy. He said let's discuss that later - let's first deal with what we have in hand.
The drug they give me tomorrow is used in patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases. It basically kills rapidly growing tissue / cells. Here is a link with some interesting information:

http://www.questdiagnostics.com/kbase/topic/detail/drug/aa84234/detail.htm



3 comments:

heavenlytini said...

i'm so sorry to hear that this keeps going!!! my prayers really are going out to you. did they say why ur hcg keeps rising?

Nikki said...

Thanks - they say that it appears to be a slowly growing ectopic. It's too small to be visible via u/s. We'll know more tomorrow morning. Thanks for your prayers. How are you doing?

Anonymous said...

Dear Nikki,
I just caught up on your posts, I'm so sorry that this keeps dragging on for you. I can't imagine how hard it must be on you emotionally and physically. On the plus side, sounds like the embryo was a good quality one which is encouraging for your next IVF.
I'm sending lots and lots of prayers and hugs!
God bless u and your DH.
Kaila