Bad u/s, impending miscarriage?

jessnole · 05-23-2006, 02:01 PM

Hi Ladies,
This is the 1st time I've posted in this area. I got a BFP on May 1st and had my 1st u's yesterday. The ultrasound did not go well. The u/s tech had a hard time finding the baby and said it was implanted in the uterine wall and that made it really hard to see. At one point she pointed out a flickering heartbeat and Dh said he saw it but she was unable to detect it on whatever measure they use to listen to it. She had the doctor come in and look and they basically said that all they could see was the yolk sac, which looked larger than it should be. She said that it may be too early, that my O-date might have been off, but I know it wasn't. I'm almost 7 weeks and there should be no problem finding a heartbeat by now. The doc said that the yolk sac was not a good sign, not to give up hope, that I will go in again next week and if things haven't improved then the pregnancy isn't viable. She would do a D&C if it doesn't look better, but I will not have a D&C. Of course, neither the RE or OB can see me until Thursday next week so I'm stuck waiting 9 days. As she was telling is this I was crying and she kept saying "don't get upset at this point" (yeah right) and then DH said "I feel faint". We looked over and he was GREEN so they sat him down and had him put his head between his legs. He was hot and dizzy and almost passed out. We ended up having him lay down on the exam table and they had a nurse come in and out to monitor him. He was so sure everything would be OK.

I have done some research online and having a yolk sac that is too large is almost always a sign of impending miscarriage. I don't know what to think at this point. I've never been pregnant before and fully expected to go in and see a nice strong heartbeat. The Dr said not to get upset "yet" but my thought was "yeah, right!".

Any opinions, experiences would be helpful at this point. I am a wreck. I don't understand why this is happening to us.

jpang · 05-23-2006, 06:04 PM

It is so hard when you get bad news, but you are told not to give up hope. I miscarried in 2004. We had nearly of full month of betas that were increasing but not doubling. We were told not to give up hope, but to prepare for a miscarriage. My OB told me that we just needed to say a lot of prayers and hope for the best and that as long as the number kept rising it meant something was growing inside of me. A part of me wanted to hang on to every little shred of hope and another part of me wanted it to just be done with. It is such an emotionally hard place to be. You are still actually pregnant, but you can't be happy about it. It was so hard b/c I had already started to show. We never knew how far along I was b/c I got pregnant after what we thought was a failed clomid cycle. We never had a good date and u/s didn't show anything other than a black spot. I think I was 8 weeks into it though and the reason u/s didn't show anything was b/c the baby just wasn't growing like it should.

My number did finally drop and a couple days later the miscarriage happened. Even though I knew it was coming, I was so unprepared emotionally. I basically shut down. I took the pain pills for 2 days and didn't deal with it. I was a full-blown mess. I spiraled into a depression. I lost all hope that we'd every have another baby. I was told not to even worry about trying again b/c without medical intervention, we would not be able to get pregnant. Dh and I didn't want to do more clomid or advance to IVF. We just wanted to find out why it was so hard for me to freaking ovulate. I still didn't have the pcos diagnosis then.

Have you had any more recent betas done? The ones you have listed look great. As long as your numbers are doing great, the pregnancy is still viable and intact. When I was pregnant with the twins, we had an u/s at 7 weeks and though we could see the heartbeats, we could not hear them. You said you did see a heartbeat and that is a good sign. I know that the only thing that can be done is to pray things turn out ok. That never seems like enough when you are in the midst of this though. Just try and take care of yourself right now.

Please don't give up all hope. This is how things turned out for us. I had reached a point when I was on the verge of getting counseling, about 6 weeks after we miscarried, when we got a miracle. I found out I was pregnant. My last beta came up as 2<. My OB told me that was close enough to zero for her and considered the miscarriage to be complete. While I was on the phone with her I told her that I had suddenly gotten really bloated again. She said that was most likely due to hormonal changes. A few days later, I noticed that I had started gaining weight. I had one pregnancy test left so I took it. Archer is now almost 10 months old. Miracles can happen.

My point is that even if this pregnancy doesn't stick. You can get pregnant again. I'm not sure why I had to experience a miscarriage, but I do know if I hadn't, I wouldn't have Archer. I really can't imagine my family without him.

browneyedgurl · 05-23-2006, 06:05 PM

Jessica-I can only say dont give up. When we went in a 7 weeks and there was no heartbeat the Dr said that we had to think of our options of a D&C and other things. Then two days later we had a heartbeat! He said I must have O'd a week later. The only reason we lost that pregnancy was because of my blood clotting disorder. Her pathology reports show she was healthy and perfect.

I know my story ends with a m/c, but its only because of the blood clot. It is possible to get a later heartbeat than what they say is possible.

HUGS!

Littlebullet · 05-25-2006, 02:39 AM

My RE says it can take up to 8 weeks before a heartbeat can be detected. I wouldn't give up hope. (((hugs))) to you. You are in my prayers.

Senecababe · 05-25-2006, 01:40 PM

myself and another woman on these boards were both told we may not have viable pregnancies around the same time. Even though I lost mine, her pregnancy is healthy as can be! Don't give up hope!!

jessnole · 05-25-2006, 01:45 PM

Thanks for the encouragement ladies.. I went in to my OB yesterday and had a beta done.. will get the resukts back today. The nurse did say that the sono takes prescedence over the betas but that there was no harm in doing them. It feels better to do something than to do nothing.. so now it's wait and see.

jpang · 05-25-2006, 02:43 PM

I do know that the beta has to have risen to a certain level before you can see anything useful on the ultrasound. I can't remember what the number is though. I hope you get good news.

Littlebullet · 05-26-2006, 04:34 AM

I think it is a beta over 10,000 before anything can be seen. I could be wrong though. Post the results when you can. Hugz

Jennifer

enits · 05-26-2006, 04:37 AM

I'm sorry you are going through this. I sincerely hope that the next time you post, you'll share good news. Hang in there, hon!

jessnole · 05-26-2006, 01:34 PM

Beta results from Wednesday were 20,352. I'm going in this morning for a 2nd one to see if it rises ir not.

Had some brownish blood on the tp this morning, so I'm not feeling too optimistic today. I don't "feel" anything and that makes me think the baby is probably gone.

DH and I are heading out of town for the weekend just to get away from it all, so I'll post the follow-up this evening from the hotel.

Thanks for the well wishes.. I'll keep you posted.

Celtra · 05-26-2006, 05:09 PM

Best wishes to you..... you're betas are still rising nicely- and normally according to the hcg calculator. http://www.ivfer.com/hcg.htm

I'm not sure what your beta was when you had your first us- but I did find this for you.
A transvaginal ultrasound should be able to see at least a gestational sac once the hCG levels have reached between 1,000 - 2,000mIU/ml. Because levels can differentiate so much and conception dating can be wrong, a diagnosis should not be made by ultrasound findings until the level has reached at least 2,000.

lovepotato · 05-26-2006, 05:39 PM

I hope everything turns out okay for you. Don't give up hope until you know for sure.

jessnole · 05-26-2006, 10:11 PM

Hey Ladies,
Well, I went in for the bw this morning and the nurse manager pulled me and DH aside to ask about the bad experiences we had at RE. She was sooooo nice (everyone at my obgyn is!) and wrote everything down.. she promised to call the nurse manager at the RE office and give them an earfull because the ob sends a lot of business to them. Anyway, she was really nice and said that if my #s went down she wanted to schedule me to see the Dr on Tuesday, if they went up she wanted to reschedule the sono for Tues.

So, about 2pm DHs cell phone rang and it was the nurse! I was so surprised since she told me the results wouldn't be back until 3pm. My beta was 22778 which isn't much of a rise but also isn't a drop. It was about 36 hours between the betas and I knew it wouldn't double but I was hoping for a little more of a rise. So, I don't quite know what to think. She rescheduled my u/s to Tuesday at 10:45, so at least I won't have to wait quite so long!

Oh, and she also got Dh's sa results from the RE and everything was normal across the board, so at least we know HE's OK.

No more spotting at all.. I had horrible stomach cramps last night at 2am, so I'm hoping it was a result of that..

deblynnc · 05-26-2006, 11:08 PM

Jessica: It is totally normal for the rate of increase in hCG levels to slow down:

* For HCG levels <1200 mIU/ml, the expected doubling time is 48-72 hours.
* For HCG levels 1200 to 6000 mIU/ml, the expected doubling time is 72-96 hours.
* For HCG levels >6000 mIU/ml, the expected doubling time is >96 hours.

HCG levels peak at about eight to 10 weeks of pregnancy and then decline, remaining at lower levels for the rest of the pregnancy. Here is a sample listing of expected HCG levels based on time after conception:

* 0-1 week: 0-50 mIU/ml
* 1-2 weeks: 40-300 mIU/ml
* 3-4 weeks: 500-6,000 mIU/ml
* 1-2 months: 5,000-200,000 mIU/ml
* 2-3 months: 10,000-100,000 mIU/ml
* 2nd trimester: 3,000-50,000 mIU/ml
* 3rd trimester: 1,000-50,000 mIU/ml
* Non-pregnant females: <5.0 mIU/ml
* Postmenopausal females: <9.5 mIU/ml

I highlighted the parts describing where you are.

If you haven't already, check out http://www.misdiagnosedmiscarriage.com/ Not all the women there have happy endings to their m/c scares, but a lot of them do. You may find someone whose story is like yours. I know the site helped me when I was going through something similar.

Hoping and praying you get a good report at your u/s Tuesday.

Debbie

enits · 05-27-2006, 12:08 AM

Glad the spotting went away. I hope you enjoy your getaway with DH this weekend. We'll keep you in our thoughts and prayers.