More Prayers Please

To our fabulous friends and family:

Michael and I have shared so many personal moments with you on the blog and we've appreciated the prayers and support we've received. So we'd like to share another personal struggle with everyone in hopes of your continued prayers and support. We found out I was pregnant in early December and were very excited, yes we were trying. But just before Christmas I started spotting (around 6-7 weeks) and was generally not feeling right. We forced our way into the OBGYN the day we left for Washington and she did an ultrasound. She reported that either the pregnancy was earlier than we thought or I was going to experience a miscarriage. As strange as it sounds-it was so early we hadn't had a chance to connect with the pregnancy and we wanted a resolution either way so we couldn't exactly feel emotional about any of it (until now).

The bleeding continued and on Christmas Day I lost a large amount of blood. We of course went to the ER. At the ER they diagnosed me with a molar pregnancy. (Side note: we missed Christmas dinner, so my amazing sister called my amazing other sister and her husband and had them bring Michael and I a ton of Christmas dinner leftovers(made by my amazing mom) in the ER. Our nurse told us it smelled amazing in the room!) None of us had ever heard of a molar pregnancy, but it is when an empty egg is fertilized (a complete mole). It's rare (of course- why would I have something normal happen :) ) and our ER doctor actually didn't know much about it at all. She gave us some info from the internet and we learned that your body thinks it is pregnant but there is in fact no fetus (in a complete mole). In a way that made us feel better, because we didn't have to mourn a child. But with a molar pregnancy comes other medical problems.

After the ER I saw an OBGYN in Washington and he performed a D&C the next week. After that the doctor wasn't sure it was a molar pregnancy. At that point we were so confused and had read up on molar pregnancy- there is a risk of cancer associated with them-that we were almost hoping for a regular miscarriage. We didn't get the labs back from the "matter that was removed" until this past Monday. After two weeks of crazy emotions, worrying about cancer, mourning a miscarriage, generally not knowing what was going on- we heard from my doctor that it was in fact a complete molar pregnancy.

She immediately had me take a blood test to test my hcg levels and get a chest x-ray to see if their were any cancer cells present. Today I got the results of the chest x-ray which was normal. I also got the hcg level which the doctor said was fine. She explained that it was a good level even for two weeks after a normal miscarriage. But we won't really know how things are going until after the test next week. If the levels aren't going down that's an indication of cancer and that would need to be treated with an injection. My doctor is hopeful that none of that will be a problem. I will have to get weekly blood tests until my hcg levels reach 0- it takes a different amount of time in all women. After my levels return to 0 we will decide on our action plan for the next 6-12 months (with the doctor). Most people continue to get their hcg levels tested every 3 months for 6 months to a year and do not try to get pregnant again until after that period.

SOOOO....that is where we are at now. Michael and I are both thankful that thus far the tests have come back normal and we haven't had to worry about cancer and the molar pregnancy returning. We would appreciate prayer that the hcg levels continue to go down and that I will be completely healthy soon. Sorry for the long description, but I like to talk : ) Thanks for the support!