D&C round 2...

Monday brought some cramping that, to be honest, I just thought was gas, although I wasn't passing any gas.  It got worse Tuesday and Wednesday.  I came home from work, sat down for about an hour to work on some homework and when I stood up to get ready for Bible study I felt myself passing some clots.  I sat in the bathroom for about 10 minutes and they just kept coming....like 10 of them!  I thought they had stopped and we headed down to church.  I was sitting in Bible study for about an hour and when I stood up, I could feel the clots coming again.  I passed another dozen or so in the bathroom at church and then we headed home.  It was a 10 minute drive to our house and by the time I stood up to get out of the car they were coming again.  I took a shower, passed a few while I was in there and then the bright red bleeding started.  Throughout all this clot passing and bleeding, I was cramping so severely I was doubled over in pain.  I got out of the shower and paged the on call for my OB and waited for his call.  

A Dr. Solomon called back and I explained our situation.  His concern was retained tissue and the risk of infection so he wanted me to come into the ER to be checked out.  We arrived at the hospital around 10:30 that night and were taken back right away.  They started an IV, took some blood for a blood typing and CBC and started some IV fluids.  They sent me for an ultrasound which showed that my uterus was clear but there was something in my cervix.  Dr. Solomon couldn't tell from ultrasound if it was retained tissue or a clot.  He did a pelvic exam and said that my uterus was still measuring about 10 weeks and he was concerned that it hadn't started to go back down to pre-pregnancy size.  The pelvic exam caused a lot of pain which also caused him some concern.  He said that if my pelvic exam had been benign and my hematocrit hadn't dropped since last week, he would have given me the Cytotec and sent me home to pass the clot/tissue at home, but given the circumstances he recommended another D&C to ensure that we got all the tissue and reduce the risk of infection.  

We were taken back to the OR at around 4:00am on Thursday.  Everything went well and he said that it was, in fact, some retained tissue so it's a good thing we went ahead with the D&C.  He sent me home on Methergine so that my uterus would contract back down to size and an antibiotic just to be safe.  I have had very minimal bleeding in contrast to last weeks procedure which makes me feel better that everything is healing well.  I have had some cramping from the methergine, but I took my last dose of that today so that should ease up.  All and all, I feel confident that calling the on call and getting checked out was the right thing to do.

Bill was unbelievably supportive as always and has taken such good care of me.  I think it's tough for him to see me hurting and he feels so helpless.  Hopefully this is over and we can start to heal and think about moving forward.  Silver lining...I get to follow up with Dr. Solomon in two weeks rather than see that awful doctor next week.  Our REs office said that we can have my blood levels monitored through their office and I'll do my first one next week.  My levels were in the 150s at the hospital yesterday which I hope means that we will back to zero by the time my next cycle starts.  

I pray that we're following the path that the Lord has laid out for us and if that, at any point, we stray from that path, He will make that known and lead us appropriately.  This journey has been far from easy but we have faith in Him and His plan and know that He will provide in His time.