We got our results from our RPL blood work in today, FINALLY. It is a long story but I won't go into details as it would take too long...
Basically, the only thing that came back abnormal was my homocysteine levels. They're high. I'm not sure how high, but she acted like they were pretty high. I am going to call back Monday and get a copy of all of that blood work. I really would feel more comfortable looking over it for myself just in case.
Anyway, what I was told is that it means I need to take folate, b6, and b12. I have been on prenatal vitamins for three years! In other words, we are pretty sure I have MTHFR meaning my body cannot easily absorb synthetic b vitamins. In August, I suspected this and began taking methylfolate on top of my prenatal. Now that I know I have this, I have to take a wholefoods prenatal and a homocysteine supplement. These all contain the natural forms of these vitamins so my body will be able to absorb them.
I have found a few women online who also suffer from RPL and have this exact same thing going on and so far they all have MTHFR. They have all messaged me and given me lots of info! It seems that high homocysteine levels cause miscarriages by a) higher risk of chromosomal abnormalities (if you have them because of lack of vitamins, namely folate, it can cause defects not compatible with life) and b) causing blood clots which of course can and do form in the uterus during pregnancy which kills off the placenta (that the baby needs).
So another thing that many women with high homocysteine levels need is a blood thinner.They didn't mention it, but I assume that is what will be done as that is what everyone else does. I took baby aspirin during my last pregnancy. Some women take that and lovenox (the blood thinner I mentioned above). So we will just have to see what happens. My plan is to test again when I get pregnant or in three months. Hopefully they will have went down!
Oh, and our house has also been hit by food poisoning! :( We all ate lasagna at my in-laws' house and all of us INCLUDING them were very sick yesterday. I am also on cd18 with no ovulation yet. Everything cervix-wise seemed very fertile today, but no positive opk. They've all been close to positive for a week now, I think they're kind of crappy opk's. But we will keep at it every other day until my temp rises! I am hoping tomorrow is O day! :)
Friday, February 27, 2015
Monday, February 16, 2015
Preparing for my Rainbow
This entry will just be a quick update. No interesting info here.
I went Friday to get blood work done. They ordered a recurrent pregnancy loss panel, cd3 blood work (I was cd4 which is still fine), and a few more tests including TSH and a glucose test as part of a test to see if I have PCOS. They told me I could call back today to find out afew of the results (most of them will take 2+ weeks), but unfortunately, we had a "snow day" here, so the office was closed. I'll edit this tomorrow with any blood work results they can give me. They took 13 vials. I do pretty good with getting blood drawn though. I've had it done so many times in the past year it's like nothing.
I am on cd7 today, and I took soy isoflavones at night starting on cd4 so I will do cd4-8. It really wouldn't surprise me if my blood work shows some sort of issue with LH and FSH, whether it shows PCOS or just maybe some kind of egg issue, I don't know. But if so, then I may be prescribed clomid which I would prefer over soy. Either way, I took soy with Audrey and she is the only full-term pregnancy I have had, so I'm using it as much as I need to. It just isn't great for your thyroid, so I am attempting a med bump and supplementing it with selenium and vitamin d - also looking into a zinc or magnesium supplement.
Basically we are on track for another pregnancy, I'm doing everything I can to make this next one work out and I am hoping so much that it does. I really am not sure if I can handle another loss...however the only way I can keep my mind off of my angels is to pour my heart and soul into readying my body for another. I'm also "dieting". I gained 8 pounds with Hope, I'm down 4 so far but I am going to keep losing until we get pregnant. I am 142 right now and ideally I would like to be between 125-135. I'm aiming for 125 if I don't achieve pregnancy by summer. I have been eating healthier for the most part and exercising. Jogging makes me feel so good! Listening to music while jogging frees my mind and the burn afterwards makes me feel great.
Come on, rainbow! We are ready for you!
I went Friday to get blood work done. They ordered a recurrent pregnancy loss panel, cd3 blood work (I was cd4 which is still fine), and a few more tests including TSH and a glucose test as part of a test to see if I have PCOS. They told me I could call back today to find out afew of the results (most of them will take 2+ weeks), but unfortunately, we had a "snow day" here, so the office was closed. I'll edit this tomorrow with any blood work results they can give me. They took 13 vials. I do pretty good with getting blood drawn though. I've had it done so many times in the past year it's like nothing.
I am on cd7 today, and I took soy isoflavones at night starting on cd4 so I will do cd4-8. It really wouldn't surprise me if my blood work shows some sort of issue with LH and FSH, whether it shows PCOS or just maybe some kind of egg issue, I don't know. But if so, then I may be prescribed clomid which I would prefer over soy. Either way, I took soy with Audrey and she is the only full-term pregnancy I have had, so I'm using it as much as I need to. It just isn't great for your thyroid, so I am attempting a med bump and supplementing it with selenium and vitamin d - also looking into a zinc or magnesium supplement.
Basically we are on track for another pregnancy, I'm doing everything I can to make this next one work out and I am hoping so much that it does. I really am not sure if I can handle another loss...however the only way I can keep my mind off of my angels is to pour my heart and soul into readying my body for another. I'm also "dieting". I gained 8 pounds with Hope, I'm down 4 so far but I am going to keep losing until we get pregnant. I am 142 right now and ideally I would like to be between 125-135. I'm aiming for 125 if I don't achieve pregnancy by summer. I have been eating healthier for the most part and exercising. Jogging makes me feel so good! Listening to music while jogging frees my mind and the burn afterwards makes me feel great.
Come on, rainbow! We are ready for you!
Friday, February 6, 2015
Empathy.
I will start out by saying that we have all hurt people, myself included. That is life. Anyone who says they haven't hurt someone else's feelings is a liar - it doesn't matter if it was intentional or not. There is a line, and if anyone crosses it multiple times with me, I will no longer have any patience with them. Why? Because saying one or two things that hurt is one thing. If you keep on hurting me, I can no longer see it as accidental, and I know that is how pretty much anyone would be! I feel like a select few really enjoy feeling superior to others. A couple of people are rubbing salt in my wounds, and it no longer feels accidental. I don't think anyone should let others continually hurt them. It isn't acceptable - ever!
I know that *most* people I deal with do not understand what this situation feels like. It's hard to understand if you haven't been there - and even if you know someone who has, you still cannot fully grasp the pain, the huge hole in your heart, and your eyes filling with tears when you hear or read specific things. Sadly, a couple of the people who have said the most horrible things to me have had a miscarriage. It is like they have another child, or children, and they forget what it feels like, so they say the "wrong" thing. Let me tell you - after my first loss, my eyes were opened (even though I never would have said most of those things before the loss). After the second loss, that pain is even deeper and I feel like there is so much that is done and said, and I truly cannot even comprehend how some see it as okay.
So to the point - I won't type out super specific things that were said to me, but I have to use one as an example. The first thing that really hurt came the day that we found out we lost Hope. Our second miscarriage...in a row. MINUTES after I announced that loss (and just a few hours after finding out), I was immediately sent a message on Facebook with someone asking me for advice because she was pregnant (she hadn't announced it yet, so I didn't know, which felt like a slap in the face). 95% of the message was questions for me about my losses because she was worried, and of course she ended it with miscarriage being common and that the time wasn't right for me, even if I thought it was. Never mind I'd just had two in a row, which has about a 2-5% chance of happening, but she obviously didn't know that more than one in a row isn't common, especially at my age.
See what I mean? I would never say any of that to someone. Maybe that is why I get so upset. I've had a few people tell me that people don't know how to be empathetic if they haven't experienced it, but a few have and are still this way. It comes down to common sense, and some do not have any, apparently. I really do try to forgive and forget, and I have with some, but you can only forgive and forget so many times!
These are a few other things that I have heard that hurt deeply:
"I am SO incredibly blessed to be pregnant with this healthy baby": {Common pregnancy Facebook status. Any version of this. I LOATHE Facebook statuses that say "I am so blessed" when talking about pregnancy.} I know what is probably trying to be said here. You are either saying it without thinking, or you are saying it thinking that since some of is can't have babies or are having a very hard time having them, that you are letting everyone know that you aren't taking it for granted. What it sounds like is "I am so blessed that I am pregnant with a healthy child. You aren't blessed, because you aren't." A lot of people would say that I'm nitpicking and I'm too sensitive, but go to any infertility or recurrent loss forum and ask that. Most people will agree that it hurts.
"At least now you won't be pregnant when...", "At least now you won't be big when...": There is no at least. I don't care if I'm pregnant when I go on vacation. I don't care if I can't drink on vacation. I don't care if I'm huge in July, hot and super swollen, insanely miserable. I lost my child. My baby died...there is no at least. I'd trade my vacation a million times for my babies.
"You should feel lucky. Other people have it worse": I should feel lucky that two of my babies died? I'm not really sure how that is even okay to say. Yes, I know that other people have it worse. First of all, that is a matter of opinion. Second of all, yes, I know that some people are homeless, starving, dying of cancer. I know some people have had more than two miscarriages. Some have had stillbirths, or even had their children die after years of knowing them. There is pain and heartache in this world that is absolutely indescribable. But that doesn't mean that I cannot hurt. I'm allowed to grieve!
Minimizing someone's loss doesn't help anything, it hurts even more. A general rule of thumb is to stop for a few seconds and think "What would I want someone to do/say for me? Should I say (insert phrase here)? Would that hurt me or help me if the situation was reversed?" and go from there. Everyone is different, so it still may not be the perfect thing to say, but it is usually not going to be painful if you stop first.
A hug, a hand-written note, a basket of goodies, a dinner they can easily reheat, etc. are all good things to do for someone who is going through loss (I know some people don't know, but it really does feel like the loss of a loved one you have known for your entire life for some of us. There are tears for hours on end sometimes, you don't want to get up and face the world. For me, even weeks and months later I will just randomly break down.). If you don't know what to say, just hold them tight and do something nice for them. Those things are honestly the best things to do. If you don't have the right words (and I know that they are hard to have in awkward, sad situations) then just say that you don't know what to say. We understand. We are thankful for the honesty, I promise.
I am thankful for everyone that has said the right thing, for everyone that has tried their hardest to say the right thing, and for those that have caught their words and apologized. I am also thankful for the ones that hugged me, prayed for me, and checked up on me. So absolutely thankful for the love and support that I've had!
If you're reading this and are now pissed off that I wrote about what you said, then...sorry not sorry. If you didn't want me to tell anyone, you should have known better than to have said it.
I know that *most* people I deal with do not understand what this situation feels like. It's hard to understand if you haven't been there - and even if you know someone who has, you still cannot fully grasp the pain, the huge hole in your heart, and your eyes filling with tears when you hear or read specific things. Sadly, a couple of the people who have said the most horrible things to me have had a miscarriage. It is like they have another child, or children, and they forget what it feels like, so they say the "wrong" thing. Let me tell you - after my first loss, my eyes were opened (even though I never would have said most of those things before the loss). After the second loss, that pain is even deeper and I feel like there is so much that is done and said, and I truly cannot even comprehend how some see it as okay.
So to the point - I won't type out super specific things that were said to me, but I have to use one as an example. The first thing that really hurt came the day that we found out we lost Hope. Our second miscarriage...in a row. MINUTES after I announced that loss (and just a few hours after finding out), I was immediately sent a message on Facebook with someone asking me for advice because she was pregnant (she hadn't announced it yet, so I didn't know, which felt like a slap in the face). 95% of the message was questions for me about my losses because she was worried, and of course she ended it with miscarriage being common and that the time wasn't right for me, even if I thought it was. Never mind I'd just had two in a row, which has about a 2-5% chance of happening, but she obviously didn't know that more than one in a row isn't common, especially at my age.
See what I mean? I would never say any of that to someone. Maybe that is why I get so upset. I've had a few people tell me that people don't know how to be empathetic if they haven't experienced it, but a few have and are still this way. It comes down to common sense, and some do not have any, apparently. I really do try to forgive and forget, and I have with some, but you can only forgive and forget so many times!
These are a few other things that I have heard that hurt deeply:
"I am SO incredibly blessed to be pregnant with this healthy baby": {Common pregnancy Facebook status. Any version of this. I LOATHE Facebook statuses that say "I am so blessed" when talking about pregnancy.} I know what is probably trying to be said here. You are either saying it without thinking, or you are saying it thinking that since some of is can't have babies or are having a very hard time having them, that you are letting everyone know that you aren't taking it for granted. What it sounds like is "I am so blessed that I am pregnant with a healthy child. You aren't blessed, because you aren't." A lot of people would say that I'm nitpicking and I'm too sensitive, but go to any infertility or recurrent loss forum and ask that. Most people will agree that it hurts.
"At least now you won't be pregnant when...", "At least now you won't be big when...": There is no at least. I don't care if I'm pregnant when I go on vacation. I don't care if I can't drink on vacation. I don't care if I'm huge in July, hot and super swollen, insanely miserable. I lost my child. My baby died...there is no at least. I'd trade my vacation a million times for my babies.
"You should feel lucky. Other people have it worse": I should feel lucky that two of my babies died? I'm not really sure how that is even okay to say. Yes, I know that other people have it worse. First of all, that is a matter of opinion. Second of all, yes, I know that some people are homeless, starving, dying of cancer. I know some people have had more than two miscarriages. Some have had stillbirths, or even had their children die after years of knowing them. There is pain and heartache in this world that is absolutely indescribable. But that doesn't mean that I cannot hurt. I'm allowed to grieve!
Minimizing someone's loss doesn't help anything, it hurts even more. A general rule of thumb is to stop for a few seconds and think "What would I want someone to do/say for me? Should I say (insert phrase here)? Would that hurt me or help me if the situation was reversed?" and go from there. Everyone is different, so it still may not be the perfect thing to say, but it is usually not going to be painful if you stop first.
A hug, a hand-written note, a basket of goodies, a dinner they can easily reheat, etc. are all good things to do for someone who is going through loss (I know some people don't know, but it really does feel like the loss of a loved one you have known for your entire life for some of us. There are tears for hours on end sometimes, you don't want to get up and face the world. For me, even weeks and months later I will just randomly break down.). If you don't know what to say, just hold them tight and do something nice for them. Those things are honestly the best things to do. If you don't have the right words (and I know that they are hard to have in awkward, sad situations) then just say that you don't know what to say. We understand. We are thankful for the honesty, I promise.
I am thankful for everyone that has said the right thing, for everyone that has tried their hardest to say the right thing, and for those that have caught their words and apologized. I am also thankful for the ones that hugged me, prayed for me, and checked up on me. So absolutely thankful for the love and support that I've had!
If you're reading this and are now pissed off that I wrote about what you said, then...sorry not sorry. If you didn't want me to tell anyone, you should have known better than to have said it.
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