What The Doctor Doesn't Know; Part 2 (or Percocet Makes Me Dizzy!)

I'm not going to bore you with options for miscarrying. In the past, I have done it at home. This time around I recognized that a) my husband would be leaving town soon and b) I couldn't safely do it at home, with two kids, on Percocet, alone. So I opted to have an iPass. This is also known as a D&C, which is, crudely,  just sucking the tissue out. It takes ten minutes and then you recuperate for another couple weeks.

"Embryonic Development" by Dream Designs; freedigitalphotos.net

Humorously, as I was laying uncomfortably on the table, the Doc and her assistant realized they didn't have all the materials needed for a D&C. As their office is primarily focused on getting women pregnant, I'm not sure they do D&Cs all that often. They could get the right materials but it would take an hour. This is how I found myself choosing instead to take a horrible miscarriage-inducing pill that must be taken with great amounts of pain killers. This is also how, at this very moment, I am typing a blog spot while on Percocet! That's a first.

"Wooden Spoon with Pills" by nuchylee; freedigitalphotos.net

Some of you might be curious, as I am, what the Doctors are saying about what could be causing my miscarriages.

Let me transcribe the questions I have asked (with some embellishment) along with the Doc's answers:

Thyroid Hormone Levels:

Could my TSH levels be going above 2.5 (it's recommended that pregnant women be below 2.5 for baby-making and growing; TSH needs rise in pregnancy and therefore medication has to be increased) and could that rise be contributing to fetal demise? Yes.

Should I be raising my thyroid medication by more when I get pregnant? Maybe. There's no way to tell.

Auto-Immune Problems:

Could my thyroid auto-antibodies and the other auto-antibodies I have be attacking my embryos and killing them? Yes.

Is there any way to tell if this is happening? No.

Is there any way to stop it if my body is attacking? No. Trials have been done giving pregnant women with auto-immune diseases immune-system suppressive drugs and it is more dangerous for mom and baby.

So my body's immune system is SO "GOOD", it's attacking my healthy tissue as well as my little Q Beans?! Could be.

Scar Tissue:

Could there be scar tissue from my C-section interfering with baby-growing? Probably not.

Could there be scar tissue from previous miscarriages interfering with baby-growing? Maybe.

Miscellaneous:

Could I be ovulating too close to my period so that the lining of my uterus isn't thick and lucious enough for a little baby to grow in? Yes.

Could there be a genetic predisposition to chromosome problems with Dad Q and I? Yes. You just have two normal kids because it was luck. Statistically they should be mutants.

To sum up, it could be many things. Some of those things are quantifiable and testable and many are not. The "problem", as my Curly-Haired Doc said, is that with recurrent miscarriage it's just plain hard to tell. This is one of those doctor games where we will rule out things and then look at what's left over.

The Advanced Maternal Medicine office was all set to run some other tests on me--the saline ultrasound (which would reveal any obstructions like polyps, cysts, scar tissue, etc.), some gene karyotyping, etc. but then we got pregnant. My current instructions are these: Miscarry. Don't get pregnant. Do diagnostic tests. Check!

There's one positive thing I can say about Percocet. Despite the nausea, I'm finding myself to be very apathetic. I'm a fan. :)