Monday, January 18, 2010

Mysteries of the Miscarriage

So, the pathology report on the placenta came back and things didn't look good. The placenta was described as appearing more like that of a woman who gave birth at 42 weeks than at 14 weeks. There were a lot of fibrin deposits and calcification and overall degeneration. His opinion is that the pregnancy was doomed from the beginning and that nothing could have been done to prevent this. My opinion is that my blood clotting issues played a role in what happened and Dr. Google seems to agree. If you google fibrin and placenta you come up with a whole lotta scientific articles that link fibrin deposits to clotting disorders and at least one article I read specifically cited Protein S deficiency. What I find worrisome is that the standard treatment is always listed as taking blood thinners and I was on blood thinners my entire pregnancy (and for six months prior). Possibly even more worrisome is that the data seems to suggest that this issue is likely to reappear in future pregnancies. That is, assuming there are any future pregnancies.

What to do next? My doctor referred me back to the same doc he referred me to in May but she then refused to see me. I called this morning to make an appointment and I could tell that the nurse was about to give me the same brush off and refuse to make the appointment because I'm not currently pregnant but then I played the miscarriage card and everything changed. It seems that losing a baby may just mean that some of the standard rules don't apply. Unfortunately, losing a baby does not move one to the front of the pack, and the nurse stopped looking for an open appointment once she hit APRIL. She made a comment about having job security (yes, it must be very reassuring to know that women will always be losing babies and having high risk pregnancies) and then promised to check with the doc to see if she could squeeze me in. I was promised a call back but that call didn't come today so please cross your fingers and toes that the call comes tomorrow because I really need someone to not just explain all this to me but to reassure me that there is hope for the future.

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