![\"IMG_6872\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/IMG_6872.jpg?resize=300%2C225\")
<\/p>\nEvery time I share that I’ve had two miscarriages, I get asked some form of this question. \u00a0“So what’s next?” or “What do they think is wrong with you?” The second one feels like a punch to the gut every time.<\/p>\n
The next “step” I took was to sit down with my doctor (Dr. C.)\u00a0to discuss our pregnancies and losses. \u00a0Tony and I had an appointment two and a half weeks following the drastic drop in my hcg level. \u00a0I don’t think many practices have “miscarriage follow up appointments,” but I am blessed to a patient in a practice that sees value in such a thing. \u00a0 Tony and I sat with my doctor for AN HOUR to discuss how we were doing- physcially and emotionally. \u00a0 I can’t even begin to express how that made us feel. \u00a0It was like I was his only patient for the day. \u00a0Dr. C. listened more than he talked. \u00a0He collected information about our lifestyle, routine and medical history. \u00a0He also discussed stress management and reiterated how important it was to not let the stress of work, marriage or infertility run our lives. \u00a0He expressed to us that he believes in a joint partnership with his patients. \u00a0He told me that he would make recommendations but ultimately it was up to me what I was willing to do. \u00a0If I had any concerns or questions or wanted to change the plan at any time, all I had to do was call- and we would have a conversation about it. \u00a0I don’t know many doctors like this one. \u00a0He is truly one of a kind. \u00a0 He suggested that he perform a pelvic exam to try to pin point if I had endometriosis, and also get my lab work mid cycle (post ovulation, pre-period) to examine what my hormones were doing around that time.
\nI expressed to Dr. C that with both of my pregnancies, I had constant sensations of cramping and stretching. \u00a0I experienced implantation cramping and implantation bleeding- and then it seemed to continue. \u00a0I told him that it felt almost as though the babies were struggling to implant multiple times. \u00a0I asked him what his opinion about baby aspirin was. \u00a0 I had read that baby aspirin can be helpful to thin the lining of your uterus enough that implantation and embryo growth can happen. \u00a0He told me that the latest research involving baby aspirin involves a triad of baby aspirin, progesterone supplements and heparin injections for the first 12 weeks. \u00a0He mentioned that the heparin injections could be very unpleasant. \u00a0I told him that I didn’t care what I had to do next time- I was willing to give it a try.<\/p>\n
I had my pelvic exam a couple of weeks ago, and though it was the most uncomfortable pelvic exam I’ve had in my life, \u00a0(there was a lot more palpation and pressing than usual) Dr. C. did not believe that we had to be concerned about severe endometriosis. \u00a0 Had I started crying or screaming during the exam, the next step might have been to have surgery. \u00a0If there is too much scar tissue in your uterus from endometriosis, implantation and healthy ovulation can be very difficult. \u00a0But I left there feeling like we narrowed down “what’s wrong with me” a little bit. \u00a0That morning I finally had a negative pregnancy test as well, so I would not need to have a D&C. \u00a0I was thankful for that.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After my first miscarriage, my cycle returned within 34 days. \u00a0I wasn’t sure when it would start up again with this miscarriage, due to the prolonged positive pregnancy tests. \u00a0But I knew my body could do it this time. \u00a0I knew that one day I would return back to my baseline and then one day I would be able to try again. \u00a0My cycle started again in the middle of August. \u00a0It was much more intense than normal probably because my body still needed to get rid of some aspects of the pregnancy. \u00a0I called my doctor’s office and was told to get all of my wellness labs drawn on cycle day 24 of this cycle. \u00a0 September 10th is lab day- the “next step” to finding out more information. \u00a0I’m praying that there is an obvious hormone imbalance or something that pops up that would pin point as to why I have had two losses. \u00a0 Realistically, I know that the labs might not show anything. \u00a0But for now, the next step is lab work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every time I share that I’ve had two miscarriages, I get asked some form of this question. \u00a0“So what’s next?” or “What do they think is wrong with you?” The second one feels like a punch to the gut every time. The next “step” I took was to sit down with my doctor (Dr. C.)\u00a0to discuss our pregnancies and losses. \u00a0Tony and I had an appointment two and a half weeks following the drastic drop in my hcg level. \u00a0I don’t think many practices have “miscarriage follow up appointments,” but I am blessed to a patient in a practice that sees value in such a thing. \u00a0 Tony and I sat with my doctor for AN HOUR to discuss how we were doing- physcially and emotionally. \u00a0 I can’t even begin to express how that made us feel. \u00a0It was like I was his only patient for the day. \u00a0Dr. C. listened more than he talked. \u00a0He collected information about our lifestyle, routine and medical history. \u00a0He also discussed stress management and reiterated how important it was to not let the stress of work, marriage or infertility run our lives. \u00a0He expressed to us that he believes in a joint partnership with his patients. \u00a0He told me that he would make recommendations but ultimately it was up to me what I was willing to do. \u00a0If I had any concerns or questions or wanted to change the plan at any time, all I had to do was call- and we would have a conversation about it. \u00a0I don’t know many doctors like this one. \u00a0He is truly one of a kind. \u00a0 He suggested that he perform a pelvic exam to try to pin point if I had endometriosis, and also get my lab work mid cycle (post ovulation, pre-period) to examine what my hormones were doing around that time. I expressed to Dr. C that with both of my pregnancies, I had constant sensations of cramping and stretching. \u00a0I experienced implantation cramping and implantation bleeding- and then it seemed to continue. \u00a0I told him that it felt almost as though the babies were struggling to implant multiple times. \u00a0I asked him what his opinion about baby aspirin was. \u00a0 I had read that baby aspirin can be helpful to thin the lining of your uterus enough that implantation and embryo growth can happen. \u00a0He told me that the latest research involving baby aspirin involves a triad of baby aspirin, progesterone supplements and heparin injections for the first 12 weeks. \u00a0He mentioned that the heparin injections could be very unpleasant. \u00a0I told him that I didn’t care what I had to do next time- I was willing to give it a try. I had my pelvic exam a couple of weeks ago, and though it was the most uncomfortable pelvic exam I’ve had in my life, \u00a0(there was a lot more palpation and pressing than usual) Dr. C. did not believe that we had to be concerned about severe endometriosis. \u00a0 Had I started crying or screaming during the exam, the next step might have been to have surgery. \u00a0If there is too much scar tissue in your uterus from endometriosis, implantation and healthy ovulation can be very difficult. \u00a0But I left there feeling like we narrowed down “what’s wrong with me” a little bit. \u00a0That morning I finally had a negative pregnancy test as well, so I would not need to have a D&C. \u00a0I was thankful for that. After my first miscarriage, my cycle returned within 34 days. \u00a0I wasn’t sure when it would start up again with this miscarriage, due to the prolonged positive pregnancy tests. \u00a0But I knew my body could do it this time. \u00a0I knew that one day I would return back to my baseline and then one day I would be able to try again. \u00a0My cycle started again in the middle of August. \u00a0It was much more intense than normal probably because my body still needed to get rid of some aspects of the pregnancy. \u00a0I called my doctor’s office and was told to get all of my wellness labs drawn on cycle day 24 of this cycle. \u00a0 September 10th is lab day- the “next step” to finding out more information. \u00a0I’m praying that there is an obvious hormone imbalance or something that pops up that would pin point as to why I have had two losses. \u00a0 Realistically, I know that the labs might not show anything. \u00a0But for now, the next step is lab work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-journey-to-parenthood"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/image-3.jpeg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8oEBX-4z","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462,"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions\/462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}