Unexpected Not-So-Good News

My ultrasound where I saw the heartbeat was last Tuesday at 10am. This past Monday - almost a full week later - I got a call from one of the midwives (Phyllis), asking if I had any questions about my ultrasound. The only thing the tech had told me was the measurement (7w5d I believe) and the heart rate (152), both of which were normal and good, so no, I didn't have any questions.

Then she sprang on me that there were other findings. So, yeah, THEN I had questions!! Apparently there's a 4cm fibroid (cyst? I forget which one she said but I think fibroid) on the front of my uterus that she didn't sound very concerned about. And then she said, "Well, we've found the source of your bleeding", at which point I immediately interrupted her to say that I haven't had any (any!) bleeding! As I was saying it, I figured she must have me confused with someone else. Either she called the wrong person, or knew she was calling me but had someone else's results pulled up on the screen.

But no. She'd thought bleeding was why the u/s had been ordered, but it had been at my request, because I wanted to make sure there was a heartbeat. Apparently there's a large "peri-gestational bleed" (aka subchorionic hematoma/hemorrhage or SCH) surrounding almost 50% of my uterus (sac? placenta? whatever). YIKES!! According to google, a lot of times a woman bleeds, thinks it's maybe a miscarriage, but has an u/s and it's found to be SCH instead, and the baby is just fine. But sometimes, you can have a SCH without any bleeding, and it's diagnosed on u/s, which is what happened with me. I haven't seen a drop of blood since my LMP in early January. A SCH often goes away on it's own with time, and any blood that doesn't come out is reabsorbed into your body, but sometimes it can worsen and cause a miscarriage or preterm labor. Lovely. Just what I needed - something else to stress about! Something I wouldn't even know about had I not requested the damn u/s! And according to google, the larger the bleed is and the older the woman is, the worse the prognosis is. So yeah, two strikes against me!

I asked about follow up, is this something that we need to watch closely, and her response was that I would have follow up, because if I wanted to do any first trimester genetic screenings, it would include an u/s around 12 weeks. That seems SO far away, since I'll just be 9 weeks tomorrow! Plus, it seems odd to only have follow-up because I'll just "happen" to have another u/s at that point for a different reason. Shouldn't this warrant it's own follow up on it's own schedule?? I have my first prenatal appointment tomorrow with a different midwife, and I'm going to see if I can have an u/s in 1-2 weeks. I'd like to know if the bleed is getting better or worse, and if worse, if I should be on bed rest or anything to try to help. I've already stopped carrying Jordyn, even though she'd like me to at times, because she's damn heavy now and there's no way that could be good for me.

I'm also pissed because why did it take so long for them to contact me with these results? Not that it would have changed anything, except maybe I'd have stopped picking Jordyn up sooner, but really, almost a full week? Seems a little excessive. And that, plus the progesterone saga from a few months ago where I had two midwives giving me very different information about whether or not I needed it, with the one saying I needed it calling me too late for it to really have helped had I actually needed it, only to have the RE tell me the following month that she wouldn't have even tested my progesterone in the first place (not to mention I ended up paying $60 out of pocket for a med I ended up not needing). I like the midwives, and I feel like I got great care when I was pregnant with Jordyn, but this is ridiculous! Their communication sucks, and they're totally not all on the same page. I wonder what the one tomorrow will tell me about the SCH! I may ask to see a MFM specialist, kind of as a second opinion.

I'm going to put the u/s picture here again... Does anyone see where the SCH is? Is it the white part at the bottom, or the slightly gray part above the baby, which I previously had thought was just part of the uterus. Or maybe it's off to the left side, the black part that's cut off at the edge of the picture? I'm definitely planning to ask the midwife at my appointment tomorrow for more details! I'd stepped out of a work meeting to answer the phone call, and was standing in the middle of fairly main hallway in the hospital having the conversation, plus, I was so surprised I didn't think of many of my questions until later.