blood work

This is just a quick note to record the blood work I've had this week and last.

Last Tuesday (the 10th), I had an HCG pregnancy hormone test that day that came back at 161. I retested that this Tuesday and it is down to 72. They want me to come back next Tuesday to test again. I guess they really like to see it go all the way to zero.

Also last week I had a CA-125 test that tests for the correlation with endometriosis. That number was 34. So has gone up a little since I last tested in the summer. Dr. Teaff started me on the medication for that again so we can try to bring it down a little (she hopes to get it back under 30) before the next embryo transfer.

I also did a battery of other blood tests last week (15 test tubes full! my arm  was like a spicket!) looking for any possible explanations for the miscarriage. This is the panel that is typically ordered after multiple losses, but Dr. Teaff went ahead and ordered it for me. Probably it will come back and say they don't know why it happened, which is the case for most miscarriages, but these tests will look for thyroid problems or thrombosis or other things known to increase risk. I won't get that blood work back for another week or two.

In the meantime Miran and I are thinking about returning to Brno together to transfer the final two embryos around New Year's. I wrote the clinic to be sure they'd be open on January 3, which would be the ideal day for us for the transfer. We are thinking to combine the trip with a bit of fun and to fly in and out of Munich this time and spend a few days beforehand (including New Year's Eve) with Miran's best friend Albert. Then we'll rent a car and drive over (about 5 hours) to Brno for the transfer. So its a little further than Prague or Vienna airports, but we have a place to stay in Munich and direct flights from Charlotte so it should make for a nice trip.

new bedroom ... aka distracting myself

This week-end I have spent a lot of time organizing my new closet in our moved bedroom. But I should back up to last week-end when Mom and Dad were here and we actually moved the rooms.

First, they brought and installed the lovely new coffee table dad made, which is just beautiful and perfect in the room ...

Then after emptying the guest room, Dad and Miran built a two-piece wardrobe with accessories as well as a thin new dresser for Miran (because his low one didn't fit in the new room). Here they are at work on the first piece and the new wardrobe / dresser wall. The big empty space over the dressors is waiting for a television. I think the plan is to move the one from downstairs up to our room and get a bigger (and easier to use, i.e. internet ready) one for the family room.

Then they moved our bed into place - it comes into a lot of pieces. This week-end I hung the pictures and the Roman shades - which Mommy made years ago and I moved up from the family room.

While they were here Mom and Dad also ripped up the carpet in the former master bedroom and set up the guest bed in there. You can see that 90% of the hardwood floor has been ripped up and replaced with floor underlay boards. Our plan is to just install a floating laminate or engineered wood floor on top. I think its beyond our capabilities to "fix" this floor. And it will be extremely difficult and expensive to match the wood anyway.

So this week-end I distracted myself from being sad by doing some major organizing in my dresser and closet. Things that usually make me happy. And introducing order in a part of my life I can actually control. Some details including the cool jewelry drawers at the top of the new dresser, the slide-out shoe rack, underwear organizing boxes, and my 2-finger-width-apart spaced hangers ... something I've missed for the past ten years!

Today Miran tried to help me install a ceiling bar so that I could hang some sliding panel curtains in front of the wardrobe. However we were completely incapable of finding an rafters. Miran got frustrated and kept drilling holes trying to find something, but had no luck. Now we need to come up with another solution and fix our ceiling.

Bad news

Sorry to those of you I made wait for hours for this update, but the ultrasound this afternoon confirmed our fears - there is no longer anything going on in there. So there was just one and it didn't survive.

Needless to say we are pretty upset. We'd had all week to prepare ourselves, but had managed to hold out some hope so were disappointed and frustrated. I'm glad I didn't go for a blood test earlier in the week because it was good to find out together in a direct conversation with Dr. Teaff, and to find out at the start of the week-end when we get a few days to deal before I have to be with people.

Dr. Teaff has suggested a new set of blood tests to look for any possible things that might cause miscarriages. As miscarriages are fairly common these tests aren't usually ordered unless a woman has two or even three in a row, but she said we should just go ahead and do them in my case because we don't want to waste any time and don't want to waste the last two frozen embryos if there is another problem. I'll have that blood drawn next week, but some of these tests are complex and will take a couple weeks for the results.

We are going to take a little time to look at our finances and our calendars to figure out when we can go back to Brno.

Thanks everyone who was worrying and waiting anxiously with us. We really do appreciate all the love and concern and calls and notes. Maybe next time ...

Bad Week-End

Unfortunately, I had a lot of cramping and other problems this week-end and am pretty sure one baby is lost. We are just hoping there is another one in there and that it is tough and hanging on.

Its going to be a tough week waiting for the ultrasound on Friday afternoon to see if its all over or not. We are trying to be optimistic and positive, but we are also sad and worried. We are holding out some hope but bracing for bad news.

On a cheerier note, we had a nice visit with Mom and Dad this week-end, and I was glad they were here while I was going through everything. We did some house projects and I'll post pictures soon.