Viable

Gestation sac, on abdominal scan, yolk sac and - wait for it - HEARTBEAT - on TV scan.

Okay, that’s the basics, you can skip the rest of the post now. But in detail:

Didn’t sleep much last night, so I got up and read, watched TV, and messed around on my (dying) desktop computer – this is posted from my laptop – Mr. Spouse is coming home with an external hard drive tonight in a rescue attempt. We got the train there and on the way I started drinking my mandated water, after a hot chocolate. Mistake. Hobbling down the road from the train station, and the same problem as about this time last year (post miscarriage no, er, two? three?). Hugely overfull bladder, immense pain in the waiting room, wondering how all these other ladies could actually sit there. I went and emptied a bit out three times and was still told to go and let some more out by the sonographer (aged 12). I think I must have a larger bladder than most people – I could actually hardly tell it was full at the point when it was just right. Note for future occasions.

We could only see the sac on the abdominal, and at first she wasn’t even sure it was that, and I have a hazy pre-bladder-emptying recollection of her saying “do you want a vaginal scan?” but she can’t have given me the choice, can she? Anyway, after asking if I wanted Mr. Spouse to go out (well, he has actually seen it all, you know?) she got to work and saw the gestational sac and yolk sac pretty much immediately and then said “oh, that might be a heartbeat”. I was thinking, oh dear, it won’t be clear, it’s going to be inconclusive. But then she found it, and we saw it for about 30 seconds. She tried to take a few measurements but it was all too small, although she reckoned it was about right for exactly 6 weeks, so I’m not that worried.

She also found what she thought was a small fibroid – hmm, okay, a new problem to worry about. She said it’s tiny and right at the top of the uterus so nothing to worry about but they’ll keep an eye on it. It is clearly not the cause of the previous miscarriages but I’ll make sure they look at it next time (Next time! Yes! Another scan – never thought I’d get to this one, let alone another one).

Anyway, over the hallway to the clinic, where most of my blood test results were back from last week, although the first thing she said was that the clotting screen takes four to five weeks.
Me: Erm, isn’t that a bit late for this pregnancy?
Her: (looking embarrassed) Well, yes, it would only really help us in subsequent pregnancies. But we can give you aspirin now, it won’t do you any harm.
Me: Yes! Please! Give me drugs! Now!

I’m not anaemic (so off the blocking-up iron) and last week’s HcG was appropriate for 5 weeks (they only repeat it if the scan isn’t viable), so no new blood tests.

So, in a stunned haze, I sleep-bought some sandals, a sugar fix to eat on the train, and came home where I slept for an hour and a half.

My breasts are not as painful today and my temperature seems to have come down (but the gynae said my temperature was high enough that I may have had a bit of a virus) – ordinarily this would panic me but all was, apparently, well with Sprout*. I have read that this now gives me an 80% chance of not miscarrying, but I just read a paper from our clinic saying that, although the danger point is about 7 weeks, if you have seen a heartbeat at any point then only about 3% of pregnancies miscarry. And that’s in idiopathic recurrent miscarriers. So adjusting for age, I am starting to feel a little confident. Just a little, you realise.

My skivy-itis seems to be working so I am going to continue my policy of minimal work, much time at home and no vigorous exercise. Even Mr. Spouse (who laughs at my normal working hours) agreed it might be helping.

Now I need to pee again.

*Brussels, geddit?