We have an answer, folks!

So my doctor's appointment was yesterday. Apparently I was more nervous about this appointment than I realized. I woke up with no appetite. Just had some coffee (because I didn't sleep well either). All day I had that weird feeling in my tummy. It's that feeling like you're about to give an important speech in front of a lot of people. It also reminded me of college graduation. I was completely freaked out to have to walk in front of 5000+ people for my diploma, but also excited about what I was accomplishing. Anyway . . . it felt kinda like that.

After an hour long wait in the waiting room (this is very normal there) we saw my doctor. The first test he looks at is the ANA, the one that I was 99% sure would be the problem since it was high 7 years ago.

Nope! It was normal.

I was shocked. I think I even asked him if he was sure!

Then he started reading through the others, much of which I didn't know what they were. Each one was normal.

At this point Jeremy & I were feeling pretty discouraged. I was ready to cry. We wanted an answer.

But then he came across one.

The name was hard for me to remember but thanks to the magic of google, I believe the name of it is Antithrombin III. I remember him saying the #3 so that's the only one that seems to fit.

It's essentially a blood clotting disorder but, as he described, often "masked" & hard to find. The more common one checked for recurrent miscarriages is Antiphospholipid Antibodies or APA.

This diagnosis makes sense to me when I compare the 3 losses. The first 2 stopped developing roughly around implantation. But the 3rd one made it almost to 7 weeks. And what was different was I was taking baby aspirin. I had read that it could help prevent early miscarriages.

So what do we do from here?

Well, I started taking baby aspirin again last night. It's a low dose of 81 mg & doesn't harm the baby. And as soon as I get pregnant again, I will be put on Heparin, which is a blood thinner given through injection. Later in the pregnancy I will switch to Lovenox. Heparin is a short term blood thinner that will probably be given daily whereas Lovenox is long term & may only be every few days. But Lovenox is more expensive. Both are considered safe to take during pregnancy & can't harm the baby.

Here on out I will be considered "high risk", which means a lot of monitoring. Once I learn I'm pregnant I will get bloodwork done for a while to be sure the HGC levels are rising like they should. They'll do an early ultrasound to be sure the baby is developing normal. And I will probably have much more ultrasounds than most women receive. The doctor said it will pretty much be a week to week basis. Each week that will go by will be a good sign. He didn't see the need for any other restrictions. Either the aspirin & blood thinners will work or they won't.

We're happy to have an answer to what's been going on. And we're happy that it's an easy fix. We pray now that this will work & God will bless us with children. It's going to be a long, rough (and expensive) road ahead of us but we know that when we hold our baby it will all be worth it.