Scary Night with a Happy Ending

Last Thursday (6/11), I spent the day scrapbooking with Stacy. We had a great time, as usual. When I got home, I hit the ground running to get things packed and ready for our trip to Florida. After about an hour and a half of packing, I started to wear down and was having some cramping on my lower left side. I sat down for a while to rest and when I got up, a pain shot through my abdomen that was unbearable. I doubled over and hit the ground. I got myself up and went into the bathroom where Rudy was giving Caleb a bath. I told him that something was wrong and I needed to go to the hospital. We decided that he would stay home with Caleb and I would call Stacy to see if she could go with me. She gladly agreed to go so I drove over to her house and she drove the rest of the way to the hospital. When we got there, there was only one other person in the waiting area - which is a minor miracle. I was called back pretty quickly and answered the same questions about a thousand times: no bleeding, 6 weeks pregnant, last period May 1st, no vigorous activity, no heavy lifting, pain rated a 4 on a scale from 1-10. I kept telling them that the really bad pain was a one-time thing and I was more worried about it that anything. I explained that we were leaving town on Friday morning and as much as I love my Southeast Arkansas roots, I really didn't want to have to stop at the hospital in Pine Bluff or Dumas because I was hurting again or - God forbid - had an ectopic pregnancy rupture. As usual, Stacy kept me laughing through it all, even though I was worried sick. She also called Rudy every single step of the way so he wouldn't go crazy wondering what was going on. The staff ran a urinalysis and some blood tests, then I had the joy of getting a catheter so I could have an ultrasound. It wasn't as horrible as I'd expected, but certainly not something I'd want to do often. The ultrasound tech was wonderful even though she was the one who reversed that catheter to fill my bladder. UGH. She searched and searched and finally decided that she would have to do a transvaginal ultrasound. Again...UGH. However, through the miracles of modern medicine, she was able to use that ultrasound to rule out an ectopic pregnancy. AND - she showed me not only the gestational sac , the yolk sac and the fetal pole, but also the tiny little heartbeat. Just that one pixel blinking on that fuzzy monitor helped shrink my worries a thousand times. Not that it completely put my worries away, but it sure did help. I got back to my room and Stacy was patiently waiting for me. It was really getting late and we were just ready to get home at that point. The doctor came in and (with bedside manner severely lacking) told me that everything seemed to be okay, the fetal pole measured exactly right for a 5 week, 6 day pregnancy and I was free to travel. He then proceeded to tell me that the ultrasound did show a subchorionic bleed and that the baby's heartrate was lower than expected but in the normal range. He told me that I was just as much at risk of miscarriage as everyone else and what to do if I started bleeding or thought I was miscarrying. Either he did a terrible job of explaining what all of that meant or I went mental at the point of news that I didn't understand. So, when the nurse came in, I got my wits about myself and asked her to explain the whole subchorionic bleed. I wasn't too concerned about the heartrate thing. She said it wasn't a really big deal and lots of people have it. Would it have killed the doctor to say that???? Stacy and I headed for the car as soon as I was dismissed and spent the ride home convincing ourselves that everything would be okay and that the doctor was a complete social idiot while the nurse and the ultrasound tech were fabulous people. I did a little internet research when I got home and found out about subchorionic bleeds. I won't bore you with the details, but I can tell you that it's not completely serious, but something to watch for the next few months. My OB will be all over it. I go back to see her nurse on the 23rd and then to see her on the 30th. I feel okay about all of it. My main fear with that pain was an ectopic pregnancy and that didn't turn out to be the case at all. My urinalysis and blood work came back great. I'm trying not to think about it and just concentrate on getting this little one into the world safely. I've promised him/her that if he/she will just hang on for a while, I'll take good care of him/her forever and ever.