Mystery bleeding

I've been out-of-town and out-of-touch for the past few days because we took a trip to Portland for a wedding. (Portland, OR not Portland, ME.) The trip was...well, at some points it was really fun (like when we met a blogger friend in real life!) and at other points less so (like when I had "full flow" bleeding on the airplane, without a pad or liner in, while the fasten your seat belt sign was still on).

Mostly it went like this. (My apologies for the bullets.)

• Thursday AM: Spotting. I go to the previously scheduled diagnostic ultrasound (everything looks okay) and call the doctor again to make sure it's okay to travel.
• Thursday PM: We left our house at 4:30PM EST and arrived at the hotel in Portland at 11PM PST. Tired.
• Friday AM: I woke up at 4:30AM. More spotting. I sent an email to the doctor with my new theory about all this blood, assuring them that I did not need them to call me. This was just an update for my records. They call back right away and tell me to find out where the nearest hospital is just in case. Bah. All this happened before 7AM. I met a fellow blogger for a late breakfast. It's the first time I've met any of you in real life and it was really fun. BG even agreed to come along and afterwards remarked that he was surprised at how easy it was to talk to her. I was too, but not really. I mean we do follow bloggers who we connect with. So anyway, that definitely lifted my spirits.
• Friday PM: BG had to work and I rested. Then I had my nails done and we wandered through the Blues Festival on the Waterfront. For dinner we traipsed around the city with picky people looking for a restaurant that could seat us outside without a wait. Um. Yeah. It was still nice to see them though.
• Saturday AM: Bright red blood. Much more than spotting. I did not call the doctor, but I did cry a bit. Eventually we walked (slowly) to the farmer's market for lunch. I loved being at a farmer's market in a different area of the country. Local hazelnuts? So tasty.
• Saturday PM: The wedding venue was not air conditioned and was HOT. I spent the entire time drinking ice waters and club soda trying to cool down. It was great to see everyone, but between the heat and my way-too-tight dress I was unfortunately pretty unhappy. I got a bit of flack for not dancing, but what can you do?
• Sunday AM: More spotting. Of course.
• Sunday PM: We relaxed in the hotel until 1PM when we had to leave and then we wandered the city, saw a movie with friends, walked to a bar for dinner and caught the train to the airport at 8:40PM. We boarded at 11PM and sometime shortly after take-off, I started bleeding again. I could feel it flowing out of me, so I knew it wasn't spotting, but luckily it lasted only 15 minutes or so. I told BG, and let him know that I was cold. Then I promptly fell asleep. (No one was in the seat next to me, so I was able to curl up.) Poor BG was worried that it would become serious while I was sleeping and stayed up to watch me :(

We arrived home on Monday at 7AM to some projectile cat vomit and no paper towels - so off to CVS I went. Then I called the doctor's office again to give them another update. They wanted me to come in that day so I had yet another appointment, this time with a lovely NP. She was very thorough. She listened to the heart rate on the doppler. Even though I had an ultrasound on Thursday, she did another one vaginally so she could examine the uterus and other organs for bleeding. She did an internal exam and saw some brown, clotty remnants, but couldn't find where it was coming from. We covered my history and I let her know my new theory about all this bleeding.

So, I had spotting at 4w0d. Then I had bleeding (heavy for 2 hours) at 6w6d following a vaginal ultrasound and me lifting a cast iron pot full of water (stupid, I know that now). This episode of bleeding was different from the rest. I was back to spotting at 8w2d, and then it started again at 12w1d. What does that sound like to you?

Each time it feels like my period is starting (cramping, back ache, etc.) and the spotting starts off red and then becomes brown. I think that maybe my body just really wants to have a period. I let the NP know that this is based on no medical knowledge and that I'm not even sure this is possible.

She seemed to indicate that no, the processes that cause your period to start do not occur during pregnancy, but I am not the first woman she's know to report this type of cyclical bleeding. Since the heartbeat was strong, the fetus was moving around and the report from the diagnostic u/s on Thursday was good, and because my cervix was long and closed she does not feel like I am starting to miscarry. I have mystery bleeding. Idiopathic. Cause unknown.

In a lot of ways this is actually reassuring. At least they didn't find anything terrible! And unlike my unexplained infertility diagnosis, I am not concerned with treating this condition. Of course I'd like it to stop, but as long as our fetus continues to thrive, I'll deal with a little bleeding.


So...the NP felt sure that as I progress into the second trimester, the bleeding will stop. I hope she is right. She spoke with my OB and called me back this morning. They'd like to see me weekly for now. That's okay. Between the visits for bleeding and my regularly scheduled appointments, I'd been seen by someone at 7w, 8w, 9w, 10w, and 12w, and I have a visit already scheduled for next week (13w) - so now I'll just be able to plan these visits in advance!

I called my mom and let her know that they weren't able to find the cause but everything looked okay. I said "what's it called when the doctors don't feel like finding a diagnosis? Idiopathic? I have idiopathic bleeding." She replied, "well, you've always been an idiopathic child." She's right. I consider myself a very healthy person, but I have had a variety of conditions and diseases that most people aren't lucky enough to get :)

So, there's where we are. I feel...okay. I've lost my ability to get worked up over this. I no longer panic when I see blood - red or brown. We'll just keep watching and waiting. Waiting and watching.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I promise to catch up on all your news soon!

(Tonight, though, we're going to tell BG's parents, which should be interesting.

His mom is almost kinda talking to him now. Ugh.)