Saturday, May 9, 2009

Final Pathology Report

Just when we thought we could finally move forward from our miscarriage and D&C, Dr. Erwin called Thursday afternoon with the final pathology report. Earlier in the week he had the initial report back that just stated degenerative changes, but the final report was a different story. It stated that the reason for the miscarriage was a Partial Molar Pregnancy.

Basically what happened is that my fertilized egg had the normal chromosomes from me but double the chromosomes from the sperm, so there were 69 chromosomes instead of the normal 46. Either the sperm duplicated or two sperm fertilized the egg. My doctor said there was fetal tissue but of course it was so abnormal it couldn't survive. Apparently the chances of this happening are 1/1000 and there's only a 1-2% chance of it happening with my next pregnancy.

The bad news is that some of the abnormal molar cells can still be in my uterus and if that's the case, it starts rapidly dividing and can cause Gestational Trophoblastic Disease. If that happens, my doctor said I'll have to take methotrexate to kill the cells. The good news is that he said there's really only a 5-7% chance of that happening.

What I have to do now is to get my hcg levels tested to make sure they go down to 0. I had my blood drawn today and my doctor will take more in two weeks at my post-op appointment. If my numbers are going down, I'll have to continue to go back every month for the next 6 months to make sure my levels are at 0. Instead of waiting the standard 2-3 months to try and get pregnant after a D&C, my doctor said I'll have to wait 6 months-1 year. He wants me to go back on birth control pills so my hormones will be at a constant level--that way if there are any changes, he will know it's because of the molar pregnancy and not my hormones being wacky.

After reading online (which, according to Dr. Erwin I shouldn't do so I won't scare myself!!) the odds are in my favor. Most likely my numbers will go down, I won't need any treatment, and my next pregnancy will be just fine.

So after the latest drama, I'm hoping that this is the last time I'll have to update our blog with bad news. Here's to hoping the black cloud of rain stuck over the Storm family will lift and we can finally see our rainbow!!

1 comment:

cupcakefail said...

I have heard of this, but luckily it sounds like your doctor knows what he's doing. I hope you're healthy quicker than anticipated, thinking of you!!!