2nd Blood Draw

Today I had my second blood draw to check my hcg levels.  Hcg is the pregnancy hormone and in a healthy pregnancy, the hcg will double every 2-3 days.  It has been four days since the original blood draw of 230, so by Sunday, it had to have been 560.  I'm not sure how to account for that extra day since it wouldn't have had to double again, so we were aiming for somewhere reasonable above 560.  

It became obvious to me on my drive to the lab, how traumatic the past year has been for me.  Memories come flooding back to me when I least expect it.  My second miscarriage was a chemical pregnancy that wasn't expected to last from the first blood draw.  When I received a text from my husband with my results, "beta is 0 :(" it wasn't a surprise.  Sad, sure, but expected.  Previous to this, I had never had an issue with properly doubling betas. And given that 230 was incredibly solid, I really had no reason to suspect anything other than awesome numbers today.  But, surprisingly, memories of that text, the punch in the gut feeling, came flooding back and I found myself hysterically crying for most of the drive, as I pictured a repetition of that this afternoon.  It didn't help that I waited an hour, as the lab was switched to a new computer system that morning and they were inundated with patients, which meant my blood results would be back later than normal.  

Every 30 minutes, beginning around 11 I texted my husband asking him to check my chart.  

Pending

Not back yet

Last time it took three hours, it'll be after 1pm.

There was nothing I could do to shake that feeling that I was going to relive a nightmare.  I reminded myself, as surprising as it was to me, that this was a milestone I needed to get past in order to feel secure in this pregnancy.  My last pregnancy ended at this point, and I need to make it past this.  

At 1pm I met with my trainer-I debated back and forth about canceling, but decided to tell him to take it easy on me and continue with the session, so I knew when I got back to my phone at 2pm I'd have results.  

Your beta is 1511 the text read.  

A doubling time of less than two days.  

Fabulous

More than I could have ever hoped for. 

This was the first time I've ever gotten teary eyed from a moment of pure thanksgiving.  

Hcg is to be repeated on Thursday. 

Ultrasound pending.

Today, I am 5 weeks 0 day. 

Oh how I'll love Mondays. 

 

and today was one of them.