Thursday, October 14, 2004

My bad bleeding

Starting approximately two weeks ago I started feeling wired like I had too much drip coffee, and kind of anxious feeling as well. I don't drink caffeine regularly and rarely have coffee at all so this was weird. I also didn't have a lot of stress at work or at home so it was even weirder. Then last week I started having insomnia, I was getting up in the middle of the night for hours an ultimately only having 5-6 hours of sleep. It kept getting worse and that anxious feeling kept building. I also had a loss of appetite. It was like something was seriously off in my system.

Then I started feeling vague pregnancy symptoms last week as well, like a vague recap of my first week pregnant including some itchiness, breast fullness, light nausea and my thyroid felt funny again as well. I had two faint positive pregnancy tests on Friday and Saturday but they didn't get darker. On top of everything I was experiencing I felt utterly confused. On Monday I had a beta HCG draw and it was 13, down from 46 a month ago (or perhaps I had a chemical pregnancy?) The nurse called and said that it was probably residual beta from my miscarriage in July.

I continue to feel awful and anxious and tired and then Monday night my period arrives, the second one since my miscarriage. It is very red and very viscous, there is no slimy mucus to it, and not really clotting either. It just is very runny bright red blood. I easily bled 2 cups worth at least, it is hard to estimate since I would have gushes when I went to the toilet. I had a headache, my body felt full of cold water, my thyroid felt strained. I also had odd cramping. I stayed home from work yesterday and took ibuprofen and vitamin C which did seem to help control it somewhat. I also went for an acupuncture treatment and that helped with some of the symptoms, I didn't feel so watery inside any longer. I woke up this morning and had hardly bled at all overnight, practically just spotting. I feel dry and clotting in my abdomen.

I called my RE this morning because I want to get to the bottom of this. It isn't just my fibroid, it isn't just the miscarriage and I'm not taking meds or herbs so something is just out of whack with me.

Since someone posted about von Willebrand's Disease (VWD) in the past year I've thought that I had a predisposition towards it. I brought up my long periods and nosebleed problems as a child, plus my anemia but no doctor has responded to the symptoms (tell me the patient doesn't need to suggest the disorder and I won't believe you). My father is very prone to bruising and I am a bit as well. We'll see. I did see this page on the All About Bleeding/VWD site that talks about how some hormones can influence bleeding problems. As I recover hormonally still it is very possible and also women in my family have noted thyroid problems post pregnancy. I did ask for a check of my thyroid hormones weeks ago as well as on Monday but they didn't write the script for that. I'm going to ask the doctor about getting it checked.

http://www.allaboutbleeding.com/vwd_and_you/view.asp?id=4634

Oh, and you know how I love my links, I found this one that I thought was a good reference about NSAIDs and menstrual bleeding:

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for heavy menstrual bleeding (Cochrane Review)
Lethaby A, Augood C, Duckitt K
http://www.update-software.com/abstracts/AB000400.htm