sensitive - MMC advise needed medical management

[Hopewhite]

hi all , I hope you’re doing well and keeping strong in whatever stage you’re on this journey xx

Unfortunately, we got told on the viability scan that they couldn’t find a heartbeat anymore. This was 2 weeks after an EPU scan that had found heartbeat after some light bleeding at week 6, they said there was a 3 cm hematoma and that it could go either way, that in many cases this is absorbed and pregnancy can continue, sadly that wasn’t our outcome.

Given this was a missed miscarriage, I was given the 3 options and I chose to try to let nature take its course first. After 11 days of nothing happening, I decided it was time to get some help, as I was told the longer the tissue stays inside there’s an increasing risk of infection.

I then opted for the medical management and got the pessaries put at the EPU last Sunday at 11 am and then was sent back home. I was petrified but luckily in the end it wasn’t as bad as I expected, I’d say heavier bleeding than a normal period (had to use maxi pads) and cramps as bad as my normal period cramps ( which are truly awful but bearable with constant paracetamol, chamomile tea and hot bottle of water). The medicine started making effects exactly 4 hours after, and I passed some clots and had some gushes, I cannot tell whether I passed a sac because I didn’t get to see much !, heavy bleeding continued over night, and then on Monday morning the pain and bleeding stopped, today I’ve not had anymore either.

my question is, based on your experience could this mean the miscarriage has been completed? Or could the bleeding come back again all of a sudden ? I’m just mortified thinking it may have failed and that I’ll find this when I do the test in 3 weeks… equally I’d like to guess if can resume a more normal life and dare to be out and about a bit more!

Thank you all in advance for your support, my heart goes out to you as well for having lived through such a horrible thing xx I hope you have recovered your strength, that your heart has bounce back to its place and that you have got luckier results after such an awful experience xx

[Kittykat198]

I’m really sorry you are going through this and completely understand the need for closure. This is probably going to make you a bit stressed but I don’t think you can tell if a miscarriage is complete without a scan or a negative test.

In my own experience, i had a natural miscarriage, but spotted off and on rather than the heavy bleeding returning.I had a glaringly positive test at 3 weeks and had medical management but ended up with a hysteroscopy (which was actually fine and very straightforwards). My experience of medical management was very similar to miscarrying naturally (the bleeding didn’t randomly return and the spotting stopped. I found out that my miscarriage hadn’t completed after the medical management because EPU offered a scan to check. Usually you just wait to have a period but mine are very wobbly so couldn’t be relied on to make sure everything was back to normal).

If it does happen to you, I was told it’s something the hospital deal with a lot and isn’t anything you did or didn’t do. Just very bad luck that the medication didn’t quite work. Xx

[Hopewhite in reply to Kittykat198]

hi Kittykat thank you for taking the time to respond , I’m very sorry that you had to go through this too.

I’ll wait till I do the test like the doctor said, I hope it has worked 🤞🏼🤞🏼 but it’s such a long waiting time to know this ! Thanks again for sharing your experience it helps me to be prepared in case it hasn’t quite go to plan, in a way I wish I had picked the surgery management from the outset now as it seems the most straightforward way in retrospective, but I wasn’t ready for that to begin with.

I hope you’re doing well at whatever stage that you’re in your journey, sending you hope and best wishes xx

[Habibi87 in reply to Hopewhite]

Hi love, really sorry for what you are going through. None of this is your fault at all. Hopefully it will work first time, but whatever happens you shouldn’t be mortified as totally outside of your control. I had surgical management of MMC and my test was strongly positive after 3 weeks. Luckily I didn’t need a second surgery, but it took more than 6 weeks for the test to go negative. Sending you love x

[Hopewhite in reply to Habibi87]

thank you for your lovely advice Habibi xx , so sorry that you also had to go through this xx you’re right I need to stop worrying , whatever it will be will be. I just wish I could know if this is it and start going back to normal , I guess I can only take one day at a time and see how it goes x. Thanks again and best of luck in your journey xx

[Katiee1]

Hey lovely. First of all, I’m so so sorry for you loss, you sound like you’re being incredibly strong and I know you probably don’t want to have to be! I had medical management for my miscarriage and it was very traumatic. After the majority of big clots were passed, I carried on bleeding like a period bleed but I didn’t carry on passing clots or anything, it sounds like you’re definitely through the worst of it. Once the major cramping stopped, I think that’s when it stopped.

I remember feeling so broken after and the lack of support was another blow. I had no idea what to expect with any of it and then you’re left to test to make sure you are no longer pregnant which is a complete mind ****. I still tested positive for about 3 weeks after and wasn’t offered a scan or anything to check. I did eventually turn negative.

I hope you have support around you from loved ones, my inbox is always open if you need to offload.

Take care lovely xxx

[Hopewhite in reply to Katiee1]

Hi Katiee1, I hope you're well. thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience, I'm very sorry that you also had to go through this, I hope you've bounced back and you are now going on strong on your journey xx.

The strange thing with me is that the bleeding has gone down considerably from Monday morning. I guess it's a good thing, but also worrying of it being incomplete, I hope I'm wrong as it was very small (6.5 weeks stop growing), hopefully what I went through was enough. Like you say, you really have no idea what to expect going through this , definitely the pregnancy test it's a quirk of it haha, the most annoying part for me is the 3 week wait! I just want to give it closure and move on, so we can try again, I guess I'm being too impatient.

It's odd that you weren't offered any checks after testing positive, I think every hospital is different, they should give another scan at least to assess whether it's something that nature could manage on its own later on xx

thanks again for your support, wishing you all the best of luck in your journey xx