May 30, 2004
Two ERs, endometriosis, and an ectopic pregnancy
Here's the short version:
Friday night I started having abdominal pain. 5:30 am we get to the ER. After testing, doctor diagnoses threatened miscarriage and fluid in the abdomen, sends me home at 9am. After doing some follow-up work, my own doctor calls at 2pm and says to meet him at another ER. I end up having to go into surgery where my doctor removes some endometriosis and an ectopic pregnancy in my left fallopian tube. By 11pm, I'm home in bed with 3 incisions and pain meds.
There is still a pregnancy sac in my uterus, but it's likely empty. We will know for sure by Tuesday.
If you don't want the long, highly detailed, rather TMI version, stop reading now.
Around 11pm on Friday night, I started to get a bloated achy feeling, like I needed to go poop, except the urge to poop was missing. I figured I was just constipated since that's not uncommon with pregnancy. The feeling continued to grow for several more hours. I had, oddly enough, decided to try a cheesecake recipe around midnight. I was up well past 1am waiting for it to finish.
I finally went and had a bowel movement around 2am, but it didn't provide any relief. By this time, my abdomen from the bottom of my ribs to the top of my pelvic mound was aching terribly. It was like one long cramp that wouldn't ease up. I was also starting to get a back ache. I had two spots of pain in my left front abdomen and just to the left of my spine, like they were mirroring each other.
Around 2:30am Dale headed to bed. I tried once more to go to the bathroom and succeeded in having another bowel movement, this one much looser. There was still no relief in my abdomen. I tried again 10 or 15 minutes later and pulled down my underwear to discover fresh blood. I was sure of the source, but blotting with some toilet paper confirmed that it was vaginal. I worriedly called for Dale who tried to reassure me. Bleeding, even fresh blood, isn't uncommon in pregnancy, and there may not be anything to worry about, especially since there weren't even any clots. It was still disconcerting to know that there was enough blood that it was dripping out of me.
I changed, put in a maxi pad, and tried to go to sleep. My abdomen was still aching quite a bit and I couldn't get comfortable in any position. I was also very scared any my mind kept going over all the things that could possibly be wrong with me: Miscarriage? Ectopic pregnancy? Food poisoning? (No, that wouldn't explain the blood.) Appendicitis? (Isn't the appendix on the right side, not the left?)
I know I slept now and then, but I would waken abruptly with the feeling that I'd never slept. I knew I'd fallen asleep only because the time on Dale's clock had changed. The pain in my abdomen had only grown worse. I got up and walked around a bit. I knelt by the bed and let my head rest on the top of the mattress (this kept me mostly upright as we have a massively tall bed). I stood by the bed with my hands on the mattress, sort of bent over to let my belly hang. This position seemed to ease the ache a tiny bit, but only until my arms got tired. Finally, I crawled onto the bed, got on my hands and knees, and lowered myself into a tucked position with my head against the mattress. Either my moving around or my moaning woke Dale, who asked what was wrong.
I told him how much I was aching, then added what I'd been debating for hours, "I think I want to go to the emergency room."
"You think or you want to go?" he replied.
"I want to go."
"Then let's go."
I started getting dressed while Dale tried to find the location of the nearest emergency room. The phone books weren't helping, so he called a hospital and asked them for the nearest one to us. I tried to go to the bathroom again and peed, but still felt no relief. I did note that the pad I'd put in was clean, but I started bleeding again while on the toilet.
Afraid that I was being foolish and a hypochondriac or a drama queen, I told Dale I'd changed my mind and didn't want to go. Then I abruptly said I did. After he got dressed, we headed out to St. David's Round Rock. The car ride was very uncomfortable. I felt every bump and shake, and on top of that, sitting directly upright in a normal posture made it feel like I was sitting on something that was trying to shove my escaping insides back into me.
Arriving at 5:30am, there was only one other patient ahead of me. I signed in and told the nurse I had abdominal pain. Dale and I sat down and waited to be called. After a few minutes, I stood up, turned around, and leaned forward with my hands supporting my upper body on the arms of the chair. It wasn't too long before we were called back. The nurse who took my vitals (I only remember my blood pressure being about 122/80) and history (abdominal pain, 6 wks pregnant as of that day, vaginal bleeding, previous miscarriage) let me stand and lean as I had in the waiting room. I gave her all the details, then she asked if I wanted to ride or walk to a room. I chose to walk.
Dale and I were escorted to a private room with both a bed and an exam table. I was instructed to strip completely and put on a hospital gown. I can't fully remember the order they appeared in but I was visited by one doctor and several different nurses. The doctor wanted to run a bunch of labs on me and had OK'd pain medicine, so a nurse inserted an IV shunt, drew several tubes of blood, gave me a dose of morphine, and then stuck a catheter into my bladder to get a clean urine sample. Out of all of that, the catheter was the worst. Sharp, scraping pain in a place you don't ever want anything inserted. At least she did a better job with the IV than the nurse at my IVF retrieval. This one didn't hit the vein right away, but she was able to sink it after a bit of manipulation.
The doctor examined my abdomen, shoving his fingertips hard into my stomach and pelvis. It really fucking hurt and I couldn't help flinching and making noises while he did it. The pelvic exam was a little gentler, but not by much. Now there wasn't much to do but wait until all the lab results came back and wait for the arrival of the radiologist. The doctor wanted an ultrasound, but the tech wouldn't be in until 7am.
I had pretty much given the doctor my entire fertility history, down to the previous miscarriage and all the treatments we'd undertaken. I also mentioned that there was fluid in my abdomen. Dale added it was probably a side effect of one of the fertility drugs I'd been taking, Gonal-F. The doctor had never heard of it.
The morphine had helped only slightly. After the pelvic exam, I asked a nurse if I could have some more. She came back with a double-dose. I watched her inject it into the shunt. First I commented that it smelled, then a few seconds later a horrible metallic taste hit the back of my throat and flooded my mouth. I gagged and thought I was going to throw up. The nurse had me lie back and breathe deeply for a few minutes, then the feeling passed. Then I was just pretty woozy and the aches in my abdomen and back were still present but greatly diminished.
The ultrasound was long and uncomfortable. At TFC, the transvaginal ultrasound lasts maybe 10 minutes. I have no idea how long I was in the u.s. room of St. David's, but it seemed like hours. The tech first did an abdominal reading. I'm glad I'd gotten the second dose of morphine shortly before we began, because she was really digging into my stomach. It was uncomfortable, but mostly painless. Unfortunately, I couldn't see the monitor. Every time I looked to Dale for visual clues, he just looked back at me and shrugged. Once the tech was satisfied with the abdominal u.s., she switched to transvaginal. That seemed to go on just as long and just as uncomfortably.
I was wheeled back to my room where Dale and I awaited news from the doctor. During the earlier meeting, we'd also given him Dr. Vaughn and TFC's name. When he returned, he said he'd discussed my test results with Dr. Vaughn. The ER doctor said all my bloodwork looked good, including blood count. My urinalysis was clean. And according to the radiologist, my ultrasounds were normal. His conclusion was that I was having a threatened miscarriage (the bleeding) and the fluid in my abdomen was responsible for the pain, so they were two separate issues that just coincided. I was sent home at 9am with instructions to take it easy, have complete 'pelvic rest', and follow up with Dr. Vaughn on Tuesday. The good news was that my HCG level had risen since Monday and the pregnancy sac had been visible in the sonograms, so it appeared that I was still pregnant.
I was feeling a lot better. The aching had subsided quite a bit and I knew it wasn't just the morphine. I was also hungry. The ER doc said I was fine to eat and drink (plenty of fluids) so we called home and asked Wil and Adam if they wanted any breakfast. I was fine in the car until we got past our neighborhood, where I asked Dale to go around the block and drop me off at home while he got the food. I was suddenly very carsick. Dale dropped me off, and I slowly walked into the house. Almost immediately upon entering the house, I felt what seemed to be a massive gush of blood in my pants. I hobbled to the master bathroom and stripped from the waist down. I hadn't put in another pad at the hospital because I hadn't been bleeding, but now my black panties looked soaked and the blood had soaked through my pants in places. It was coming out heavily enough that it dripped onto the floor. I peed, and wiped, and by then it had stopped. I cleaned up and put on fresh clothes, making sure to put in a pad. I was halfway into my pants when the nausea hit again. I stumbled to the bathroom and threw up bile. By the time I'd brushed and rinsed with mouthwash, I felt fine. I think Dale arrived home at that time and we went upstairs to see Wil and Adam.
While we were in the hospital, Dale had paged the IVF nurse just to tell her what was happening and let her pass the info on to Dr. Vaughn. After breakfast Dale paged the nurse again. When she called back, he asked her to have Dr. Vaughn call us at his convenience because we had some questions about the follow-up on Tuesday. Then Dale and I both fell asleep around 9:30. We woke up around 1pm, both feeling better though I still ached but no more than leaving the hospital. Dr. Vaughn hadn't called back, so we paged the nurse again. I guess she was getting tired of us, because she gave us a different number to call that was Dr. Vaughn's paging service. When Dr. Vaughn called back, Dale talked to him. There was also a bit of confusion over my ultrasound results. The ER doctor had said they were fine, but in the report that Dr. Vaughn received, the radiologist had noted something odd with one of my fallopian tubes. Dr. Vaughn didn't receive the scans to review himself but said he would definitely do his own exam on Tuesday.
We thought that was that, so I took some Tylenol and ate a small piece of the pie I'd baked the night before and read my book while Dale went upstairs. Almost immediately after I finished the pie, the phone rang. It was Dr. Vaughn. He'd decided to follow up with the radiologist and was now concerned that there was something very wrong with my fallopian tube. He told Dale and I to meet him at the Seton Medical Center emergency room as soon as possible. I was also told not to eat or drink anything else. I showered quickly, Dale and I left, and I signed in at 2:50pm. There were several people ahead of me and no sign of Dr. Vaughn. Around 3:10 I went back to the window and told the nurse that I'd been instructed by my doctor to meet him there. She said yeah, he'd paged her, and to sign in and wait. I think we waited another 10 or 15 minutes, then Dale went to page Dr. Vaughn again. While he was outside, I was called back. The nurses took my vitals again. My last blood pressure reading at the St. David's ER had been about 115/60something. Definitely mellow. It was now a slightly more brisk 1something/80. What surprised me was that I had a temperature of 100.3. I hadn't known my temp at the ER but I never suspected I had a fever.
During this, the check-in nurse noted to the other that Dr. Vaughn had called ahead and requested a specific room for me because it was equipped with an ultrasound machine. After they were done with my vitals, I was wheeled down to another private room. Dr. Vaughn was standing inside reviewing a small manual attached to the ultrasound machine. I changed into a hospital gown in the tiny adjacent bathroom then went out and chatted with Dr. Vaughn while he tried to figure out how to work the machine. (It was brand spanking new and a model he'd never used.) He explained that the fluid in my abdomen that we'd seen in previous office visits was clear and unlikely to cause pain. It was a common side effect of my treatments and should have only caused a heavy, full feeling. The fluid that had shown up in the ER sonograms wasn't clear.
After Dale and a nurse arrived, I underwent another pelvic and abdominal exam. One maneuver involved pressing in the sides of my belly then releasing it abruptly. This caused my belly to bounce hard, hurt badly, and made me yell. The prodding of my abdomen hurt as well. That was when Dr. Vaughn commented that the ER doctor had said I had 'minimal tenderness.' I wanted to go back to St. David's and twist his balls and ask him if that felt like 'minimal tenderness.'
Next was the transvaginal ultrasound. Despite the fact that someone had set the machine's orientation to be upside down and flipped from what we were all used to seeing (and the nurse said the doc who normally uses the machine wasn't in), Dr. Vaughn saw what he needed to. The fluid in my abdomen was no longer clear. He now wanted to perform a laparoscopy on me to check for a) a bleeding ovary or b) an ectopic pregnancy. Depending upon what he found, he may have to stop the bleeding ovary, clear out the fallopian tube, or even remove the tube. I readily agreed to the procedure. What choice did I really have?
A nurse came in with a different bed. I had to take off all my jewelry, though I couldn't remove the cartilage piercing in my right ear. A cap was put over my hair, I moved to the other bed, Dale gathered all my stuff in a bag, and we went down to (I guess) a pre-op area. I could see a big magnetic board on a wall nearby. It seemed to list Operating Room numbers, and the doctors and patients scheduled for them. I spotted Dr. Vaughn's and my names on the board. I was left on the bed in a hallway, blocking a doorway. A few feet from me was another patient on a bed. She (I think) was hooked to an IV and snoring lightly. I felt really weird being left in a hallway. At one point, a man in scrubs came by and had to angle my bed into the hallway to get past me into a room.
After a little while, a man came up and introduced himself as my anesthesiologist. He said he'd been informed that I'd had previous trouble getting an IV properly placed and promised to take good care of me. I was moved down to the recovery room so they could get me prepped for surgery. The recovery room was a wide long room that seemed to be crammed with beds down both sides. Towards one end was a nurses' station and beyond that were a few curtained areas where I suspected patients were recovering. I was moved to an empty spot. Another man came up and introduced himself as my other anesthesiologist. The two of them kept reassuring me they'd do the best job sinking the IV, promising to get it on the first try. Anes#1 knelt by my left side, checking my elbow. Anes#2 took my right arm. He found a vein he liked in my wrist, but pulled the sock off my right foot and said there was a back-up vein there. I don't know why, but I really really didn't want an IV put into my foot.
Both anesthesiologists tied tourniquets around my arms and kept slapping and poking. I became afraid that they were both going to stab me and that I needed two IIV'sfor some reason. Anes#2 had a funky looking syringe with a very short needle poised above my wrist. He said I'd feel a stab and a burn as he injected some anesthetic. The stab was typical but the burn made me gasp. It worked quickly though I and I didn't feel him insert the shunt. They quickly got it taped down and then I was hooked up to an IV drip bag and they started some mild anesthetic. Anes#2 was very pleased with sinking the IV shunt on the first try. Anes#1 joked that he was going to be bragging all night now. #2 left, and the anesthesia nurse (man #3) came around to check me, then commented that #2 had made a mistake. He'd forgotten to take the gown off my right arm before hooking me to the IV, so #3 did that. Then he went ahead and removed the gown from my left arm as well, hooking me up to the blood pressure cuff and basically just leaving the gown lying on top of my body. The idea that I was going to be naked in the OR really bugged me, even more than the fact that so far, the entire surgical crew appeared to be male.
My memory fades here. I remember my surgical team commenting on how the one earring wouldn't come out, but they're tape it and there shouldn't be an issue. I remember Dr. Vaughn coming by. Then I remember trying to wake up and being incredibly groggy. A nurse was talking to me, but I all I remember was asking when I could see Dale. She said in a little while and I went back to sleep. I don't know how long I was in and out of consciousness. Once I remember saying I was thirsty and my throat hurt terribly from the breathing tube I'd had during surgery. The nurse brought over a cup and fed me ice chips. I remember the nurse telling me someone was getting Dale. I remember seeing him walking down the corridor and being so happy to see him. Dale fed me more ice chips.
I remember the nurse telling me it had been an ectopic pregnancy. I asked if I'd lost the tube too and she said she thought so. She also told me that they'd seen some endometriosis and had removed that as well. I slept and woke more. The IV in my wrist hurt. My belly hurt. I asked when I could get the IV removed, and she said after I peed. She also said that Dr. Vaughn wanted all of his patients to pee before going home. I said I had to pee. She wanted me to sit at the edge of the bed for a few minutes first. I tried to sit up and my stomach hurt horribly. Dale and the nurse helped me up. I was resting while she got the wheelchair. By the time she was back, I was nauseous. She wanted me to lie back down but I didn't want to. I didn't want to deal with having to sit up again. Some time she'd given me a sip of Sprite and I kept thinking that was what made me sick. The nurse kept trying to talk me into using a bedpan but I refused. She did give me some anti-nausea medicine that worked quickly and did it's job.
Dr. Vaughn had irrigated my insides with saline solution. Since then, it had been leaking out of my navel suture. I hadn't even known this until I sat up. The bandages were soaked, my gown had pale orange splotches, some was on the blankets. It looked like someone had spilled Kool-Aid on me. While we waited for the nausea to pass, the nurse brought me a clean gown and showed Dale how to change my bandage. I was given a towel to clutch to my belly and after a lot of effort, we got me into the wheelchair, down the hall, and into the bathroom. I stood in front of the toilet while Dale pulled down the hospital underwear. My incision started leaking badly and blood-tinged saline ended up everywhere. The front of my fresh gown was soaked.
Even though I had to pee, my body seemed unable to remember how to pee. We had to turn on the sink, squirt my privates with some warm water, and wait. I think it took about 10 minutes before anything came out. I started trying to wipe up the blood and saline but the nurse told me to stop. Dale and the nurse replaced my gauze-pad bandage with an industrial-sized hospital maxi pad, taping it over my belly button. We got back to my bed, but I wasn't allowed into it. Instead, a recliner had been brought in. I was helped into that, changed into another fresh gown, and then went to sleep.
There was more dozing on and off. I remember Dale sitting next to me. A shift change ooccurredand a male nurse named Don introduced himself. I remember asking Don when I could have the IV removed because it was still making my wrist ache. I don't really remember his answer, but I think it was something along the lines of 'right before you leave.' Finally, I was awakened and told that I could go home. Dale went out to the car to get my clothes while Don removed the IV, blood oxygen monitor, and took my blood pressure one last time. Dale helped me get dressed. I was going to wear the hospital undies home (they're disposable) and I skipped the bra. While Don paged someone to take me out of the hospital, Dale took me down the hall to the bathroom.
It was difficult again. It took me a while to pee and then I ended up having to use the same tricks as before. I wasn't happy to notice that the bathroom hadn't been cleaned since my first visit, so pale orange drops of saline-and-Pammie had dried on the toilet and floor. Business finally concluded, I opted to switch to my own underwear. Dale had to put in the pad and help me into it. Then he went ahead and changed the pad on my belly. Finally, I was free to go.
The trip home was uneventful. Wil and Adam had both left, so the house was dark and quiet. I think it was around 10:30 or 11. Dale helped me undress and put on a tank top, then he helped me get into bed. He called my parents for me. I was still very groggy and it was hard to talk, but they wanted to talk to me so Dale handed me the phone. I knew they were upset. I told them I was ok and going to recover. I remember saying that I loved Dr. Vaughn. As I described the procedure performed on me, my mom started to cry. I told her not to cry, that I was ok, and then I started crying. We said good night, Dale went out to pick up my prescription and get himself dinner, and I went to sleep.
A little bit later the phone rang again. I thought it would be Dale, but it was my mother. She told me that she had to work on Sunday, but had the next few days off and wanted to come out and see me. I told her she didn't have to if she didn't want to, that Dale was taking good care of me. I told her I didn't want this to mess up the family visit they were planning for later in June. My mother said those plans wouldn't change, so I agreed to her coming to visit. I don't think I could have made her stay away.
I went back to sleep and then woke again when Dale returned home. He gave me a pain pill and I bugged him to let me eat something. He kept saying I wasn't allowed to eat anything until the next day, but I said Dr. Vaughn had said I could eat once I wasn't nauseous, and I hadn't been nauseous in hours. He kept saying now while I whined, pleaded, and cajoled. We finally agreed on two pieces of toasted wheat bread with butter. It was the best damn toast I've ever had.
More sleep. Dale came to bed. I had to go to the bathroom. Getting out of bed was very painful. Peeing was difficult and took a while. As soon as I was helped back into bed, I had to get up to pee again. It took a while again, but I got some more out. Got back into bed and had to pee. I decided to ignore it and went to sleep.
Around 4am, I was startled awake. I yelled out and my hands flew to my belly. I think Spritel had opted to run across me to get off the bed, as he often does. My belly didn't hurt any more than usual, but I had to pee very badly. I woke Dale, who helped me out of bed and to the bathroom. My bladder felt so full, like it was going to burst at any step. I sent Dale back to bed because I knew it would take me a while. Peeing had become an exercise in patience and leg-numbness. I would get that sensation you have right before you pee, but the pee wouldn't depart for a minute or more. Then, instead of spraying out as usual, it just kind of trickled out and dripped into the toilet. And as soon as one wave was done, I'd get the feeling that more was on the way. It was like having a urinary tract infection, without the pain and with lots more urine coming out. My legs were going numb so I wiped, got up, and walked around for about 5 minutes. Then I sat down a while longer, peeing occasionally but never getting rid of the feeling that I had to pee more. Finally I gave up and woke Dale to help me back to bed. He changed my bandage and I got to see my sutures for the first time using a mirror. There was one in the bottom of my navel, the one that kept leaking. Then the lower part of my belly seemed to be pinched down a bit and glued shut with 2 or 3 more incisions hidden in the fold. No wonder my lower belly hurt. I'd thought all the incisions were around my belly button.
Several hours later I woke again needing to pee. Experimentally, I did a slow, controlled roll off the side of the bed and stood up unaided. I was shocked to look at the clock and see it was only 4:45am. Once again, my bladder felt so full that the jarring steps I was taking were going to make me wet myself. I made it without having an accident but had to go through the same routine of pee, wait, walk, pee more. I got myself back into bed at 5:15am.
Around 9am, the phone rang. It was Dr. Vaughn just following up and checking on me. I told him how I was feeling and asked about the pee issue. He said it could take a little while for that to get back to normal. Then he suggested the tricks we'd used at the hospital. I asked how long the leaking would last and he said that should be over by the end of the day. Once the pad stayed clean for a few hours, it was probably done. I was told it was ok for me to shower. The sutures are internal, and the skin is held closed by tape. The sutures will dissolve and the tape should fall off in about 10 days. After showering, I was instructed to carefully blot the incisions then use a hair dryer to ensure that the areas were fully dry before getting dressed.
Dr. Vaughn also explained that when he went in, he discovered I did have an ectopic pregnancy. He was able to open my left fallopian ttubeand remove the tissue without damaging or having to remove the tube itself. He also noticed some endometriosis and removed it with the laser before suturing me. There is still a pregnancy sac in my uterus, but Dr. Vaughn suspects that it's empty and the ectopic pregnancy was the source of the HCG. On Tuesday morning, I will get blood drawn to check my HCG, progesterone, and estradiol levels. Then later that day I'll see Dr. Vaughn. He'll check my incisions and do another ultrasound. He suspects that I will begin bleeding (menstruating, basically) around that time.
After the call, I had to Dale assist me to the bathroom again. Same routine, I camped the toilet while he went back to sleep. I ended up walking around some more and taking another pain pill. Finally, I was helped back into bed.
Dale and I were able to sleep for several more hours. I woke him for bathroom assistance but we decided to let me try getting up on my own, and I managed it. Peeing wasn't as arduous and I finally felt like my bladder was ahead of the saline that had been pumped into my system. I got back into bed unaided, and Dale went upstairs while I finished my book. The previous night, Dale had figured out how to turn the phone system into a baby monitor. He was able to set it up so he could hear me if I needed anything but I wouldn't be bothered by any noise he was making. He said it worked so well, he could hear me snoring. Anyway, he'd set up the monitor again early this afternoon. I used it to tell him I wanted to shower. But I decided to eat first so I had a small meal. I was able to mostly clean myself, but I needed Dale to use the washcloth around my sutures.
Just before getting into the shower I was shocked to discover that I had been mostly shaved before my surgery. Most of my pubic hair had been razored down to stubble, leaving just a bit at the bottom of my ppelvicmound that looked like a soul patch. After the shower, I had to laugh while using a hair dryer to blow-dry my incisions. I pulled on a big soft T-shirt and loose shorts, then came upstairs, looked at a couple of web sites, then decided to start writing this. I wanted to get it all out while I remembered it. I haven't even decided yet who will get to read this. Heck, it's so long, there are probably very few people who would want to read it.
Overall, I feel a lot better and incredibly grateful. I'm so glad that Dr. Vaughn followed up with the radiologist and caught this before it got worse. I'm grateful to Wil and Adam staying at the house and taking care of Zoë. I'm also grateful to them and Aaron for offering to do whatever they could. Above all, I'm grateful that I had Dale by my side the whole time. He's been unbelievably supportive and caring, not complaining one bit about fetching things for me or having to get up in the middle of the night to drive me to the ER or just haul me to the bathroom. I can't imagine what it was like for him in the waiting room while I was in surgery. He's only said that he's happy that I'm all right. That my well-being was all that was important.
I don't think that's the full truth. I think Dale is grieving already. I can't. Not yet. I am still clinging to the hope that I have a viable pregnancy in my uterus.
May 26, 2004
A little worry and a lima bean
I've had cramps on and off since the transfer, but this morning I started spotting and my uterus was just doing a steady ache. Around 1:30, I called the clinic and after describing my symptoms, the nurse just told me to go ahead and come in for an ultrasound.
We got there around 2:30 but had almost an hour wait before we saw Dr. Vaughn, not too surprising since we didn't have an appointment.
The ultrasound showed my enlarged uterus, a big dark area that Dr. Vaughn said was fluid in my abdomen, a couple of ovaries, and a tiny black spot in my uterus about the size and shape of a lima bean that was my pregnancy sac! Dr. Vaughn said everything inside me looked good. While we can't blow off the spotting, there isn't too much cause for concern, especially since my hormone levels have been so good. He did tell me I could go in for my next blood test Thursday or Friday if I didn't want to wait until next Tuesday.
My blood pressure was also good and my weight was actually down from the last time they'd weighed me. I am still very restricted on physical activities, though walking around the neighborhood is OK.
The only down side to the visit was that only one pregnancy sac was visible, so it's most likely a single. Dr. Vaughn said there is a slight possibility that there's another tubal pregnancy, but it's unlikely. Still, it's worth keeping note of my cramping.