HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Miscarriage

Support Forums
>
Lupus
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 9/26/2011 6:31 AM (GMT 0)
Hi, everyone,

I don't come here often, although I used to years ago under a different username. I haven't been diagnosed with Lupus, and the rheumatologists I've seen believed that my health problems aren't rheumatic (I have had a positive ANA of 1:320 and 1:640, but I don't have swollen joints, and the other tests came back negative), but my health problems follow Lupus so closely that it's the only condition I can really identify with since I can't obtain a positive diagnosis otherwise.

Anyway, I had a miscarriage a few weeks ago... It was my first pregnancy, and I was between 4 and 7 weeks along (it's hard to tell... my periods are very irregular), so it was still fairly early. The reason for the miscarriage is not known... but with the enormous amount of factors working against a pregnancy (endometriosis, ovarian cyst issues, low progesterone, blood sugar problems, blood pressure problems, anemia, low cortisol levels, etc.), I wasn't surprised that it happened. Despite the lack of surprise, it was still a bit of an emotional experience.

I was wondering if any of you have a history of having miscarriages, and if you were able to successfully make it through a pregnancy after. With so many health problems, I'm worried about trying again... obviously, a lot of work will have to go into it (raising my progesterone level, monitoring my blood sugar and blood pressure, keeping up with iron-intake, etc)... but... I guess I'm looking for some encouragement from someone who had similar problems. My doctor and ob/gyn seemed to think I would make it through the pregnancy just fine, but obviously that didn't happen. Anyone have a positive pregnancy story?

:-)
Posted 9/26/2011 10:55 PM (GMT 0)
Sorry for you loss! (((hug))
Posted 9/26/2011 11:53 PM (GMT 0)
No pregnancy story here, but I've heard that if you have a certain antibody it can cause misscarrages.
See a different Rhuemy and ask for new testing. With proper treatments you can go through a normal pregnancy with a high risk ob/gyn.
My titers were 1:360 and everything else was normal on the bloodwork. But I had all of the symptoms of lupus (joint pains, rashes, fatigue, swelling).
he told me it was moderate SLE and started me on medicines.
Posted 9/27/2011 8:48 PM (GMT 0)
first I would like to say that I am sorry for your loss.

My daughter was told that she has some sort of autoimmune disorder but hasnt been officially diagnosed with anything yet, except fibromyalgia and seasonal depression.

She has three wonderful little boys (7,3,1) The first was born 2 months early and spent 16 days in nicu. The second was born 5 weeks early and had the cord wrapped around his neck 3 times. He also spent 16 days in nicu. The third was born on time and quite healthy. After the first, my daughter had 2 miscarriages. They did not know for sure why but could make a few guesses. I really do not remember the guesses but one had to do with the xy factor (maybe she could not carry girls?) and the other had to do with a blood clotting factor. She did not actually miscarry the babies, they just died and she had to have surgery to remove them. She was an emotional mess, especially when it happened the second time. (who could blame her)

This is why there is 4 years between the oldest and middle child. But, she did become pregnant again (twice) and now has the big family she and her husband always wanted. They were not easy pregancies, she had to quit her job with the second because she had placenta previa and some other "pregnancy" related issues. The pregancies also caused her bipolar/depression issues to blow out of preportion but you know, she would do it all over again (minus the health issues of the babies of course)

Although she does not have lupus she does have health issues and these may or may not have played a role in her health and the health of her babies but she was under the care of a team of wonderful doctors and in the end all is well.

Another good story: My sister tried for 12 years to become a mother. She had almost all the things that you mentioned. She tried all the "methods" to get pregnant and still 12 years later no baby. Because she was the only one of us 5 to not have children she was the one that took on the care of our mother when she became unable to care for herself (she had lou gherigs disease). One year to the exact day of my mothers death my sister found out that she was pregnant. Today she has a very beautiful and very smart 5 year old daughter. We have many blessings in our family and I love them all.

I sincerely hope that you too will have the baby that you desire to have.
Posted 9/27/2011 10:59 PM (GMT 0)
I am so sorry for your loss.  The loss of a baby is just heartbreaking. 

I have had a miscarriage myself.  It was between my second and third child.  I have Crohn's disease and now Lupus.  My miscarriage was at 10 weeks.  The stress on my body and the hormone changes from the miscarriage threw my body into a pretty bad Crohn's flare.  I started on remicade and my husband and I decided that we would try one more time but we were going to wait a bit.  We wanted my health to get back under control before we tried for a baby again.  Getting pregant with my third was a complete surprise.  While I know how it happened I really don't know because we were actually preventing pregnancy at the time.  It was way before the "scheduled" time that we had decided on.  Getting pregnant again for me was an exciting but scary experience.  I think that I was waiting for the bottom to drop out again.  I am not sure if you are religious or not but I did a lot of praying and trying to turn my worry over to God.

I had my OB and my GI in contact with each other through out the pregnancy.  They monitored me closely.  Aubrey, my third, ended up having a two vessel umbilical cord but was perfect in every other way.  She was a healthy 8.6 lbs and 21 inches long.  The pregancy was fairly easy as was the delivery. 

I would encourage you to give yourself time to grieve for the loss of your little one.  Do you have others that you can reach out to?  For myself, I felt like just shutting down but I had good friends and a husband to were such an encouragement to me.  they really helped me work through my loss.  Take care of yourself!

Posted 9/29/2011 9:44 PM (GMT 0)
I lost our only child as he was stillborn at 30 weeks. I had a prior complicated medical history due to Crohn's and numerous surgeries for this. This happened 11 years ago and due to further surgery unable to conceive naturally and IVF meds failed even though all tests came back normal, docs couldn't explain why the drugs wouldn't work and were stumped. However, unusually they did a blood test when our son was born and they tested it for Antiphospholipid syndrome, which causes the blood to clot too well. I had never had problems with blood clots before but it came back positive and the post mortum showed he died due to the placenta becoming blocked and so had no nutrition.

Sorry, that's a bit rambling - just taken some tramadol. Anyway wanted to say ask your doctors to do a test for this as it doesn't necessarily show any symptoms and maybe have tests a couple of months apart as it can come and go in the blood tests. If it is positive it is easily solved, aspirin and heparin during the pregnancy works really well and produces a good outcome. Hope this was of some help to you and am so sorry for your loss.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply