Brown goo

Another trip to the doctor and another "everything's fine" diagnosis.

I was scheduled for my routine appointment on Monday but I started having some brown goo discharge.  There wasn't much of it, but it was different from the brown bleeding I'm accustomed to so I figured I should call it in.  Besides, Dr. Google kept saying things about mucous plugs and consult your real doctor.

I called early Friday morning and after a couple of hours of nurses consulting and calling me back to confirm what I was describing, they decided to have me come in that afternoon.  I texted K telling him that our Monday appointment was now that afternoon, but that it probably wasn't dire that he be there.

Even though I was pretty sure things would be routine, K shuffled his schedule all around so he could take me.  I asked him later why it's such a priority that he be at every appointment and his thinking is that if there's ever bad news, he doesn't want me to have to hear it alone.  I'm totally keeping him.

Anyway, no ultrasound video today because they were squeezing me in and I didn't want to push my luck.  But everything looks great.  Cervix is still measuring at 4.6 which is incredibly strong with twins at 22 weeks.  Babies were both active though not exactly doing cartwheels.  K got all grinny because Baby B was doing his signature dance move.  Unfortunately for the rest of us, he's a very white guy and his signature dance move looks something like this.

White Man Boogie

According to the doctor, everything is going as good as can be.  The brown goo isn't bleeding from the SCH - that's pretty much gone, but rather the cervix is likely a little irritated and so there's a smidge of blood mixing with cervical mucous.  Very common.

He did say that it's mostly after doing a little extra straining, or activity, or sex.  Of course, I've done none of these things.  I've stopped doing video work so I don't have to carry my camera equipment and most of my days are spent sitting on my ass, my only exercise being traveling to and fro from computer to fridge or bathroom.  So if my body is reacting as if I've been straining a little bit when I haven't, it helps me feel less guilty about removing all actual physical strain from my life.  Many twin moms are put on bedrest.  My doctor isn't a fan of bedrest, he feels it does more harm than good, so this whole pregnancy I'm existing somewhere between a self imposed bedrest and actually living like a normal person.  That basically boils down to being extremely lazy pretty much all the time.

I was smart this time and put a note in my phone about the things I wanted to ask the doctor about.  The headaches?  Take tylenol.  The heartburn?  Take prilosec.  The sudden heart races/pumping extra hard?  Ok, that one confused him a bit.  He displayed some concern and I'm going to make an appointment with a cardiologist next week to check that out.

Here's one I didn't know about - apparently there's some extra little risk in IVF pregnancies.  My brain seems to have blocked out what that risk is, but they are going to be sending me to Maternal Fetal Medicine for a series of ultrasounds between 22-24 weeks.  This will basically replace my usual 24 week appointment.  Whatever the risk is, it's very low, and MFM just wants to do a very comprehensive battery of tests and views and measurements to double check that all is well.  I told Dr. C that whatever they advise, or whatever extra medications etc they want to put me on, they'll need to go through him.  I hate having several different doctors recommending several different things so I really want all information and stuff filtering through one person.

Dr. C is predicting that I'll deliver around 34 weeks.  The average for twins is 34-37 weeks and that's a pretty healthy length of gestation.  I think he's telling me 34 because he doesn't want to be overly positive.  I'm kind of thinking 36.  Things are looking really good right now, and at the moment, there's no reason to anticipate premies.