A few minutes after I arrived at work this morning, I got a phone call from my doctors office. I had taken a follow up blood test on Wednesday and told them not to expedite the results (because I have to pay for the extra costs) since I knew what the results were going to be.

My last blood test had a 1800 HCG count, so I expected the nurse to tell me that the number was something lower than that. She said the number had risen to 5600.

What?

She said my doctor wanted me to go in today for an ultrasound to see if it was an ectopic pregnancy. I told her I was leaving in a few hours to head to Bar Harbor for the weekend, and could it wait until Monday. She said the doctor put in on her desk as her # 1 priority of the day. So the answer was no.

She got me in at the ultrasound place as soon as I could get there, which was 15 minutes.

They found that I was not indeed still pregnant, there was no baby. There was an area of blood flow that may be the remnants of the miscarriage. My body seems to be trying to keep something growing, but it is futile as there is no life there.

I waited for several hours to get a call from my doctor after he’d have time to look at the ultrasound results. He reiterated what the ultrasound technician had said. There’s some “pregnancy product” left but no actual, viable pregnancy.

I asked if I could head up to Bar Harbor and run a half marathon tomorrow. He said sure, I could, but he was surprised that I was pushing to do so.

I told him he should consider writing a paper on Running and Fertility since not only did I defy the odds by getting pregnant at 40 with an IUD, but that now my body doesn’t seem to want to stop being pregnant. He said he thinks I’m on to something there.

I’m now at the hotel in Bar Harbor, not able to sleep. I’m really excited about tomorrow’s race. I will be so happy to just finish. I’m not only running 13.1 miles, I’m fighting for resources with my body that incorrectly thinks it is trying to grow a baby and is diverting resources and energy towards that goal. Great…

Wish me luck.