When the numbers don't add up

I have had three tests so far to measure my progesterone.

The first was at 4w5d and was 16.8.

The second was 6w and was 27.7

The third was at 8w1d and was 39.

Or so we thought.

- - -

On Friday night I received an urgent message from my doctor, who just a couple of hours earlier had told me how good my progesterone was looking. Apparently, she had been reading the numbers wrong, using the wrong units as she put it, and my numbers were actually low.

In a blind panic, I picked hubby up from work and raced to the clinic to see the genetic councilor who had noted the incorrect number and had written my a prescription for progesterone pessaries. They promised to wait behind for us to arrive.

All the fears of the day and the stresses about this pregnancy that I had been trying to hide come flooding out. I had been having cramps on and off for a couple of days, maybe we were too late?

As a reassurance, they offered us a scan then and there. They tried an abdominal scan but my bladder wasn't full enough to give a clear picture. We saw baby, but nothing was clear. I looked for that little flicker but saw nothing. Bladder emptied, we tried an internal scan and there, almost at once, baby's little heart flickered on the screen. Measuring high, I thought, at 180bpm but most certainly there and measuring perfectly.

They're convinced that we caught it in time, as my levels were still rising, just slowly and lower than they would like. Turns out my numbers were actually 5.8, 8.65 and 12.18. I'll be visiting the doctor on Wednesday to find out what happens next as I think they want to do weekly monitoring of my levels and have me on the pessaries until 14 weeks.

Typically, the terrible bloating that I have had for the last couple of weeks has also died down over the weekend, making me feel as though my 'bump' is gone, just another reason to stress but I am trying to keep my anxiety under control.

Let's hope that a completely avoidable medical mistake hasn't cost us our little one.