So a friend asked me to post about what has been going on, so here it is. I know it's long, and i copied/pasted it, so parts may sound a bit funny.
What happened was - I was scheduled to go in and meet with my RE near the beginning of January (this year), but just before that I found out I was finally pregnant for the first time, and a few days before my appointment I started to very heavily bleed and thought I was miscarrying. I called the RE's office and asked them if they would need me to come in earlier or get a ultrasound or anything done to confirm the miscarriage and they said no, and that I could just wait and come in on my appointment and the doctor would check things out there.
So my first problem with everything is that when I did first go in, my doctor never asked me my blood type, or if i was rh - or + (which at the time I didnt even know that such a thing existed) BUT I think he should have asked me and had me checked right away for my RH status knowing how important your blood type is in pregnancy and knowing that I had already been bleeding. He never did anything of the sort. He sent me for a hcg level test just to see that my levels were going down since I figured I miscarried. He also did a ultrasound and seen nothing in my uterus so at that time he too figured it was a straight and clean m/c. When my 2 hcg tests came back, it showed that my hcg was still going up instead of down. Byt this time it was almost 2 weeks later then when I had seen him. He sent me for emerg u/s and they found that I had a ectopic and my tube was about ready to burst. Since I was having no pain they gave me the methotrexate injection to get the pregnancy out of my tube. This was a different doctor and different hospital that did the ultrasound, and this other doctor asked me my RH status, and I didn't know what she was talking about. She got really worryied that my doctor had never ordered the test 2 weeks earlier when he knew i had been bleeding already and she even called him to double check on if he had got that test done or not. So she did the test and it came back RH-. She talked to my doctor again and they made me a appointment for that night to go and get my winrho (rhogam) shot since i had been bleeding and am RH-. So my shot was given to me about 3 weeks too late, and I feel that my doctor should have tested my RH status immediately once he knew I was already bleeding. If he would have tested for it right away, and got me my rhogam shot right away, I feel that it may have prevented all this from happening since I would have gotten it much sooner and not 3 weeks later....so like i said, I am not really sure if neglect if the right word or not about it.
The second thing that happened was that I again got pregnant this past August, and I called to tell them so I could go and get my hcg levels tested since they told me after the last pregnancy that since I had a ectopic already, I would be monitored more closely now. So I went and got 2 tests done and at that time my hcg was very good and doubling ever 27.4 hours. A week later I felt that something was not right and I called them to request another hcg test to ease my own mind. Well they ( the nuse/assistant lady) called me that day to tell me that I either had another ectopic or was about to miscarry. They wouldnt be able to tell which since my hcg was too low now to see anything on a u/s and just wanted to keep watching through hcg tests to make sure it was going down to 0 again. Just like any other woman in that situation, all I could think about was that I was losing my baby again. I never thought about my blood type at that time, and they never once told me to call them when i actually started bleeding because I would have to go and get another winrho/rhogam shot again, and would need to call them ASAP to get the appointment made for it. I started bleeding that day, which was a friday and was a complete emotional mess the entire weekend. It wasnt until the following Tuesday that I fianlly started to feel well enough to think about anything other then losing the baby, and i immediately thought of my blood and wondered why they had not mentioned it and told me to call when i started to bleed to get the appointment made for the shot.
I immediately called them to ask this question and the nurse/assistant told me that they did not have it in my file anywhere that I was infact RH-, or that I had already had my winrho/rhogam shot once already with my first loss. I was pissed about the fact that they did not have it in my record. I was with the other doctor when she said she was going to make me a photocopy of the tests they had done when they did my RH test, and that she was faxing it to my doctorm plus she had told him before over the phone abotu me being rh- and having to go get the shot. So by this time, it was already 5 days after I started bleeding, and the winrho/rhogam shot is suppose to be done within 3 days of bleeding. The nurse/assistant told me she was going to have to look into it and get back to me. She called me back later the next day in the morning and said for me to go get my shot that morning before noon, expecting that peole can just drop what they are doing or just up and leave their job and go with no warning. I could not leave at that time, I do home child care, had 5 kids here and no way to get to the place i needed to get the shot done. So I ended up having to wait till the next morning to get it done.
When I went in to talk to my RE about all of this and ask questions about it (it was a appointment set up previously sceduled for a ultrasound of the baby before I lost it) and he looked in my file and said that it did infact NOW have that I am RH- and had to previously get my shot. He had no idea that it was not in my chart before, so the nurse/assistant must have entered it after I talked to them on the phone asking about it when she had to call and confirm everything. So it is basically my word against theirs on that, because i doubt that she would admit that it wasnt there since it is her job to enter the info in the first place and it would have been her who screwed up by not entering it before and i doubt she would admit to that now. And now this has been 2 times that my shot was not given to me on time.
My RE told me that a embryo does not start developing red blood cells until after 8 weeks. My ectopic was 8 1/2 weeks when it was terminated and the miscarriage happened at 5 weeks, so I am pretty sure that it would have been the first pregnancy/loss that created the antibodies since it was over 8 weeks along, and the shot was about 3 weeks late. And since I feel that it was the first one that cuase this and that it could have been maybe prevented if my RE would have just tested me right away, I also feel that my second loss was due to him not testing me right away and me developing the antibodies after the first loss.
Where I live, we only have the one fertility clinic, and the next one is a minimun of 6 hours away, and I am not even sure they have one there. I don't want to burn my bridges, I still need them to help me get pregnant again, but I am at a loss for what to do now or where to go. My turst is not really with them a whole lot anymore. Not to mention, they tried to tell me that some women who are RH- just automatically become sensitized over time so it wasnt their fault that it happened, which I really do not think it true. I can not find one shred of evidence that says it is possible to become sensitized if you got your shots in time.
Sorry it is soooo long, i ramble when I am upset, and this definetly upsets me!
