A little bit of a scare today...

I woke up this morning at around 9:30am, feeling pretty well rested, and actually feeling pretty good. I got up and went to the bathroom and while I was peeing I felt something fall out of me. To my horror when I looked down there was a huge clot laying in the toilet. (I say huge, but it was about the size of a nickel, which I was later told was actually quite small) Anyway, I cleaned up, ran to the kitchen and got a little Tupperware bowl and spoon and got the clot out of the toilet so I could take it with me. I called to the doctor's office and it first sent me to the nurse's voicemail so I called back and told the receptionist, with shaky voice, that I needed to speak to someone NOW. I got my regular nurse, Whitney. I told her what happened and she went to see if they could get me in there, if not I'd have to go to the ER. She came back on and asked if I could come down now, and I said I'd be there in 15 minutes. I think I actually got there in 10 though (it's right down the street).

I get up there and walk in and they had me wait in the waiting room for like 30 seconds before calling me back. I'm sure the other people that were there weren't happy about that, but screw them, I had a problem, they were just in for check ups. So I go to pee in the little cup, of course I'd just peed like 15 minutes before that so it wasn't even enough to cover the bottom of the cup, but they said it was enough. I waited while they got the ultrasound room ready for me and then they called m back. I saw a different midwife than my normal lady, but she was just as nice. She took a look at my specimen that I brought in and explained that since it was more red and small that was a good sign. There wasn't any traces of tissue in it. Then she took her little light and had to look at my cervix. They said that my cervix was positioned like a hook, so she had to use a long q-tip like think to pull it down to look at it. Then she did the ultrasound and first checked on the baby. We saw it in there, pretty un-phased by it all, heart just beating away and squirming around. Then she called in the Obstetrician, so I got a little worried.

He came in and looked at the screen and moved the little wand around. Then he too looked at my cervix. The whole time I'm still freaking out on the inside wondering what they're seeing, or thinking. Finally, he tells me that baby looks perfect, the sac is completely in tact, and the cervix is closed and tight. Yay! So what the hell else is going on?! He said that I have a little polyp on my cervix, and said that it's pretty normal in pregnant women, but it can cause some bleeding, since it made it's home on a bed of blood vessels (my cervix). But he said that people get polyps in their noses, ears, colons, etc. Sometimes they just fall off, but sometimes they have to go in a remove them. Since it's still really early in my pregnancy he said he would just keep an eye on it for now. If it grows or changes they'll take it off. Anyway, he said the bleeding could be caused by the 2 ultrasounds I had on Tuesday and Thursday, it may have caused the polyp to become irritated. And if I was bleeding a little more because of that, then it would have pooled while I slept and came out all together in the morning (hence the clot).

So he told me to take a deep breath, I guess I looked pretty scared and probably as white as a ghost. He said that the bleeding wasn't coming from the uterus, and the cervix was nice and tight and polyps are nothing to be worked up over. So I feel a lot better. My freak out levels are much lower. They told me to stay off my feet for a couple days, so I got my doctor's note and I guess I'm just going to be veggin' at home for the next 2 days. Here's some info on cervical polyps:

• Cervical polyps are growths that appear in the cervix that range from light pink to dark purple in color.
• They vary in size and look like bulbs on a stem.
• Cervical polyps can be caused by an abnormal response to the female hormone estrogen, many women in early pregnancy experience polyps due to the estrogen hormone being higher, or can be caused by clogged blood vessels in the cervix.
• Most all polyps are benign, but in rare cases it can be cancerous.
• Prognosis for polyps, the out look is excellent. A vast majority are benign and those that are removed usually do not come back.
• There is no known way to prevent polyps.