A real life misdiagnosed miscarriage

Usually, when a woman begins bleeding heavily, and the doctor sees what looks like a blighted ovum (an empty gestational sac) on an ultrasound, the gig is up.

But here's a case where two weeks later, the woman found out that the baby was still there, and even had a heartbeat:

“What exactly is that?” I asked, propping up on my elbows on the examining table, scrutinizing the ultrasound monitor.

“That is a seven-week-old embryo with a heartbeat,” my doctor said.

“No, wait, is it human?” I asked, gasping for air, staring at the flickering heartbeat pulsing through the little body.

I couldn’t believe it. Two weeks before, I’d been diagnosed with a miscarriage—specifically, a chemical pregnancy. I’d raced to the doctor’s office after experiencing heavy cramping and bleeding, and an ultrasound seemed to confirm my gut feeling that my pregnancy was ending. There wasn’t an embryo where there should have been one. And yet, here I was, two weeks later, finding out that I was still pregnant.

I had spent the past two weeks saying goodbye to this pregnancy. My friends had taken me out and gotten me properly sauced. I purposely did everything a pregnant lady is not supposed to do—sucked down soft cheeses, exercised strenuously, and drowned my sorrow in wine and beer.

I’d even yearned for a D&C to end this “lost” pregnancy and clear the way for our next attempt at getting pregnant. Thank God I’d scheduled this second ultrasound before booking the surgery.

Because there was our embryo, with its tiny leg buds and that unmistakable heartbeat, alive and, apparently, human.

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