bright red spotting-bit graphic

Ok, so a couple days ago I was in the bathroom attempting a BM which
any pregnant woman knows is not an easy feat. Sorry, I forgot to
mention I'm 11 weeks along. I must have been straining really hard
because when I was finished all of a sudden a big glob of bright red
blood showed up on the toilet paper, no clots though. I don't know if
excessive straining caused my spotting but it's curious that it
happened when I was trying to poop. Of course this sent me into a
panicky frenzy (this is my 1st pregnancy, never experienced spotting
before). I immediately marched myself upstairs to bed and proceeded
to lay down on my back with my feet elevated accompanied by a lot of
frightened tears and prayers. My DH bless his soul called in sick all
the next day to take care of me. He was truly amazed at just how much
I'm eating now considering he wouldn't let me get out of bed unless I
had to go potty and insisted upon catering to my every whim (or
craving). He says I eat like a pig now which he thinks is kinda cute
anyway.

So anyway, by a 4 hours after the bleeding started I guess it stopped
because what blood I was still spotting looked old and brown and by
last night there was no more at all. I felt a little tender in my
lower abdomen but no cramps and I feel almost back to normal today.
It was a very scary experience, especially since I'm still technically
in the first trimester and I know that most miscarriages happen then.
I called my OB and she said that I could get out of bed today but to
take it easy over the weekend and she's going to prescribe me
something to help with the constipation (it's been terrible) when I
see her Tuesday. I had been trying to eat a lot of fiber and prunes
but it didn't help me in the slightest.

So, that's my story and I'm on the mend. I really hope it doesn't
happen again because it scared me out of my wits! Anybody have a
suggestion as to what I can take for some relief in the meantime?

Angela in Missouri
EDD with #1 5/15/04

Angela wrote:
So, that's my story and I'm on the mend. I really hope it doesn't
happen again because it scared me out of my wits! Anybody have a
suggestion as to what I can take for some relief in the meantime?

I am really glad to know you are doing better now. It sounds like
the straining may very well have caused the spotting, it's not
unheard off. I've had spotting in 2 pregnancies, one turned out
fine and I had a healthy boy, this time it was not good. Either
way, there is so little you can do but taking things easy. As
long as you are eating as you describe though, I wouldn't worry

What helps me is lots and lots of water. Instead of normal prunes,
try the dried ones, or dried apricots, raisins, stuff like that.
As you know already, lots of fiber and whole wheat, e.g. having
a cup of yoghurt with 1 Tbsp of bran, oatmeal, lots of citrus
fruits (fresh, not in juice). If all this fails, there are a few
laxatives you can take, ask your OB.

--
-- I
mommy to DS (15m)
guardian of DH (32)
War doesn't decide who's right, only who's left

Sympathy, I know how scary that is. Straining can cause spotting either
from the cervix or from the anus - you may have haemerrhoids which may have
bled, or a fissure. To avoid constipation, lots of water and fresh plums or
failing that apples (lots of them!) work for me. I also eat a high-fibre
breakfast cereal and go for wholemeal bread etc. when possible. Dried
prunes/apricots are also traditional. Avoiding constipation is definitely
worthwhile to keep the haemerrhoids away, quite apart from sparing you the
spotting worry. I hope it doesn't recur.

Sidheag
41w4d

Angela wrote:

Ok, so a couple days ago I was in the bathroom attempting a BM which
any pregnant woman knows is not an easy feat. Sorry, I forgot to
mention I'm 11 weeks along. I must have been straining really hard
because when I was finished all of a sudden a big glob of bright red
blood showed up on the toilet paper, no clots though. I don't know if
excessive straining caused my spotting but it's curious that it
happened when I was trying to poop. Of course this sent me into a
panicky frenzy (this is my 1st pregnancy, never experienced spotting
before). I immediately marched myself upstairs to bed and proceeded
to lay down on my back with my feet elevated accompanied by a lot of
frightened tears and prayers. My DH bless his soul called in sick all
the next day to take care of me. He was truly amazed at just how much
I'm eating now considering he wouldn't let me get out of bed unless I
had to go potty and insisted upon catering to my every whim (or
craving). He says I eat like a pig now which he thinks is kinda cute
anyway.

So anyway, by a 4 hours after the bleeding started I guess it stopped
because what blood I was still spotting looked old and brown and by
last night there was no more at all. I felt a little tender in my
lower abdomen but no cramps and I feel almost back to normal today.
It was a very scary experience, especially since I'm still technically
in the first trimester and I know that most miscarriages happen then.
I called my OB and she said that I could get out of bed today but to
take it easy over the weekend and she's going to prescribe me
something to help with the constipation (it's been terrible) when I
see her Tuesday. I had been trying to eat a lot of fiber and prunes
but it didn't help me in the slightest.

So, that's my story and I'm on the mend. I really hope it doesn't
happen again because it scared me out of my wits! Anybody have a
suggestion as to what I can take for some relief in the meantime?

Angela in Missouri
EDD with #1 5/15/04


I am 12 weeks along, I had spotting in my 11th week. It was so scary(and
my husband works out of town and I have a four ear old). My doc brought
me in and we got the heartbeat with the doppler. Since then I do have
light brown spotting whenever I strain for a BM. I understand you
perfectly well. I have my regular check up today. The spotting has
alomst stopped, the last I had it was friday after a BM. I drink lots of
water/fluids, atleast a banana and an apple a day along with wheat bread
etc. I still have constipation. I guess it is part of the deal. Atleast
it is better than in my last pregnancy.
When do you go for your check up next? Hope everything is back to normal
soon.

--
Vidya
mom to Vandu(4)
EDD May 6th '04

I am 12 weeks along, I had spotting in my 11th week. It was so scary(and
my husband works out of town and I have a four ear old). My doc brought
me in and we got the heartbeat with the doppler. Since then I do have
light brown spotting whenever I strain for a BM. I understand you
perfectly well. I have my regular check up today. The spotting has
alomst stopped, the last I had it was friday after a BM. I drink lots of
water/fluids, atleast a banana and an apple a day along with wheat bread
etc. I still have constipation. I guess it is part of the deal. Atleast
it is better than in my last pregnancy.
When do you go for your check up next? Hope everything is back to normal
soon.

My next checkup is tomorrow afternoon. I feel completely back to
normal but the doc will look me over just to make sure. My
constipation has been absolutely awful. It's terribly uncomfortable.
I tried prunes, apricots, raisin bran and nothing helped. For some
relief I've started taking Colace or ducolate Sodium (over the counter
laxitive) and it seems to be working pretty well for me thankfully.
You might want to ask your doctor about it.

There's another question I have off the subject if anyone cares to add
some input. My doctor has given me the option of testing for spina
bifida but I've heard from friends of mine that the test has a 60%
false positive result rate. Why would anyone ever use the test if a
positive is more times than not inaccurate? I still don't know if
I'll have the test done because I don't know that much could be done
until after the baby's born if there is something wrong anyway, and I
don't want to get myself upset for something that might not even
happen. Besides, I think that spina bifida can be detected on
ultrasound (my 1st ultrasound will be at 20 weeks and I'm almost 12
weeks now). Any opinions?

Angela in Missouri
EDD with #1 05/15/04

"Angela" wrote in message
m...
I am 12 weeks along, I had spotting in my 11th week. It was so scary(and
my husband works out of town and I have a four ear old). My doc brought
me in and we got the heartbeat with the doppler. Since then I do have
light brown spotting whenever I strain for a BM. I understand you
perfectly well. I have my regular check up today. The spotting has
alomst stopped, the last I had it was friday after a BM. I drink lots of
water/fluids, atleast a banana and an apple a day along with wheat bread
etc. I still have constipation. I guess it is part of the deal. Atleast
it is better than in my last pregnancy.
When do you go for your check up next? Hope everything is back to normal
soon.

My next checkup is tomorrow afternoon. I feel completely back to
normal but the doc will look me over just to make sure. My
constipation has been absolutely awful. It's terribly uncomfortable.
I tried prunes, apricots, raisin bran and nothing helped. For some
relief I've started taking Colace or ducolate Sodium (over the counter
laxitive) and it seems to be working pretty well for me thankfully.
You might want to ask your doctor about it.

There's another question I have off the subject if anyone cares to add
some input. My doctor has given me the option of testing for spina
bifida but I've heard from friends of mine that the test has a 60%
false positive result rate. Why would anyone ever use the test if a
positive is more times than not inaccurate? I still don't know if
I'll have the test done because I don't know that much could be done
until after the baby's born if there is something wrong anyway, and I
don't want to get myself upset for something that might not even
happen. Besides, I think that spina bifida can be detected on
ultrasound (my 1st ultrasound will be at 20 weeks and I'm almost 12
weeks now). Any opinions?

Angela in Missouri
EDD with #1 05/15/04

I didn't have the test done for the reasons that you have already
discovered, the test isn't very accurate and a few weeks later they can do
an ultrasound. I personally didn't see being worth the time, but I am sure
there are other moms out there with differing opinions:-) I would just go
with what you personally feel most comfortable with. They gave me the
paperwork to have the test done and I just "forgot" about it.
Kat
Mama to Maggie 11/03/01 (NEXT MONDAY!!)
and #2 EDD 02/01/04

"Angela" wrote
My
constipation has been absolutely awful. It's terribly uncomfortable.
I tried prunes, apricots, raisin bran and nothing helped. For some
relief I've started taking Colace or ducolate Sodium (over the counter
laxitive) and it seems to be working pretty well for me thankfully.
You might want to ask your doctor about it.

Mine has been awful too-- soooo miserable. I was fine in that regards until
I started Zofran for nausea. That's a known side effect and boy is it ever.
From the time I started Zofran, I went an entire week without even feeling
like a BM. I started to worry but thought, well, I am not eating much yet- I
was still not keeping food down. I started stool softeners which did not
work and tried Fibercon with tons of water and daily walks, NO relief. After
10 days I took an exlax as NOTHING was helping (it's not on the list of
what's good to take but the doctor said once won't hurt), it worked but only
one time and then it was back to several more days of constipation. Now it's
been 3 weeks of sparse BM and I am going crazy with bloat, sorry to be so
graphic! I became teary from being so upset about how uncomfortable it feels
as I have been eating a LOT of fiber as well as taking extra fiber with
loads of water and still all that was doing was bloating me really badly and
not giving me any help going at all.

I have a question-- my doctor's office called me back and told me a few more
thing to do. They keep telling me to take Colace regularly-- isn't Colace
the exact same as Phillip's Liquigel Pills- ducolate sodium, a stool
softener??? WHy would it help me when Phillips didn't??? Also- they told me
to take ONE dose of Milk of Magnesia liquid, only ONCE they emphasized- they
said take 2 CC's....what is a CC?? The container only measures by the
tablespoon, how many tablespoons is one CC? They closed before they had time
to call em back...They said after one dose if that did not help, to use
"half a bottle" of magnesium citrate, and again I am like "huh?" I assume
magnesium citrate is a liquid and the bottles are small, or what?? I
actually thought Magnesium citrate was a vitamin supplement pill form of
magnesium but I can't see them telling to take half a bottle of those. And
they told me once that works to stay on Colace (which again, why would it
work if Phillips os the same thing and doesn't?That is what I did- use an
Exlax and then try to take over with the Phillips ducolate sodium)...

I have NEVER had such a problem before...so stubborn! The bloating actually
hurts! I drink SO much water that even when I stop drinking it at 8pm, I
still get up every 30 minutes to use the bathroom ....so I think I must
have actually been drinking too much water for what I need...

Angela wrote:


There's another question I have off the subject if anyone cares to add
some input. My doctor has given me the option of testing for spina
bifida but I've heard from friends of mine that the test has a 60%
false positive result rate. Why would anyone ever use the test if a
positive is more times than not inaccurate? I still don't know if
I'll have the test done because I don't know that much could be done
until after the baby's born if there is something wrong anyway, and I
don't want to get myself upset for something that might not even
happen. Besides, I think that spina bifida can be detected on
ultrasound (my 1st ultrasound will be at 20 weeks and I'm almost 12
weeks now). Any opinions?


Most likely, it's the AFP test they were talking
about. It was first developed for screening for Downs
Syndrome, but then they noticed that there was also a
correlation with spina bifida. The reason they use it
even though the false positive rate is high is that it
identifies a pool of people who are at higher risk and
would therefore benefit from either more invasive testing
(like amnio) or more expensive testing (like ultrasound).
It is true that spina bifida is most accurately determined
by ultrasound, but I don't know when the optimal time to
do the u/s is or whether the standard 20 week anomaly
scan is detailed enough to catch it. If not, having
an elevated risk from a screening test would suggest
that you might benefit from the right sort of u/s at
the right time to detect spina bifida.

Best wishes,
Ericka

Mine has been awful too-- soooo miserable. I was fine in that regards until
I started Zofran for nausea. That's a known side effect and boy is it ever.
From the time I started Zofran, I went an entire week without even feeling
like a BM. I started to worry but thought, well, I am not eating much yet- I
was still not keeping food down. I started stool softeners which did not
work and tried Fibercon with tons of water and daily walks, NO relief. After
10 days I took an exlax as NOTHING was helping (it's not on the list of
what's good to take but the doctor said once won't hurt), it worked but only
one time and then it was back to several more days of constipation. Now it's
been 3 weeks of sparse BM and I am going crazy with bloat, sorry to be so
graphic! I became teary from being so upset about how uncomfortable it feels
as I have been eating a LOT of fiber as well as taking extra fiber with
loads of water and still all that was doing was bloating me really badly and
not giving me any help going at all.
I have a question-- my doctor's office called me back and told me a few more
thing to do. They keep telling me to take Colace regularly-- isn't Colace
the exact same as Phillip's Liquigel Pills- ducolate sodium, a stool
softener??? WHy would it help me when Phillips didn't??? Also- they told me
to take ONE dose of Milk of Magnesia liquid, only ONCE they emphasized- they
said take 2 CC's....what is a CC?? The container only measures by the
tablespoon, how many tablespoons is one CC? They closed before they had time
to call em back...They said after one dose if that did not help, to use
"half a bottle" of magnesium citrate, and again I am like "huh?" I assume
magnesium citrate is a liquid and the bottles are small, or what?? I
actually thought Magnesium citrate was a vitamin supplement pill form of
magnesium but I can't see them telling to take half a bottle of those. And
they told me once that works to stay on Colace (which again, why would it
work if Phillips os the same thing and doesn't?That is what I did- use an
Exlax and then try to take over with the Phillips ducolate sodium)...
I have NEVER had such a problem before...so stubborn! The bloating actually
hurts! I drink SO much water that even when I stop drinking it at 8pm, I
still get up every 30 minutes to use the bathroom ....so I think I must
have actually been drinking too much water for what I need...


The only thing I know is that colace is supposed to work with your
body differently than other stool softeners... something about water
in the intestines for an easier BM rather than how other traditional
laxitives work. I'm not for sure about the difference but it seems to
be helping me though I still don't have a BM as frequenly as I'd like.
The last few days have been absoutely awful concerning the bloating.
Sometimes I'm so bloated after eating or drinking water it's
physically painful just to take in a full breath of air and then it
lasts for at the least an hour or two, Miserable!. It's so incredibly
uncomfortable, almost like my stomach is full of gas and I can't
release it! I've noticed that I can't even wait through the night to
go to the bathroom. I'm up at the least 3-4 times each night to use
the bathroom even when I stop drinking water by 9pm. You're probably
not drinking too much water because I know that I'm not drinking
enough and I'm still painfully bloated and go to the bathroom very
often. This all reminds me of the girl on Willy Wonka and the
Chocolate factor who turns into a blueberry after chewing the gum.
That's how I feel!

Another awful thing is that because I'm so bloated I can't hardly
stand to sit in my normal pants with them buttoned, it feels like some
kind of ancient, medievel torture which is shocking to me because I
have hardly gained a pound over my first trimester and I'll be 12
weeks as of tomorrow. I'm afraid I'm going to have to start shopping
for maternity clothing already, which I'm not really looking forward
to.

Angela
EDD with #1 05/15/04

"Angela" wrote I
have hardly gained a pound over my first trimester and I'll be 12
weeks as of tomorrow. I'm afraid I'm going to have to start shopping
for maternity clothing already, which I'm not really looking forward
to.

Angela
EDD with #1 05/15/04

My boating must be severe or my weight has redistrubuted or something. I
will be 3 months on Monday and I have lost 12 pounds from when I was 5 weeks
along and first learned I was pregnant. I actually use whole milk in my
cereal and tablespoons of peanut butter to prevent weight loss because I am
not able to eat a lot. I don't think it's that big of a deal since I have
extra weight on me. If I wasn't pregnant I could lose 30 pounds and still be
ok. So I am thinking that this is why it's not a big deal if I lose weight,
I would be much more worried if I was very thin. I just can't wait to
actually be able to enjoy food and have it taste good again. Anyway even
though I have lost 12 pounds I am bloated like you wouldn't believe, my
stomach is significantly bigger now (more distended) than it was during my
first few weeks. People who know me think I am showing no matter what I say-
something IS showing, lol, but it is NOT baby. The babay cannot possibly be
that big at this early age...but people (even women)want to insist that I am
starting showing, they absolutely insist, so whatever. I know if I wasn't
constipated I wouldn't be showing anything, it goes way down very very
briefly when I take something to have a bm....