The Great Pregnancy Test Debacle of 2020

If you read my previous post about The Great Communicables Kit Debacle of 2020, then sit down for this one, because we’ve got another epic debacle on our hands. But this one could have cost a life…

I started taking home pregnancy test 5 days post transfer and started off with a light line that got progressively darker with each passing day. So, once that Friday came I was feeling pretty positive going into Beta day. I went to TMH, did my bloodwork, and then we all had to wait for the official results. Later that afternoon L&R called me. CCRM had called them with the results and they decided to call me to give me the news themselves. They somberly broke the news that I wasn’t pregnant and that my HCG was 0. L was trying hard to hold it together, but eventually started crying (and rightfully so). Knowing that I take home tests R said “but of course you already know that from your tests.” I was flabbergasted and silent for a beat and then said “I had no idea! My tests have been big fat positives.” Nevertheless my clinic was going to call me with a schedule to wean me off meds.

Well, after a short bit, L called back to the clinic and shared that I was getting positives at home so it would be impossible to have a 0 HCG level. Our nurse was surprised by that too and decided to keep me on meds over the weekend and retest that following Monday. But, the overall consensus was that it was probably a chemical pregnancy. I continued taking pregnancy tests over the weekend and kept getting bigger and brighter pink lines. I just couldn’t fathom that I wasn’t pregnant.

Pregnancy Test-Palooza

Fast forward through a weekend of worry and concern for all parties involved and I went to TMH for another blood draw. Katie, our clinic nurse called and said “Oh my gosh, I have no idea what happened on Friday, but Stacy is very pregnant! Thank god we didn’t take her off meds!” Low and behold… my beta result was 246! I only needed 50 to be considered pregnant. It turns out that TMH’s lab ran the wrong test for my original blood work!! Had I not been taking the home pregnancy tests we would have started weaning off meds on Friday and terminated a perfectly viable pregnancy!

While that was super good news to hear, we still needed another set of results to compare my HCG number to. (In surrogacy, you always have to do 2 beta tests. Your numbers need to double from the first test to the second to know that the embryo is growing properly.) We bugged TMH for several days to re-run my bloodwork from Friday using the correct test, but they never did despite repeatedly promising they would do so ASAP. Eventually I went back to TMH again and just did another round of bloodwork so we could have a final answer. After what felt like forever, we got my new number and it was 694. We were well over the double needed! Hallelujah! We were finally able to say we were officially pregnant!

We were all very relieved to be done with that unexpected roller coaster. Never before have I been so appreciative of the ability to pee on a stick. Had it not been for me breaking the clinic’s rules (CCRM doesn’t like surrogates to do home tests) we would have never known the Roo #2 was doing just fine growing inside. We dodged a huge bullet!

Next up for us is our first ultrasound on August 10th. We will be 6 1/2 weeks along, and find out if we have a heart beat. Personally, as a person who once went for an ultrasound and didn’t find a heartbeat… ultrasounds make me super nervous. While most people get excited going into ultrasounds, I get a great deal of anxiety. But for now, I’ll push all the anxiety aside and ask for some happy thoughts as we head towards the 10th!