A Pretty Lengthy Update and Medical Background

16 Weeks 0 Days (although pregnancy pictures never do my big belly justice)

I figured an update might be appreciated.  I went to my "qualifying exam" on Friday.  Baby is healthy.  Pregnancy is healthy.  But are they going to take me on as a patient?  They don't know yet.  I'm pretty sure they're just watching me like a bomb right now and if anything risky pops up they'll get rid of me ASAP by referring me to a high risk clinic.  They're going to have me come back but they're also making me do some other appointments at the hospital.  Don't ask.  I don't get it either.  The one plus is that we'll be finding out the gender on March 5th.

Here's my weird dilemma.  Dilemma #1: my insurance is horrible.  Doctors don't want to take on patients with it (oh little did I know.....)  Dilemma #2: This pregnancy is perfectly healthy, so high risk clinics tell me I'm not high risk.  Dilemma #3:  My last pregnancy was high risk so regular OB/GYNs don't want someone with my history.  I'm sitting in a perfectly horrible middle situation.  I'm basically the hot potato that people don't want to be touching for too long.

Meh.  It'll work out.  I have a strong feeling that if my current doctor won't keep me, I'll at least be seen by somebody for the rest of my pregnancy, even if it means that I have to keep switching doctors. 

I know I only ever wrote one post about the details about the complications with Skyler's pregnancy.  The details in that post weren't even enough to make sense, so I want to rewrite what happened so that when I'm 70 I can remember how everything worked.  Feel free to skip if you are very familiar with my story.

Just after finding out I was pregnant with Skyler, I thought I was having a miscarriage.  I was sicker than I had ever been in my life, and had a few other symptoms of losing a baby.  I went in to my old OB/GYN's office and he informed me that I was still pregnant and he did some blood work.  Skyler's blood (O+) had mixed into my bloodstream (O-).  I got a Rhogam shot immediately and started to feel the sickness alleviate the same day. 

From then on, I saw two OB/GYN's because my original said he had never dealt with someone like me in his whole career (he was middle aged) and so he referred me to another who had seen it 2 or 3 times, therefore making him the specialist in the area.  I saw both regularly (the second I saw weekly), and my arms were constantly covered in bruises because I had to undergo multiple blood tests every week. 

The problem with Skyler's bloodstream mixing with mine was that my body created a bunch of antibodies to protect itself.  The antibodies would supposedly stay in my bloodstream for the rest of my life and make it nearly impossible for another future baby to ever survive a whole pregnancy.  I would have miscarriages or stillbirths, but the odds of having a baby make it to the end were slim, and each pregnancy would be worst than the last.  Their goal was to maintain the antibodies and make sure that they could not multiply.  They told me that it's not possible to just get rid of antibodies.

When I was somewhere in the 25 week range a perinatologist who specialized in my problem was flying out from England to visit a few of the Northwestern states.  He was going to spend a couple of days at the hospital in Idaho Falls so my doctor made an appointment with him. 

Luckily, my antibodies were being maintained so well that I didn't have to get amniocentesis and give Skyler a blood transfusion in the womb.  The idea of needles that big were a nightmare for me, so I was thrilled when I learned that I barely got out of that situation. 

When I was about 30 weeks my OB/GYN walked into the room with a stunned look on his face after looking at my blood results.  He told me that ALL of my antibodies had disappeared (when that's not scientifically possible, according to him) and that I would have no problem having children in the future (hence why I've made it to 16 weeks already). 

I strongly believe that my antibodies disappearing was nothing short of a miracle.  I bawled like a baby on my drive home that day and acknowledged that Heavenly Father's hand was what made this happen. 

BUT, seeing how I've lived the impossible, doctors still view me as the person who will eventually and repeatedly have problems with antibodies attacking my babies.  Thus my struggle with doctors at the moment.

Let me just say for the record that this pregnancy has been quite the experience for me.  A spiritual one.  Maybe I'll write more about that down the road, maybe I won't.  But this much I do know:  I feel like I already know this child to a degree, and I know that everything will be fine.  This one isn't going anywhere. 

Thank you for your love, support, and prayers.  I was really touched by how much people really do care.