My trip down memory lane was nice... And then reality comes crashing down. I had my second OB appointment yesterday with my family practice doctor. I had bloodwork done (I need bloodwork every time). I have an antibody problem which clinically should not be a problem, but it's something that OBs and perinatologists get excited about, and so now I've been kicked over to the OB division of the hospital instead of the family practice clinic. The OB people will be very *diligent* about my weight gain, etc., etc., and they don't allow any sibs at appointments whatsoever. So I'm going to be finding a lot of babysitting apparently. The OB people are at the hospital, with the world's worst designed parking garage ever, where I'll be circling and circling and circling... Such frustration.

This is my problem in a nutshell. I lack an antigen in the Rheseus group. The antigen I lack is "E", called, literally, the "big E" antigen. When I delivered Kate, I was sensitized to this antigen, and my body started making antibodies to it. The antibodies are measured through titers of my blood (lots of blood samples). With the twins, my antibody levels held relatively steady throughout the pregnancy, going from a 1:2 titer to 1:8, at which point we met with a hot shot perinatologist from Seattle. He said basically no worries. My titer was low, clinically there haven't been serious complications to this exact antibody, but that it could become a problem with subsequent pregnancies. He said probably it wouldn't be a serious problem until perhaps pregnancy number 8 or so. (We are on pregnancy number 4-- plus 2 miscarriages, but I don't think they "count" towards the artificial cieling of 8.)

So the worst case scenario of this antibody problem would be that my blood starts attacking baby in untero, as evidenced by increasing titers of antibody levels in my blood. If this happens, they may feel it necessary to follow the baby's blood levels or something through amnio-- done perhaps as often as once a month. (Needless to say, I don't want amnio. Not at all.) If the baby is in severe distress, they would need to do a blood transfusion- which apparently they can do somehow in utero. This is the worst case scenario, and clinically none of it has been called for when the mother's only problem is this antibody that I am producing, so I really am not all that concerned about it.

Right now the nutshell of it all is that I'm most likely going to be kicked into the "high risk" category for pregnancy. More appointments, more ultrasounds, more finding babysitting, all while Mac is starting in on a general surgery intern marathon for 3 months! And soccer just started, and of course the games mostly all conflict, so I need to find rides for someone every Saturday and decide which game I'll go to.



I'm sure glad that tutor starts with Kate next week! Hopefully THAT will be a plan I hatched that works out beautifully.