Pregnancy update

Yesterday I had my first appointment with my OB.  I was so excited I even showed up 30 minutes early. (If you know me I'm typically 10 minutes late to everything!) Well not 2 minutes after I signed in I was called back by one of the nurses to discuss my benefits.  My doctor normally does not take tricare but with my first pregnancy he made an exception.  For those of you who are not military, Tricare is our insurance provider.  So she proceeds to tell me that for this pregnancy they will not accept Tricare but will file it for us after the baby is born and Tricare should reimburse us and in the mean time we will need to make payments each month of almost $1000.00!  I was stunned. Seriously?! Could you not have told me this when I first came in for my pregnancy test so that I could have found another doctor?! I'm almost through my first Trimester already!  Now I will say that she was very nice about it and was not trying to be upsetting. I was crying and she felt very badly and said she would talk to the Doctor about it again. 

I went out to my car and called my parents. Of course Jeremy had just left the day before so there was no way for me to call him. :( The doctor called me and asked that I come in so he could talk to me.  He sat me down and said I should talk to Jeremy about the payments and whatever we can afford will be ok with him.  But that I shouldn't worry about money he says, we have bigger concerns.....

Let me start with a little background info from when I was pregnant with Caden. About 20 weeks into that pregnancy I found out that I had an antibody called anti-d or rh disease.  My blood type is O-, and Jeremy's is O+.  Typically at 20 weeks I would get a shot called Rhogam to prevent my body from creating antibodies against they baby if he was O+ like Jeremy.  Unfortunately from a blood test they saw that I already had formed the antibodies most likely from a bleed during the pregnancy.  The only other way I could get them is if I had a previous pregnancy/miscarriage and not recieved the Rhogam shot.  Obviously I had not been prego before or had a miscarriage so there's your answer. So the shot would not work.  Once your body forms antibodies against something there's no getting rid of them.  So these antibodies would start attacking the baby's red blood cells causing him to have severe anemia or hydrops fetalis .  So throughout the rest of the pregnancy I had to go in for bi weekly tests.  Once a week I had a non-stress test where they simply listen to the baby's heartbeat for about 30 minutes and make sure it sounds normal. And once a week for a special doppler ultrasound to measure how fast the blood was flowing in the baby's cerebral artery.  If it was too fast then they would know the baby wasnt able to make new red blood cells fast enough.  At that point if I was far enough along, (26 weeks is what is recommended as the earliest to take the baby if needed), they could go ahead and take the baby. Or conduct an intrauterine blood transfuion.  Basically they give the baby a blood transfusion while he's still in the womb. Crazy I know. Luckily I was able to make it to 32 weeks and had Caden during my scheduled c-section. (I needed a c-section because I had placenta previa).  He was born with severe Jaundice and had to have 3 blood transfusions total.  He was in the NICU for 9 days.  Although it was a stressful time with lots of prayer and God watching over us we all pulled through and now he's just a normal healthy 14 month old :)

SO. Now that you have an understanding of that ordeal you will be able to understand this one a little better.  Now I have another antibody called Anti-Kell.  This one is much more serious than the other as it's far more difficult for the baby to create new red blood cells that this antibody destroys.  So picture this antibody attacking the baby's red blood cells at the same time as the other one..... He/she is in for a fight.  Two ways I could have formed this antibody.  Either from receiving a blood transfusion (which i did not) or from having a baby that was kell positive which in turn my body formed antibodies against it.  According to Wikipedia about 91% of the population is kell negative and the rest kell positive.... of course we would be in smaller percentage.  I'm Kell negative obviously since my body has formed the antibodies.  So Caden must be positive.

I hope you are able to understand that at least a little bit.  Click on the links for further explanation of the terms i've used. 

I'm really nervous, scared, worried, upset you name it.  It just seems so unfair all of this.  Everyone else can have a normal exciting pregnancy. And go into labor and keep their baby in the room with them and go home together!  Somehow I develop these rare antibodies and have placenta previa which also is rare for someone my age and for their first pregnancy!  I won't know if I have the previa again until i'm 20 weeks, right now i'm almost 12. We wanted more kids but I don't think it's smart to try again after this.  We knew going into this one what to expect with the rh-incompatibility (anti-d) but it was hopeful.  Now there's much higher risk to lose the baby. I'm a very strong person but I don't know that I'm strong enough to lose a child..... Is anybody?  I know God is with me. I know this. I feel Him giving me strength and telling me to trust Him. And I do trust Him. I just can't help but feel afraid.  What if it's His will that this baby doesn't make it?  I know, think positive.  Sometimes its not so easy.

Thanks for reading this. I know it's super long and a lot of information to try and understand but thank you for trying.  It means a lot that you care enough to take the time and learn what we are going through.  Your prayers are greatly appreciated. 

Lots of love,