Another Update

I completely lost all originality in the title of this post, but I just don't have the energy to think of anything else.

I want to give you all an update of what has transpired with the baby situation since our appointment last Thursday. It is a lot of information, but I'll try to keep it as simple as I can.

On Thursday, I gave blood for what is commonly known as the TORCH tests. This is a fairly common test given to pregnant women, especially if there may be a complication. Each letter in TORCH stands for a different infectious disease:

T - Toxoplasmosis
O - Other (includes Hepatitus and Syphilis)
R - Rubella
C - Cytomegalovirus (CMV)
H - Herpes

On Monday morning, I received a call from the Center for Disease control of Oklahoma informing me that I had tested positive for Rubella. Because Rubella is a contagious disease with the potential to be epidemic, they needed to know what symptoms of the disease that I had shown. The lady I was speaking with listed about 15 symptoms, and I could not confirm that I had manifested ANY ONE of them. She was very surprised by this, as Rubella very very rarely comes with no symptoms. Also, I have been immunized for Rubella several times, so it just didn't seem right that I had contracted it. I, of course, was very upset and freaking out, so I immediately called my doctor's office.

About an hour or so later, my phone rings and it is my doctor on the line. My heart immediately sank, as I realize that it is not generally a good thing if the doctor calls the patient directly. Dr. N informed me that yes, I did in fact test positive for Rubella, in addition to testing positive for Toxoplasmosis, Other, and Herpes. He was pretty much baffled by this, as I have not had one symptom of any of these diseases. I have not even had the very common symptoms like coughing, sore throat, or fever. While he would not come out and say it (probably because of liability reasons), he did imply that he felt like something must have gone wrong with the tests. He said that he had never seen someone test positive for even two the diseases at the same time, let alone 4 of the 5. However, because I have a small baby, and testing positive for any of these tests will cause that, he could not just dismiss the results either.

So, he instructed me to go have blood drawn immediately to re-do the tests. That was on Monday afternoon. He also had a definite sense of urgency to get me in to see the specialist that he didn't have on Thursday. He is sending me to a different perinatologist than he had originally referred me to, but I'm not sure why. I was very very overwhelmed when on the phone with him, as well as upset and crying and scared, so I didn't ask all the questions that I thought of later.

As of tonight, I have not yet received the results of the second TORCH test, but I just can't see how the original results could be accurate. However, if I do truly test positive for even one of the diseases, there are some major negative implications for the baby, including possible death or severe mental disability.

It has been a very rough past couple of days for Chris and me. I am doing my best to stay as calm as possible, but I have been extremely emotional about all of this. We are just praying that everything is a big mistake, but right now it feels like a nightmare. However, we are looking to our Heavenly Father for strength and calm, and trying to take everything one day at a time.

Thank you again for all your prayers. This has all just been so overwhelming that it's taken me a few days to process it enough to pass on the info, but I will try to update sooner when we find out the results of the second TORCH test.

One thing I want to add is that yesterday, for the first time, I could see baby girl kicking from the outside! It was so amazing! Her kicks were stronger yesterday than they have ever been, so I'm taking that as a good sign, and just trying to enjoy the blessing in it.