*** I was surprised to get some labs back through my iPhone app last night, surprised because they came from the SF lab which hasn’t been online, up until now apparently. Yay for technology!
Anyway, I started at the bottom with my urine results and they were perfect. “NEG” across the board (for protein, blood, and everything else) which is better than my pre-pregnancy baseline. Next I checked the Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (blood test) and my creatinine was sitting pretty at 0.9, my protein was well within the normal range (when blood protein is low it can mean it’s being leaked out in your urine, which is bad) and my albumin was a little low vs previous results but according to some standards still normal (same issue for blood albumin as blood protein). Something to keep an eye on, I thought to myself. Also, Dr. MFM had talked to me about how blood creatinine is actually supposed to decrease during pregnancy so he thought by 20 weeks we could expect to see it at 0.8, therefore even though 0.9 is good, it could be better.
The last result was my CBC (complete blood count), at this point I was feeling pretty good about things but of course, there had to be a “but.” My anemia continues to get worse. Whereas pre-pregnancy I was hovered around the low end of normal, I am now all the way down in “mild, almost moderate anemia” range with my hemoglobin at 9.7. According to Dr. Google the cut off between mild and moderate is 9.5 so I’m right there, but luckily still have a ways to go until I get to “severe” which is under 8.0.
You may recall that “severe anemia” is one of the contraindications for flying while pregnant so if things continue to get worse we will likely have to cancel our Hawaii trip. But I’m more concerned about what my lack of blood means for the baby. I’m assuming it can’t be anything good? I have an appointment with Dr. D (regular OB) this Wednesday and will definitely be bringing this up but I feel like maybe I need to send Dr. F (rheumatologist) an email and give Dr. MFM a call about this as well. We need to head this off before I’m in blood transfusion territory! I need to know if I can “fix” this by just eating more protein or if it is hemolytic anemia (meaning my red blood cells are being cannibalized by my immune system) if it might be necessary to increase my prednisone (really hoping I can fix this through eating because I HATE being on more steroids).
*** I’ve decided to enroll in a UCLA extension online course called Development in Early Childhood. I think I’d like to do their certificate programs for Early Childhood Education but even if I end up just taking this one course, it should be useful (or at least interesting) given the fact that I’m about to have one of those little humans running around the house. I’ve been known to have a lot of random dreams for what I want to be “when I grow up” (What do you mean I’m grown? When the hell did that happen?) and the latest is to someday start a bilingual daycare. I think given the demographics of the bay area and the growing importance of China (and thus Chinese) this is not a completely crazy dream. Perhaps I shall elaborate on this a bit more at some other time though because a bullet point probably isn’t enough.
*** I haven’t felt the baby move anymore, at least not for sure 🙁 My coworker who is two weeks ahead of me told me I’m “lucky” because “it tickles and is distracting.” Sigh. Maybe I’m okay with not being a normal preggo after all. If it means I’m going to enjoy and cherish every single bit of this pregnancy, then I guess, in a way, I’m sort of lucky.
*** Unfortunately I’m a back sleeper and I think I’ve reached the point in pregnancy where that’s a no-no. I’m really trying to avoid one of those giant pillows (because I already share the bed with a 20lb cat and 180lb hubby. Not a ton more room to go around.) So far using hubby as my “body pillow” seems to be working somewhat. I use him to keep my body tilted at a slight angle when I can’t stand outright side-sleeping anymore.