Dotting my I's and crossing my T's

Still here.

Still about a minute pregnant, last I checked. Future very uncertain, but of course this uncertainty is a lovely unexpected development that I'll take any day.

Trying to keep my feet in reality (that this probably won't work out) while simultaneously allowing some hope and making sure to do my part to improve my chances in any way I can.

Due diligence steps included going back Friday to see Dr. Miscarriage Wizard. He was much less difficult than I recalled, thankfully, much less crowing from the rooftops trying to sell his position. It seemed that he's accepted that despite my skepticism, I've drunk the Koolaid enough to decide to engage in this reproductive immunology stuff. And I guess I've accepted that he's a bit of an eccentric. But for whatever reasons, it was a much easier appointment than some of my previous ones, from a relational standpoint.

As he read over my chart, he said "Wow, you have a number of immunological issues, all across the board, don't you?" Um, ok.... So he drew a bunch more blood work, in addition to all that had been drawn on Friday. There's some other test (something to do with T regulatory cells, I think, but not sure) that has to be shipped to California, so I have to come back for that. So we'll see how all of this comes back. Not that I care so much, because my leaning is to just do what we know worked before. Although, hey, if everything has normalized out of the smorgasbord of things he looks at, that would be nice, too (hard to imagine - you run that many tests, something's bound to turn up, no?)

The day before, when I had talked to his nurse, she let me know he had an extra dosage of IVIG in the office and space to accommodate me. She said maybe he'd let me do an initial IVIG treatment without the results (with Magpie's pregnancy, I started IVIG even before the transfer to help with implantation, so I was worried I was already a bit late to the game in this case). "Bring all of your fluids and start hydrating right now. I think we can convince him," she said to me. So I did.

I went to my hospital lab first thing in the AM with a prescription from Will to get another beta and progesterone drawn STAT, hopeful I could get the results in time to be able to make a decision about IVIG that day. I did not want to shell out the IVIG money if the beta was already dropping. On the other hand, if there seemed to be some hope, how could I not do what we can to try to give this little embryo a chance?

So we got the beta back, and as you know, it almost but not quite doubled. Good enough for me. The Wizard though, was more cautious, "Are you sure you want to do the IVIG? The number didn't quite double." I did want to. And we did. So that was how I spent four hours of my Friday afternoon. It went fine, with no major side effects.

Regret management, what an expensive and time-consuming endeavor!

But the more important bottom line - I am still pregnant, as far as I know.

I took the outrageous step of buying a prenatal vitamin today to replace my regular multivitamin. I asked the young store clerk at Whole Foods where the prenatals were and she showed me. She then asked, "Are you expecting?" And I said, "I might be. It's very early." She looked confused. You and me both, sales clerk! So hard to fathom.

I will get another beta drawn tomorrow from the OB. And we'll see where that leaves us.

One step at a time. It is all just crazy. Crazy good. But crazy.

Mo

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