(First, I must say that I have seen the posts about Delurking Day but am determindly ignoring them. Because I could SWEAR it was Delurking Day just three months ago but I’m too scared to go back into my archives and look. Because I’m afraid that I am very, very wrong and instead life is one big jumble of moments hurtling towards some inevitable outcome and it’s TOO SOON!)

So, a couple of you expressed feelings of “Huh??” after my appointment update post on Tuesday. And frankly, I can’t really blame you. Antibodies? Hu-wha?? Basically, somewhere along the way my blood developed antibodies to this… thing. It’s complicated. I’m sure somewhere you’ve heard about RH incompatibilities, right? That’s where they check your blood type against your husband’s and if they’re incompatible, then you get a shot before delivery so that you won’t develop antibodies against the foreign agent that may or may not have been growing in your blood (I could be WAY off here, so don’t flame me). Or, if you weren’t aware of the incompatibility, they catch it the next pregnancy and you get a shot. Essentially, that’s antibody “d”. I have antibody “e”, which is less common. The good news is it doesn’t look terribly serious as long as you’re being monitored (which hopefully one day I will be if the perinatologist’s office ever calls me for an appointment). There’s some info about it on this here website and here is the part that we need to pay particular attention to:

The antibody poses no harm to you directly. However, the concern is that this antibody in your bloodstream might attack and destroy the blood of the unborn baby. This process is called hemolytic anemia, and can be extremely harmful to the baby.

Sounds scary, right? Well, best I can tell that this only happens if your antibody count starts going through the roof (mine has gone up, yes, but I don’t know if that’s considered “through the roof” yet and I don’t want to make any guesses until we talk to the expert). And even then, apparently the treatment is an in utero blood transfusion.

GAH.

Okay, well, we’ll hope it doesn’t come to that, right?

There’s a possibility I could have an amniocentisis to figure this all out further, but I will for sure have more ultrasounds (oh darn!) and blood tests. There’s also a possibility of the baby being born early in order to treat it outside the womb. But we’ll hope it doesn’t come to that. As much as I’d love to meet the little sweetheart, I would rather wait until the end of March.

I will admit to being a little anxious about the perinatologist not calling yet to set up an appointment. I will feel better once things are being monitored. I dislike being in limbo, which is where I am right now. Kile says he will call them today if we don’t hear from them. Not sure if that’ll work, but it has to be better than sitting around waiting for something to happen, right?

UPDATE 4:36pm:  Okay, turns out?  The perinatologist was waiting for me to call.  Because that makes sense, right?  My doctor said she was going to call them on Tuesday, wouldn’t she have called me and told me this information?  Anyhow, it’s all moot now because I have an appointment.  It’s this Saturday at 1pm.  Kids aren’t allowed, so Kile will have to hang with them while I’m in the appointment.  Which means, I’ll be in there by myself *gulp*.  But, we do what we must.  I’ll be sure to let everyone know how the whole thing goes afterward.  If all else fails, watch Twitter!