We left the house at 9:45am and arrive at my parents' house at 2:45pm. Our first stop was at the hospital so I could see the OB. My conversation with her only lasted a couple of minutes. She said I was correct in my understanding that #1 if the Kell antibodies came from the transfusion that the baby was safe and #2 if the antibodies came from Paul then he is at most heterozygous (since Nadia couldn't have been Kell positive). I asked why hasn't Paul been tested. She said that if the titer level is really low, no further testing is necessary. If the titer level isn't really low, then they'll refer me to a specialist (MFM) who will do additional testing (of Paul, etc.). If the level is really low, they'll test again at 20 weeks to make sure it's still really low. So in my mind if another blood test is necessary, why not test Paul (as then we might immediately know the baby is at NO risk), and if Paul is Kell negative, I wouldn't need to be tested again at 20 weeks, but apparently that's not how they do it. I did learn that the other antibody is part of the Duffy antigen system (Fya). The bottom line is the same for both Kell antibodies and Fya antibodes - fetal anemia (which can kill the baby if the baby's blood isn't replaced or the baby isn't given intrauterine transfusions). I really think this came from the transfusion because less than 3.5% of Caucasians have Fya. The duffy antigen is FAR more common in other races. So it seems highly probable that the blood I received in January 2010 was from a non-white donor. I had no idea that blood type varied by race.
I had decided that if I had to go to the trouble of parking, hauling the kids in, sitting in the waiting room, etc. I wanted to have the baby's heartbeat checked, especially since my next OB appt isn't for 6 more weeks due to our stay in Hershey. She tried to find the heartbeat by doppler, but she couldn't so she did an external ultrasound, and we got to see the little one kicking around. I'll never get over that sight. Even though this is my third pregnancy (well third that I've been able to see something by u/s), it's still such an incredible moment. The kids were with me, which was pretty much a disaster, but the upside was that Nadia loved seeing the baby on the ultrasound. I did leave that appointment very resolved to stick with my plan to pay a babysitter to watch the kids for my future appointments. I took Nadia to my appointments when I was pregnant with Ian, but it's a whole different ballgame as they like to get on each other's nerves. In all reality this appointment was totally unnecessary. The information the OB gave me could have been delivered by phone in about two minutes, but I felt less irritated about spending 40 minutes in the office since I got to see my sweet baby.
As I was driving to MD the nurse called to say they found out that the Red Cross never received my blood vials. I made two trips last week to have this bloodwork drawn, and the second time (8:30am last Tuesday) they stuck me three times in order to draw two large vials of blood. I hope they didn't run someone else's bloodwork on my blood and give that person results from my blood! Oi vey! The nurse said I have to go back a third time to have it drawn again. She said to make sure the insurance doesn't pay for the last time since the lab lost my blood. So I'm going to try on Friday morning, and I hope we don't have to wait TOO long for the results since it will have already been more than 2 weeks at that point. I already invested 2 hours in having that bloodwork drawn, and that doesn't even include driving time. I'm going to ask Paul if he will watch the kids on Friday morning as they've already spent 2 hours in that lab waiting for me to have this bloodwork drawn. The nurse told me today that they're going to mail me a copy of the ultrasound picture from today. Maybe that was her way of saying "sorry" for this mess (although this wasn't really the OB's fault). Here's to hoping and praying that the titer levels will be low. The OB I met with today (who was really nice) is very optimistic that the levels will be low.
The trip here was not as easy as usual. Ian had to go to the bathroom every hour. Thankfully I brought his froggy potty along. It's also trickier to feed him since he requires his Elecare to be warm. I can't do drive thru for that. The good news is that Nadia didn't throw up and Ian didn't have any accidents. She slept for about 40 minutes. I am not sure if Ian ever napped in the car today. He cried and fussed quite a bit. He kept saying "I need Grandma's house" - in other words why aren't we there already? At one point he screamed for 20 minutes straight. Of course the biggest help was the DVD player. I am not sure how people survived 4 hour trips with toddlers before the invention of DVD players that can go in a car. The kids had fun playing with Uncle Maurice, Grandma, and Grandpa this afternoon and evening. Ian was pestering Patches (my mom's geriatric cat) so he got swipe on his cheek. Amazingly Ian didn't cry even though she scratched him across his cheek (enough to draw blood but no tears). Hopefully he learned his lesson and will leave Patches alone. My mom will be watching the kids for about 9 hours tomorrow as I head to northern VA (by way of the METRO) to a conference. I'm speaking in the afternoon. I'm really excited because a woman I met online about 9 years ago (on a trying to conceive website) sent me a message on Facebook yesterday to see if we could meet. Normally she'd be at work, but she had already asked for tomorrow off because she's taking her daughter and husband to the airport as they're going on a mission trip to Haiti. So she's going to meet me for lunch at the hotel in Arlington where I'll be! I'm excited to meet Lys in person for the first time!
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