Go Andrea, Go!

[from an email dated 12 May 2006]:

Hello, everyone.

First let me say thank you for all of the well wishes
and prayers on our behalf.  We have felt a lot of strength and comfort from all
of you.  It’s so good to be loved. 

Now for this week’s short version
update…

The amniotic fluid measured 10.4 on Tuesday, and 11.2 today. 
That’s a steady increase over the past week, and is welcome news!  Also, both
non-stress tests came back very well.  As far as the my lab tests to check for a
CMV infection during the pregnancy, the results didn’t yield numbers that
offered a definitive answer.  So we are still doing the “wait and see” thing.

Now for the long version….

This was a long week with lots of
runs to medical appointments.  I had blood drawn on Monday, NST (non-stress
test) on Tuesday, a visit with my OB on Thursday, and a chat with the
perinatologist and another NST today.  It’s a good thing I’m on bed rest or all
this appointments might wear me out!

The big question of the week was
“What will the labs tell us about CMV?”.  There are two parts to the blood work
I had done.  One part of the test checks for the virus in my blood.  In other
words, it looks for a current infection.  The other part of the test looks for
CMV antibodies in my blood, indicating whether or not I’ve had a CMV infection
in the past.  The tests done 3 weeks ago, then again this time both showed no
current infection, but the presence of antibodies indicates that I have had it
sometime in the past.  However, the count of CMV antibodies in my blood was kind
of high, leading the perinotogist to suspect that I may have just finished
fighting off a recent infection.  She wanted to run the exact same test again to
see if the count of CMV antibodies was dropping.  A drop in number would be
additional evidence that the infection may have been more recent, or during the
pregnancy.  The first test put the antibody count at about 13.  The second test
put the count at about 11.  There is a drop, but not enough of a drop to draw
any conclusions.  If the number had dropped to 5, for example, that would give
cause for a more definitive “yes, I recently had CMV”.  But as it is, I may or
may not have had recently.  If I’m still pregnant in 4 weeks or so, we may do
the blood test again.  But, more than likely I will have delivered her by then.

I’ve also done a lot of reading and studying on CMV this week.  Here is
a really good web page that explains a lot about it:

  What Everyone Should
Know About CMV

As I’ve said before, there are a wide range of
possible prognosis for babies with congenital CMV.  Her small head size is still
a concern and is one possible complication of CMV.  On the up side, there is
nothing on the ultrasound to indicate that Andrea will have some of the more
severe problems, but there is a lot that can’t be determined until after she is
born.  I also found it very encouraging  when the perinatologist told me today
that upon examining the results from Andrea’s NST, they don’t look like the
tests of a baby that has suffered damage to the central nervous system.  The
NSTs look very healthy. 

We are, of course, hoping that she doesn’t have
CMV at all, but even if she does, it looks like she may be in relatively good
shape.  Keep in mind that it is still a very likely possibility that there is
nothing wrong at all and that she is just small because I have small babies.

That’s it for now.  I hope this finds all of you well.  Take
care!

Love,
Luann