More doctor stuff

So this morning at 8:30, the nurse from my doctor's office called. She said that my titer levels had "gone up significantly," so my doctor wanted me to go in the office today at 1:00 for an amniocentesis. If you don't know what one is, it's where they stick a big, long needle into your stomach to draw out amniotic fluid to test for certain things. That phone call upped my stress level a bit. I definitely was not looking forward to the procedure.

Since Bryce had the van today, I called him and asked if he could drive home at lunch and let me take it to the doctor. We decided instead that we would have him go with me. I was glad that he was going to be there, just for the extra support and so I wouldn't have to explain everything that happened to him later.

So we got to the doctor's office (again, a huge thank you to Katie who is so willing to watch my kids for me even on short notice like this was) and went back to the ultrasound room. The nurse had me sign a waiver thing since there are risks associated with the amnio, although she said in all the times they've done them, she's never seen any of them. She then explained a little bit about what they would do and said that I really should take it easy and try to rest for the remainder of the day and avoid lifting stuff. That's easier said than done when one has a 21 1/2 month old son. She said that she thought the main thing the doctor would be checking for with this was for the Fetal Lung Development, to see if it would be safe for the baby to be induced now. After explaining things, she went to see if she could find the doctor, who was finishing up doing a c-section. We really didn't have to wait long at all for him though. Oh, she also told us what the titer level was. It had gone from an 8 to a 16.

When the doctor came in, he said something along the lines of, "Problems. We've got some major problems here." He said I was his first Anti E patient who ended up with problems. He's had other antibodies do it, but I was his first Big E. Lucky me, huh?

To start the amnio, the doctor used the ultrasound to find a nice deep pocket of amniotic fluid and marked where he'd be placing the needle. Of course it was right by the one rib that the baby always likes to push on, so it was a bit uncomfortable to have the ultrasound scanner thingy pushed on there through the whole thing. Even though the amniocentesis wasn't pleasant, that was actually probably the worst part of it.

When the nurse arrived, they slathered the spot for the amnio with some betadine. The doctor numbed the area (that shot was actually worse than the amnio part, probably because I was numbed for the amnio), made sure the ultrasound was showing the right spot, and stuck the needle in. It did hurt a bit when the needle went into the amniotic sack. I had to try to hold as still as possible while he drew out a couple of vials of amniotic fluid. He was getting a couple of tests done, one was the FLD like the nurse had said, the other was called Delta 48 or something like that. He didn't really say what exactly that one was testing for, but I assume it was to test for effects of the antibody. He said that they should get the results of the amnio tonight, then we'll decide where to go from there. If the baby's lungs aren't developed enough yet, I "get" to have another amnio in a week and a half. And he did say that it's likely that I'll have the baby this week or next week.

After the amnio was done, they had me go with another person to go have a Non-Stress Test done. Basically I got to lie on an examination table with montiors on me for about a half hour. They had to come and buzz the baby because she decided she'd rather sleep than move though. She didn't like the buzz and jumped, but it did wake her up. And I had lots and lots of contractions while I was lying there. But everything looked good on the stress test, so that was good.

So now I wait for the doctor to call me with the results of today's amnio and I'm scheduled for another doctor appointment and NST on Thursday morning. I would definitely be fine with having her sooner rather than later, especially if this antibody could be hurting her.