The body is pretty amazing. Due to a pesky autoimmune blood disorder, my platelet count is always way lower (usually 40K or so) than the average healthy person’s (150-200K) – yet my counts have been significantly higher since I’ve gotten pregnant. (At my last appointment, my count was above 80K.) It’s like my body knows it’s best to boost the count for the baby and has gone ahead and taken care of that… How cool is that??

I bring this all up because I had blood work again yesterday, and I learned last night that my platelets are at 75K. That’s a good number – and fairly close to my ideal of 80K, the minimum requirement for an epidural. My hematologist was pleased, and we’re going to wait and see what my count is next Friday when I go in again. I’m hoping my count will go even higher – because I don’t want to have to go on meds and run the risk of getting “moon face” again. (For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, just do a Google search for “prednisone and moon face,” and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Prednisone sucks.)

I should mention, for those who might now worry, that my disorder poses no real risk to me or Sesame. As long as my count is above 20K, I’m totally fine to deliver. Women with ITP have babies with normal platelet counts all the time – and I’ve got a great team of doctors who know all about the platelet issue. My OB is actually one of the best at UCSF (which is one of the best hospitals in the country), and I feel lucky to have her. And I’ll feel even LUCKIER should my platelet count stay high!!

-M

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 28th, 2006 at 9:46 am and is filed under 01.Pre-arrival. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.