What’s Happening? Part I

I’m starting this blog in an effort to keep all of you who are super sweet and caring updated.  Thank you all so much for the phone calls, well wishes, sweet cards and words and especially for your prayers.  And a special thank you to Nancy Carter who helped me get this blog up and going.  I’m so thankful to all of you and I’m not sure if you’ll ever know on this side of heaven how you are ministering the love of Jesus to me at this time.  May God bless you tremendously for all that your doing.

As well as keep everyone well updated I would love to share our journey as we await what the Lord has in store for our sweet baby and us.  Nothing, however grave, is without hope when we love God and are called according to His purposes.  We, therefore, indeed have the privilege of knowing Him through all things and it helps me to be able to share what He is showing and teaching me about Himself through this circumstance with anyone willing to listen.

In December 2008, Peter and I went in for a regular 12 week OB appointment, expecting to hear the precious sound of our babies heartbeat for the first time.  The doctor couldn’t find a heartbeat at all.  Sadly he informed us that we had lost the baby.  We were very sad, but took comfort in the fact that sweet baby Ancil was indeed with our Father,  and we were hopeful for another chance.  We were told miscarriages are very common and there should be no reason why we couldn’t try again in a couple of months.

The following November I went in to a doctors appointment, nervous.  I knew I was around 8 weeks pregnant and I felt sure I had lost the baby.  I had.  Again, we were very sad and disappointed.  Again I was reassured there was nothing that I could have done to change the outcome.  And again, we took comfort in the fact that our sweet baby was with our Father.  This time though, my doctor (Doctor A) thought I should see a colleague in the office (Doctor B) who had a special interest in miscarriages, especially multiple, consecutive miscarriages.  I saw this doctor, and he ordered a lot of blood work and said that he just didn’t buy that all miscarriages are a result of abnormalities with the fetus.  He believes there is something else going on with the mothers.  The bloodwork reveled something called mthfr deficiency or mutation.

The type of blood mutation I have really isn’t that uncommon.  In fact it is said up to 40% of the population has this unknowingly, and that the particular kind I have really doesn’t impact the chances of having a healthy, viable pregnancy or cause any other medical problems that we know of.  Common treatment for women with other simliar types of mthfr mutation (which can cause heart problems) often times are treated with a regimen of blood thinners.   This treatment has also been used for women with that type of mutation who have experienced multiple miscarriages to successfully help them carry babies to term because it is thought that the cause of their miscarriages is due to minor blood clotting in the placenta.

In my case Doctor B’s theory was that his education and experience have led him to believe that the blood thinners could provide an environment for a viable pregnancy.  He admittedly shared that there is very little actual scientific evidence to uphold his theories, but he still experienced a great success rate treating all women with these problems (whichever type of mutation they had) with the blood thinners.  Meaning almost all the women he treated successfully carried babies to term.  Although some had a low birth weight and a few had other medical problems, they were all healthy.  We thought about it and then left it alone because in reality we just weren’t done grieving our loss just yet.

In the Spring I went in for an appointment which confirmed I was pregnant again.  I was 7 weeks at my first visit.  I was again advised to meet with Doctor B.   He advised me to take a baby aspirin regimen as well as shots of a blood thinner, Lovenox, in the stomach everyday during the pregnancy.  After much prayer, research and discussion with Doctor B we decided not to go with the treatment.  I felt typically I wouldn’t be a candidate for this treatment because of the type of mutation I have. It is not known to be serious  like some of the other types that have been proved to cause heart problems and require treatment.  I asked if he thought it would hurt the baby or cause any problems to refuse the treatment.  He said no, but he thought my best chances to carry to term was by using the treatment.  And although I respect Doctor B immensely and appreciate his efforts, we really didn’t feel there was enough medical evidence to support my using this treatment.  He understood our decision respectfully, agreeing that there really just isn’t a lot of data out there yet and it was hard for him to get patients to agree.

A few weeks later I had an appointment with my regular nurse practitioner (we’ll just call her Doctor C) and she offered a second opinion with really great doctors in Nashville and I took it.  Soon Peter and I would set off to a Doctors appointment we considered to be normal.  Little did we know it would change our lives.