Tuesday 13 August 2013

The Low after the High

After an all round good week last week, I was looking forward to starting this week with a new lease of life, refreshed and ready to go.

On Saturday night, we got a call from my Mother In Law and my bubble immediately burst.  My eldest nephew had come down with Slapped Cheek.  A relatively minor illness in children but not good at all for pregnant woman as it can cause complications with the unborn baby.  

A quick look on the NHS website revealved that I would need a blood test as soon as possible to see if I already had immunity to the virus and if not whether I had recently become infected.  If I had then I would need regular monitoring throughout the rest of my pregnancy to check for any problems with the baby.

I am now 25 weeks pregnant, and having passed the 24 weeks viability milestone, I admittedly had begun to relax a little.  This therefore hit me like a freight train!  I phoned up the 24/7 GP helpline attached to my private healthcare to see whether anything needed to be done right away or whether it was ok to wait until my GP surgery was open again on Monday.  Apparently Monday was fine.

I did not like the waiting, I felt so helpless.   Monday came and I went to the hospital for my blood test. Apparently the results can take up to 7 days so the waiting continues.  I have an appoinment with the Midwife today to keep her in the loop and hopefully for her to give me a bit of reassurance while I wait for the results.

I will blog more on this subject once I have the results and know what the plan is going forward.

In the meantime here is a post from a fellow blogger who was in a similar situation http://mum2babyinsomniac.co.uk/slapped-cheek-disease-pregnancy/

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UPDATE

Later that afternoon I got a phonecall from the midwife with my blood test results.  Luckily they showed that I have been exposed to the virus before and have antibodies in my system.  I therefore cannot get it again and blue bump is safe!

I'm glad I can put this episode behind me and try and enjoy the rest of my pregnancy.
 

1 comment:

  1. I was so worried as when you type it into Google it was full of articles saying how dangerous it was. Luckily once I had spoken with my consultant I felt much more reassured. The main risk is foetal hydrops which they pick up with regular scanning and then they send you for more in depth monitoring, worst case scenario is a blood transfusion to the baby but that is very rare apparently. My doctor told me that most adults have been exposed without knowing about it so you might be okay, apparently it is really rare to have it as an adult, my doctor was really surprised. Hope you hear soon x

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