Appointment 36-1: Waiting on Bloodwork

Today we went to Louisville and saw Dr. Cuthrell, whom we've never seen before. They took measurements again at today's ultrasound. By digging the ultrasound wand into my pubic bone (Jenny is much gentler), they got a more accurate but still incomplete look at Emmie's head. That brought her percentile up, but they're using the wrong due date, so we didn't bother to pay attention to the number. They estimate that she's 4 oz. heavier than yesterday's estimate, a little over 5.5 pounds. Grow, Emmie, grow!

Then the doctor came to scan me a little more and talk to us. He didn't see any evidence of calcification in Emmie's brain or liver. The results from yesterday's blood test aren't back yet, so he didn't have more information to go on. The results we have aren't able to tell him when I got toxoplasmosis. With no calcification, it's either very recently or a long time ago, and timing matters a lot to Emmie. The doctor didn't express an opinion about which scenario was more likely. He was not in favor of doing an amniocentesis to know for sure if Emmie has toxoplasmosis, and if we don't know for sure, he can't give me medicine. So what he did was take more of my blood to see if there are live parasites currently in my bloodstream.  If there aren't, then the toxoplasmosis is either an old infection (pre-Emmie) or a false positive, so Emmie should be fine. We'd still have her tested after birth to be 100% sure. If there are live parasites in my blood, we deliver Emmie ASAP to end her exposure to my blood, start her on medication, and hopefully limit the damage. The blood has to be sent out, so results will take a few days. So we're waiting to see if Emmie needs to be born before week 37. The doctor did say that he doesn't think Emmie's size is a problem; she's small because I tend to have small babies. So that's good news.

Over the next few days I'll try to do all the things I feel are absolutely necessary before Emmie's arrival: clean the kitchen enough so it's no longer disgusting, get some extra stuff out of the nursery so that four of us can fit in there, swim while I can since it keeps my back functioning, and cuddle with Lucy because it's one of my favorite things to do. If there's time, I'll transplant squash and buy a few more groceries.