Well, That Explains It

Today I called my OB. I went in the beginning of the month for a blood pressure check because mine was still very high. Not wanting to put me on medication for it at such a young age, they decided to do some blood work and check for clotting disorders one of which was Lupus.

For the last week and a half I'd been freaking out over whether or not I had one of these potentially deadly disorders. Finally, today I got fed up and called them to see if my results were in yet. They were.

Turns out I have a rare genetic clotting disorder called Methylene Tetra Hydro Folate Reductase or MTHFR. This disorder is a mutation of a certain gene or genes. Typically it doesn't cause any problems but when it affects two specific genes instead of just one it can actually increase chances of miscarriage. During a "successful" pregnancy, it can cause severe pre-eclampsia which can lead to HELLP Syndrome. Both of which I developed and caused my emergency induction at 31 weeks.

While talking to my doctor she informed me that I had a textbook pregnancy of people with this disorder. Only difference is my pregnancy lasted longer than most. Typically this disorder leads to emergency inductions/cesareans as early as 24 weeks. We got extremely lucky that I managed to stick it out for as long as I did.

Unfortunately with this disorder it causes these additional problems during pregnancy so odds of having the same issues in future pregnancies is pretty much guaranteed. This in turns means I'll never have a term baby. Any pregnancy I have will result in a preemie again. My husband and I were only planning on having one child so now our problem is finding an effective birth control that doesn't contain Estrogen as I am unable to take hormonal birth control with this disorder and IUDs and the Depo shot scare the crap out of me. In addition to all the medications the hospital sent me home on after I had Caiden, I now have to add a baby Asprin to my pile every day for the rest of my life as it puts me at a significant risk of clots and high blood pressure, which mine has yet to go down to normal.

While I'm glad to finally have some answers and not have one of the more deadly disorders its still hard to accept that I can't have another child should we change our minds about having another. However when Caiden is much much older it'll be a nice story to tell him about how lucky he is to even be alive.