The results are in...
and it is mostly good news. The doctors know for sure that I did not contract parvo, and the test shows that I have gotten the virus sometime before in my lifetime, so I am immune and don't have to worry about catching it again.
As far as lupus goes, the tests show that I'm not in an active phase of lupus right now, which is good. The rash and symptoms are still indicative of some sort of auto-immune or connective tissue disease, though, so the risk of clotting is still a possibility. The doctors are going to keep me on low-dose aspirin for the rest of my pregnancy to prevent clotting--I'll stop taking it around 34 weeks, once the baby is fully developed, so I don't have to worry about bleeding complications during the delivery.
The bad news--I'm a medical mystery. There is definitely something going on that falls in the connective tissue/auto-immune disease spectrum, but no one can pin a particular known disease on me--and since that is an area of medicine where there are still a lot of questions and unknowns, it may take years before anyone really knows WHAT is going on. Luckily, I don't seem to be having any severe symptoms, none of my organs appear to be involved, so although not knowing is a little frustrating, the situation could be much worse.
Right now, we're just happy that Ms. Bean is doing well and that it appears that this pregnancy will continue on fairly normally. I'll be monitored a bit closer, but for now, it appears all is well. We're just so thankful for the good news and excited about welcoming a daughter (we hope!) into our family soon!
Thanks to all of you for your prayers and words of encouragement over the past couple of weeks!
As far as lupus goes, the tests show that I'm not in an active phase of lupus right now, which is good. The rash and symptoms are still indicative of some sort of auto-immune or connective tissue disease, though, so the risk of clotting is still a possibility. The doctors are going to keep me on low-dose aspirin for the rest of my pregnancy to prevent clotting--I'll stop taking it around 34 weeks, once the baby is fully developed, so I don't have to worry about bleeding complications during the delivery.
The bad news--I'm a medical mystery. There is definitely something going on that falls in the connective tissue/auto-immune disease spectrum, but no one can pin a particular known disease on me--and since that is an area of medicine where there are still a lot of questions and unknowns, it may take years before anyone really knows WHAT is going on. Luckily, I don't seem to be having any severe symptoms, none of my organs appear to be involved, so although not knowing is a little frustrating, the situation could be much worse.
Right now, we're just happy that Ms. Bean is doing well and that it appears that this pregnancy will continue on fairly normally. I'll be monitored a bit closer, but for now, it appears all is well. We're just so thankful for the good news and excited about welcoming a daughter (we hope!) into our family soon!
Thanks to all of you for your prayers and words of encouragement over the past couple of weeks!
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