How Low Can She Go

I had my routine 34 week appointment on Tuesday and Dr. S and I discussed my platelet count.

It has been pretty stable since 24 weeks, but it's always been low.  Even in the first trimester, it was under the normal level of 150,000, but since it was not dropping further, he wasn't concerned.

However, my last CBC (looking at my iron levels), revealed that it had dropped to 105,000, so he wanted to keep an eye on it.  I had my blood drawn Tuesday and didn't hear anything, so I figured all was a-okay.

I got a call yesterday from the nurse.  My platelets had dropped to 95,000.  Anything below 100,000 requires further investigation, just to rule out pre-eclampsia and HELLP, or any other more serious cause.  More than likely, what I have is called thrombocytopenia of pregnancy.  And, in and of itself, it really isn't dangerous and will resolve immediately after delivery.  The only problem is when it does drop below 100,000, then you have to worry about if it is something more sinister.  And if you can rule something more sinister, then you have to worry about your platelet levels being high enough for your scheduled c-section. 

They had me go in for STAT bloodwork this morning.  I went in, had the bloodwork done, and then went on my merry way.  At 11, my doctor's office called me with the news that my platelets had dropped even further.  I asked the nurse the next step and was a bit surprised when she told me that Dr. S wanted to admit me immediately.  I asked if I could finish my work for the day and she said no, to come immediately and that I could only stop to pack a back if I could do it quickly (less than 20 minutes). 

Of course, having two small children and their care to think of, this was a bit more complicated.  My parents were out of town and out of touch (not answering their cell).  My MIL didn't answer her phone.  It took about an hour of calling to finally get my MIL on the phone and she promised to head on down.  We had our nanny, of course, but she had a doctor's appointment to get to and had planned to leave early, so she wasn't an option as of mid-afternoon.  M left work and joined me at the hospital where admitting me took a long time.  The doctor came in and let me know the plan was to take a lot of blood and run a lot of tests and to keep me here until they have a reason for the decreasing platelets and know it is stopping; at least a day or two.  So, we won't really know much until the labs come back tomorrow.

In the meantime. . . here we are.  I am 34 weeks, 5 days pregnant and hoping to keep this baby boy baking for at least two more weeks.  He looks great on the monitors, and I know a 34-weeker is child's play compared to what most deal with here in the blogosphere, so I am trying to remain calm and "enjoy" my visit to the ante partum unit.  It really should be every pregnant woman's dream:  food delivered bedside, unlimited t.v., a bed that raises up and down and that I don't have to share, and the kids kept safely with my mother-in-law.  Yep, that's what this is, a nice little rest before Andrew arrives and rocks our world.