"What I did for love"

March 14, 2008

All who are mothers know the feeling that we would do anthing for our children; it is very few of us who have had to actually step up and put our own health and well-being on the line for the sake of our child/children.

Every Friday Becky has a mixture of many people's blood, called IVIG, running through her veins, much like chemotheraphy, to weaken her antibodies (and basically her immune system) so that less (in number and in strength) will enter into her baby's unborn body and attack the baby's platelets. Maddox was born with 10,000 platelets (normal is 200,000 - 400,000) which quickly dropped to 5,000, because mothers-to-be are not routinely tested for this condition.

The infusion takes from 3 - 5 hours, depending on how fast the drip goes in. Becky pretty much sleeps and doesn't feel too bad during the infusion, but the 24 hour period following the infusion is very hard for her. Migraine headache and total body fatigue are the two worst side effects, but the mental anguish of spending every weekend "recouping" is taking it's toil. (These beautiful first days of warm weather don't help either!) The other thing that is SO rough is that going into the treatment Becky has great plans of what she wants/needs to be doing, and how this time is going to be better..........only to know by the time the needle comes out that she is down for the count again for at least the next 24 - 30 hours.

Please join me in praying that Baby Sister is born healthy and with LOTS of platelets!