Update

So its been awhile since I last blogged.  Nothing exciting has been going on in the world of Annie. I went in for testing to see whats going on with my kidneys last month. So here it breaks down:
     1) THe main concern to test was for was Lupus. Now I have done a little research for those of us who dont know about it. Lupus is an autoimmune disease, in which your body starts over producing the anitbodies that are used to fight off infections. The body will then start to attack itself treating different organs in the body as foreign. The body does this thinking its protecting itself when all actuality its doing more damage. One of the symptoms of Lupus is Kidney failure and the unfiltering of blood and protein from the urine. There is no real cure for Lupus. Scientists are still unsure if its genetic or not or how its developed. You cannot pass it on like a cold or the flu. Some people can have it all their life and it can choose to affect the body or go into remission and attack later. So the test results came back: negative. Thankfully
     2) Part of the testing was having to do a urine sample to test the protein count and kidney function. My kidney function came back normal. My protein count was 600 (i dont know what their measurements are). Normal people have a protein count that hover around 100. My protein count is 6x as much as normal people.  They start worrying about people when the protein count is higher than 1000. and consider it life threatening about 2000 (considered kidney failure). So what are they going to do? Nothing Just monitor as they are unsure whats causing it to be so high. So for awhile I will need to have the same tests done every few months. if it ever increases to a point where they start to worry, I have will have to have a biopsy done, which is sticking a big @$$ needle into my back and taking a tissue sample of my kidney. YAY! NOT!
     3) Last but not least, the doctor doesnt want us to be having kids because I would be at a very risk of developing preeclampsia very early on in the pregnancy. Preeclampsia usually develops around 20weeks of pregnancy and only 5% of these women will develope it. 3 main symptoms: a) high blood pressure, b) fluid retention, c) high protein count in the urine. Now seeing as I already have symptom c, can cause some flags. Having high protein in the urine is harmful to baby as the kidneys are not properly filtering all the bad toxins away. High blood pressure is harmful to baby as it can cut off the oxygen supply to the baby which will cause the baby not to develop properly or fully. Its very important to get checked because if left uchecked preeclampsia will claim the lives of both momma an baby because momma could essentially have a stroke. if the woman is diagnosed then she is usually induced as early as possible so that there is no potential of death for either baby or mother. So where does that leave me? If a woman will get diagnosed with this halfway through their pregnancy they will usually have their baby 1 or 2 months early depending on when she is diagnosed and how bad it is. But if I develop it pretty much right away, how far will I be able to carry the baby? How soon would they have to induce me seeing as that is the ONLY way it will have to be. It is deliver or die thats how serious Preeclampsia can and would be.  And it makes me very scared. I know that EP and I would like to have kids sometime in the future but at what cost? My life? The life of our baby? I know of woman who have been put in this situation of being a high risk pregnancy and I cannot imagine how scary that would be. I know that God wouldnt give us anything that we cant handle. And if we were to get pregnant and I do develop Preeclampsia at a very early stage in the pregnancy, there would be a reason behind it. I know that if we trust and believe, God would bring us through. But until that happens its hard to think or believe. Its not that I dont have trust in my God because He is all-powerful and loves me. I dont know its a lot to think of and absorb.
     Next month (September) I have to come in for those follow up tests and meet with the kidney specialist to see how everything is going and see what they want to do, if Im getting better or worse, or staying about the same. I know everything happens for a reason and if God decides to bless us with a baby through all of this,  there would a reason and it would be a wonderful miracle. I cannot wait to be a mother, if or when God decides to bless us. Wish me luck next month as I await anxiously to see whats going on with me.......


~End transmission
AP