a frozen bump in the road

Remember when I wrote last week that "things are a little TOO good to be true?" Well, let's just call that a mother's intuition.

This week we hit a big ol' frozen bump in the road.

(Note: After reading you're going to want to scroll to the bottom of this to see if this says "April Fools." However, it's April 10th, and I promise you I'm entirely too tired for this joke.)

Last Tuesday, Katy got really sick. She had some contractions and muscle tightening, and just a really nasty stomach bug. She felt really, really sick for several hours, and then slowly got better until she was back to normal by Easter morning. Then this past Tuesday, a week later, she got a call from her local Kroger. (They tracked her down by her Kroger Card.) They let her know that she purchased Blue Bell ice-cream that had been recalled because of the bacteria, listeria. The symptoms? Everything that happened to her the previous week, just about 12 hours after she ate a bowl of Blue Bell ice-cream.  (Pickles and Ice-cream are supposed to be the staple of a pregnant woman's diet, right?!)

She made a call to our obgyn, who told her to come in ASAP. Then she was referred to a perinatologist (aka: high risk pregnancy doc). By Wednesday afternoon, she was admitted to the hospital.

Listeria is a form of food-poisoning, that many of us may have contracted at different points in our lives. However, in pregnant people, it's very dangerous. The CDC website says the bacteria in pregnancy causes "miscarriages, premature delivery, infection to the newborn (meningitis, paralysis, seizures, blindness, or impairments of the brain, heart, or kidney), and 22% of cases with perinatal listeriosis result in stillborn or neonatal death."  

(Many of you have been following this Blue Bell debacle as it is spread all over every media outlet. If you haven't, google "Blue Bell" and settle in for the night, cause there's enough reading to entertain you for hours.)

Right now, we're waiting for two results. First, her cultures. This blood test will tell us if listeria is currently in her blood stream. Because she's not sick any longer, we really think/hope this will be negative. We won't find that out til mid next week. (They grow the cultures in the lab, and apparently they can't speed that up.) The second test is to test for antibodies. If the test shows a positive result for listeria antibodies, then it's likely the baby has been exposed. If it's negative, it's likely she was either able to a) expel the bacteria before her body had to form antibodies or b) she never contracted the bacteria.

We were really hoping to have the antibody blood test back today. However, we have spoken with doctors (both specialists here in Houston and in Dallas), and we feel like we have a general game plan with either outcome of the results.

If the result is positive, then it's a balancing act of debating how long to keep Baby M in the womb and risk horrific things happening, and when to get him out and risk premature problems. Viability is 23 weeks and 3 days. We will hit 23 weeks this Monday. We are praying and hoping and crossing everything in our body that if it's positive, we will be able to keep him in that warm little womb until 28 weeks. That decreases his likelihood of lifelong problems drastically. We'd work with doctors in Dallas and in Houston to find the best spot for her to deliver. (If we have time to control it, she'd most likely deliver in Houston so the little tot could be at Texas Children's.) The plan will be for her to continue on the same regimen she's on right now (an IV antibiotic treatment 3 times a day). 

If it's negative, we will still continue cautiously. Because the Perinatologist said "If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it may not be a duck but we're going to treat it like one", she is going to continue on the IV antibiotic treatment 3 times a day, for 14 days. After that, we will monitor her and the baby weekly by stress tests and ultrasounds. If the baby is ever not gaining weight and/or if the placenta starts to look like it's infected, we'd deliver immediately.

But for now, all we can do is wait. 

Our spirits are higher today than they have been the past two days, although we're very tired and feel like we've been run over by a truck. However, we believe in the religion of Bob Marley, and we know that "every little thing, is gonna be alright."

Love to all,

Kendall and Will

(If you're anything like our families, we know you probably have 100 questions and comments. We thank you for following our story! But please know if I don't get to your questions/texts/emails/messages, we SO appreciate your concern and I will respond as soon as I can!)