Did I Tell You? (On Clotting Disorders)

I know this post seems out of the blue - everything will be explained in he next post. But as I was typing The Next Post, I was reminded of something that I meant to tell you, and I'm not sure if I have yet, just in case it might help someone reading.

You might recall that, when I was in the hospital with HELLP Syndrome, I tested positive with a whole host of clotting disorders (lupus anticoagulant, anticardiolipin antibodies igm, protein S deficiency, and MTHFR). After my pregnancy, however, I only tested positive for slight protein S deficiency and MTHFR - I was no longer actually a clotter in the eyes of my hematologist. (Which is wonderful in terms of my overall health.) In the eyes of my MFM however, I for some reason became a clotter when pregnant

You might recall that the role of clotting disorders in pregnancy is still being understood. That the evidence linking clotting disorders and preeclampsia is not concrete, and is actually becoming shakier over time. Nonetheless, due to my history, I was on Lovenox throughout this pregnancy.

You might also recall that my MFM has a remarkable way of not providing direct or concrete answers to questions :)

You might therefore understand my surprise when he - twice now- directly answered my question of "What happened?" What went right? Why was this pregnancy so strangely uneventful?

I first asked him in the delivery room while he was stitching me up (What? I had a captive audience!), and again at my 6 week appointment. He clearly and succinctly responded: 1) I was carrying a single child rather than multiples, and 2) "We realized that [I] needed to be anticoagulated."

So there you go.

I'm not saying that my MFM knows any more than the next. There is certainly a wide range of opinions out there on the subject of whether and which women should be anticoagulated during pregnancy. But I will tell you that, in my eyes, my MFM is the reason this baby is laying across my lap right now. And if he says that Lovenox was the magic ticket, then that's all right with me. And for anyone out there facing a similar circumstance - I just wanted to share.