Back from the doctor, good news and sort of bad news

Hi725

Well, the good news is that my platelets went back up to 110k, so I don't need steroids yet. I go back again next week (down from twice a week, yay!) for another blood draw and the get the last of my test results that are still pending.

The bad news, is that they found the RH (Rheumatoid factor) in my blood to be extremely elevated. This means that there is a very large chance that I have rheumatoid arthritis. They won't be able to get conclusive results until a few months after the baby is born. There is a small chance that the pregnancy is doing screwy things to my levels and it may taper off after birth. But, RA would explain the fatigue, anemia and crashing platelet counts.

So of course, I'm completely freaked out, and I have no idea how I'm going to wait 6 months to do the next round of testing. Bleh. How much longer until I can drink heavily?

in my life

I'm glad you got some good news. Just try to concentrate on that for now! And only approx. 6 weeks until you can break into the booze, not too long....

**Gretchen**

That blows.

But, on the bright side, if you have it you have it, and at least with a firm diagnosis, you'd know about it and can be treated. Does that make sense? Better to have treated RA then untreated RA.

Hi725

That makes sense to me. It's just a diagnosis that scares the crap out of me. When my platelets started crashing, I looked up all of the possible reasons. I saw RA on the list and I was like "no way could it be that, next!"

bakemeacake

Pregnancy can totally mess with your blood counts.  My dr.'s think I have a clotting disorder based on my history, but apparently being pregnant increases the factor I am usually deficient in so they can't test me for it until my period returns postpartum. 

lindseyMc

i'm so sorry to hear that. I've had RA since i was little and it sucks but it isn't the end of the world and there are a lot of very good medications to help deal with it now. Hopefully your RA factor will drop down after pregnancy and you'll be ok!!!