Anyone have Lupus?

janedoe09

I am 12 weeks and just got a call from the lab that I am creating an antibody.  Did this happen to anyone else with lupus?

RevJG

Yup.  I have a variation of Lupus (a connective tissue disease) and I produce a very high amount of the SSA antibody.  The risk is that it can cause the baby to have a congenital heart block, which effects the electrical impulse of the heart.  It can be stage 1 (no intervention needed), 1 or 2 (might require a pacemaker), or 4 (worst case scenario).  I started getting fetal echo cardiograms, which are long ultrasounds that focus on the heart at 16 weeks and so far have had them every 2 weeks.  At 30 weeks I will start having them once a week.  Growth restriction is also a concern with SSA antibody, so I will have at least 2 growth ultrasounds before delivery.  So far everything has looked great.

The good news is that there is a steroid that has been found to reverse the heart block in some clinical studies if it is caught early enough, which is why they do the ultrasounds so often.

Good luck!