I'm alive, I promise...

Well, I have had so many awesome ideas for posts on this blog, but unfortunately...life has been kind of crazy on the personal side, so this blogging thing has had to take a bit of a back seat.

I'll start with the good.

Last week, I got a call from my OB to discuss my labs. I haven't talked about this much yet, mostly because I didn't want any bad energy tied to it...but I've been having some low hemoglobin levels on my labs, aka pretty severe anemia. I have a blood disorder called Beta Thalassemia, which causes my red blood cells to not get enough hemoglobin due to one of my beta genes being defective. This is something I struggled with when I had my son. My levels ended up getting down to 7.5, and they told me at 7.3 they would want to transfuse. They had blood on hold for me while I gave birth, but luckily I never needed it.

Typically for home birth, or really birth in general, we like to see these levels at a 10. I knew I was never going to be a 10...it's just not realistic. And this was one of the first things I discussed with my midwife when I interviewed her. She reminded me that a number is just that...a number. We would do everything to build my blood up and keep me as healthy as possible, but she said that as long as she saw my numbers go up from wherever they were, and not down, she would accept that it was just my normal and we could work with it.

I had my first draw around 18 weeks, and was immediately devastated when my levels came back at 8.7. I was hopeless! 8.7 was so low...no one in the right mind was going to work with me...and I knew I was headed for the hospital. I also knew this was a repeat of what happened with my son and that I was headed into the 7's. My midwives were incredibly patient with me the day I asked them if I was doomed and started talking negatively. They assured me I would be fine, got me on a good supplement regimen and told me success stories of other women who were low and how it was just their normal. They were willing to work with my normal...but they wanted to see the number go up. I guess you could say they weren't convinced this was my normal, given my horrible morning-sickness diet and lack of faith. My midwife would not entertain any more discussion of numbers and told me if I was going to think of numbers then I was to visualize the number going up. This was too much for me...if I did that, I also had nightmares that the number didn't go up.

So in my Kimberly state of mind, I just decided nothing was going to go up. Every two weeks when I saw my midwife I continuously told her "I don't expect great things...I don't expect my number to go up. I just expect it to stay the same, and if I can do that then I will consider myself accomplished." I was doing really well with taking all my blood builders and supplements, and eating a great diet. But then Christmas happened...yeah I don't want to talk about it completely. But in addition to a lot of stress, my diet really plummeted, and then I was expected to go and get my blood drawn? Ugh! I was also super tired, and vented to my assistant midwife that I felt I probably was more anemic because of that. She assured me that I could just be really pregnant, as all really pregnant women get tired. I tried to believe her...but what can I say, I'm not the world's best optimist.

So back to the call from my OB...it went like this:

"Hello Kimberly? This is Dr. V..."
"Hi Dr. V. How are you?"
"I'm good...how are you?"
"I'm good."
"Well your lab results are in..."
"Ok..."
"And your hemoglobin is an 8.9..."
"Did you say 8.9????"
"Yes."
"So it went up?"
"Yes it did. I'm shocked. Your iron studies look great too...so whatever your midwife has you on is working. Keep doing what you're doing."
"Ok! Thank you so much for calling me."
"Also...your white blood cell count was elevated. Did you come down with something since you had your blood drawn?"
"No...I think that's normal for me with the Thalassemia."
"Oh ok"

(Keep that white blood cell thing in mind...I'm getting there)

So I basically bawled my eyes out after this phone call. I texted both my midwives and my mom...I made a crazy post on facebook. I just couldn't believe it...my levels have never gone up in my life. It was only .2, but in the perspective of things I was now only .1 away from a 9...which was ALMOST a 10. It was this moment I realized, I was getting my home birth...my body was capable of more than I knew...I just had to trust it.

For those interested in the supplements I took (who knows, someone reading this may struggle with anemia as well) here is the list. I have no idea which one helped, or if it was the combination of all of them...but I'm grateful!

-Chlorophyll (I mixed this with Young Living's Ningxia red and took it like a shot twice a day)

-Megafood Blood Builder (I took this pill once a day)

-Chlorella (I took 10 tablets twice a day)

-Young Living MultiGreens Supplement (I took 3 tablets once a day)

-Floradix (I took 10 ml once a day)

And now in getting to the white blood cell count...I guess I am an optimist in all the wrong places. This was not normal for me. I ended up coming down with a flu-like virus, which I am still fighting off. The first day was awful...I could barely walk or open my eyes, and my husband thought he was going to have to take me to the hospital because I was not keeping down fluids. It's less scary now, but still not fun, as I have a toddler to raise and a fetus to nourish. But I'm doing my best, and I can't wait to get back on here and write about more interesting birth-related things once I am feeling more well rested.