And the Wait Continues...

Ahhh, today was an interesting day. It started by me going to the hospital at 7 a.m. and having 6 tubes of blood drawn so they could more accurately test and try to find a match for me. While there I ran into Dr. Weeks, who sat down at outpatient registration and made sure that they were clear on all the orders, to make sure things were expedited and to make sure that my blood was at the attention of the blood blank director.

Around 12, I got a call from my Dr. office rescheduling my c-section for tomorrow at 10:45 pending that we found a match with the blood.

Around 3:30 I got a call from Dr. Martin saying that after scouring the 2nd largest blood bank in Chicago, the best they could come up with was a single, 10-year old bag of blood. While this bag may do the trick if needed, it is older and the blood was not tested at the time for some of the things they test for today (west nile, etc.). However, it has been tested for the biggies like HIV.

Dr. Martin gave me 3 choices. 1) Go on with the c-section in the morning with the 10-year old bag of blood if we need it. 2) Have them continue to check blood banks (including the #1 one in the Chicago area. 3) Have my mom and sister donate blood with the hopes that it MAY provide a match, although there is really no guarantee. Both options 2 or 3 mean waiting another couple of days.

We have chosen to go with #2 and #3. They are continuing to check blood banks and my mom and Jen are set to go give blood tomorrow (God bless them!!). So, no Baby Knuckles for a couple more days unless he chooses to make his appearance.

That being said, if I do go into labor, we will just go ahead with the c-section. All this fuss with the blood could end up being totally unwarranted if I don't end up with any sort of complications that would require a transfusion (which I hopefully won't). However, we are trying to cover all our bases, and at the very least it is now good to know about this blood situation for future medical procedures.

There are more specific medical details as to why this is so complicated regarding proteins on blood cells, antibodies, and antigens, but I won't confuse you with the details. The bottom line is that they can't just give me O+ blood, there are other factors that need to match up. Basically it is rare enough that the blood bank director from Edwards has only seen this situation once and that was in his residency, and this is the first time Dr. Martin has dealt with this. He said I'm special. :)

Say some prayers that they find a match tomorrow or that Jen or my mom are so we can meet our Baby Boy!! We are trying to be patient, but this is a bit mentally exhausting!

We will update again when we know more....