How Low Can Ya Go?

Last week I got a call from Dr. Duncan's nurse at Emory telling me the results of my latest Protein S labs, which were taken at 10weeks gestation. My "Free Protein S" had fallen to 19 (!!!!), down from 25 at 7weeks gestation and roughly 48 pre-pregnancy. "Normal" is considered to be somewhere between 60-150ish.

We knew this was coming, since Protein S naturally falls during pregnancy (even for the "Normal" folks). So while we were expecting them to fall, we were never expecting them to fall this low. The hematology nurse who called freely admitted she's never seen numbers in the teens before, which I also expected, but even so hearing it out loud didn't feel too good.

I managed to confine my mental freak-out to just a day or two, and now I'm just taking comfort in the fact that God's got me covered. And the icing on top of that cake is knowing that Dr. Duncan is monitoring me very closely, and there is no doctor more qualified for this scenario than he is.

In fact, I'm feeling so confident, that I'm now taking bets on just how low my Protein S will drop before this is all over with. We expect that it will continue to fall as the pregnancy progresses, the lowest point being at the end of the pregnancy. So now it's just a game of "How Low Can Ya Go?" .... without triggering a disaster, of course. Anyone want to take a guess? We need to award a prize to the person who gets closest without going over!

I'm thinking if numbers in the teens are nearly unheard of, would I just be a complete freak of nature if I had a single digit number? If so, then that's my goal. Just another chance for God to show off!

BRING IT ON PROTEIN S!!

Tonight I'm reminded once again what a complete miracle Gracie is. I'm always calling Jamin my "miracle boy" and eager to share with anyone who will listen how God brought him here. But knowing now that my Protein S drops to unheard-of levels in the first trimester of pregnancy ... and knowing that I was clueless and unmedicated for my entire pregnancy with Gracie ... and knowing that we both survived ... seriously blows my mind!

I'm also resolving not to whine anymore about those stupid Lovenox shots. Yes they hurt and yes I absolutely hate injecting myself every night, but since they are keeping me alive right now I suppose it's only fair to stop complaining about them.

Thank you God for Lovenox!