Anna's Story

We found out, unexpectedly (though I don't know why since 3 of our 4 were unplanned :) that we were expecting in October 2010.  I was due October 27.  In June, we found out it was another girl.  At the ultrasound, Sarah was watching intently.  When the sonographer announced "it's a girl", Sarah said "Well, I'm not going to play with her!  I wanted another boy."

At 36 weeks, the doctor did another ultrasound, which showed Anna to already be 8 pounds.  All of the weight estimates with my other kids were right on, and given the fact that every single measurement they took was large, they assumed that she really was a big baby.  Because I didn't want to deliver an 11 pound baby (nor did the doctor want me to), they induced on October 20 at 39 weeks.

After a really long induction ( about 11 1/2 hours as my body really wasn't ready), and a long-for-me pushing stage (about 20 minutes ~ afterwards we found out she was posterior which explained a lot of the issues we had), Anna Marie was born weighing in at a whopping 7 pounds 15 ounces.  Yup.  We should have just waited.

Anna was born at 649pm on Wednesday night.  Thursday, the doctor mentioned they were worried about jaundice.  Friday morning, we were told that her bilirubin was going up quite fast, and by the way, they heard a heart murmur.  We had already packed everything up thinking we were going home that morning.  We waited all day (with lots of support from friends and family) for the cardiologist to come.  In the meantime, Anna was also on a bili bed for the jaundice.  We were told that if the cardiologist cleared her, we would be able to take her home with a bilibed and check in with the pediatrician the next day.

The cardiologist got there a little after 5, did an echocardiogram, and determined she did have two holes in her heart.  He thought they would probably close on their own eventually, but we would have to monitor her.  They would not require surgery, but the possibility existed that those holes could cause her to have failure to thrive.  (She showed us pretty quickly that wasn't going to be an issue.)  We get back to our room, again thinking we are leaving, and the nurse tells us that no one ordered a bilibed for us so we had to stay.

That Saturday morning, her numbers were even worse in spite of the fact that she had been on the bilibed for 24 hours, which meant that she earned herself a NICU stay.  Just when thought we had it figured out because we had 3 others, she was totally throwing us for a loop.  Her numbers came down quickly under the lights and we were able to go home with a bilibed.  By Monday, she looked a lot better, but when the pediatrician checked her bilirubin, it was still high.  At that point, she thought she had breastmilk jaundice (what?!).  Anyway, after a few more days, she was good as new.  We had followups with the cardiologist, and eventually the holes in her heart did close as well (I think she was about 15 or 16 months).

In January 2011 at 3 months old, Anna was diagnosed with asthma and put on a daily inhaled steroid.  We learned with Zachary that we needed to get on it quickly when she started having issues.   At just shy of 5 months, Anna was hospitalized with a virus that mimicked RSV (2 RSV tests were negative), and spent 5 days in the hospital on an iv and oxygen. 

Amazingly, she has not been hospitalized since then.  We have had many bouts of pneumonia (including a couple so severe that she probably should have been hospitalized), croup, countless sinus infections, fevers, etc.   She is sick and on antibiotics all of the time.  The doctor told us when she was just over 1 that she probably had the same immune deficiency as the other kids and we would most likely look at IG Therapy in the future.

Last fall, we finally had Anna's bloodwork drawn.  It was not a surprise to use to find out that her strep pneumo titers were almost all extremely low.  Her IGG, IGA, IGM and IGE were all within "normal" range.  Our doctor always says that just because they have the right quantity, obviously they do not have the right quality.  We gave her an extra pneumonia shot in November.  We redrew her blood last month, and all of her numbers went down significantly.  Her IGG is still within normal range, albeit the low end, but it went down more than 150 points.  Her strep pneumo titers are all low still.  And her IGA and IGM also dropped significantly. 

After two more illnesses in a span of a month, the doctor asked us to let her put through the paperwork to find out if the insurance company would cover the IG therapy.   I agreed.  We found out today that she was approved and will most likely start next week.  I know it is going to be difficult because she flips about needles, and she really doesn't like it when Sarah gets it done either.  I was hoping we would start with one site, but the pharmacist said he would like to start with two to make sure she tolerates it.  She will get 4 grams every week (Sarah's is every other week) just so it takes less time and so her body can adjust to it.

We appreciate your prayers as we begin this journey with Anna.