Anemia and Pregnancy

I've had a problem with anemia for as long as I can remember. My earliest memory of taking medication is at the age of 5. It's not a good story as it involves me throwing up all over the kitchen table as a side effect to an iron tonic and causing an argument between my parents, but I know I've been on iron medication at least since then. One minute my mom would say I've been anemic since birth, and the next she would claim I had no health problems whatsoever. That gets confusing after two decades, so I just rely on my own memory and experiences now.

Why the sudden post on anemia now? Because my blood count is a little low and I need to get it back up before the baby comes. My version of "a little low" is 9.1. However, the nurses and doctors at the clinic get alarmed when they see a number like that during the last lap of pregnancy and start giving me lectures on how I could die after labor with a blood count that low as I'll be losing lots of blood during labor, and then lots more blood again for quite some time afterwards. Also, if there should be any emergency, a C-section would kill me. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I know I have to be concerned with the baby and all, but I've had doctors give me the scary lectures before, especially when my blood count was 4.5 and they said I needed a blood transfusion or I would die when I was 18. Today though, I was referred to join the specialist clinic at the hospital I'm giving birth in, and I'll be there, albeit grumpily so, by 6AM tomorrow, but I'm pretty calm for now.

What kind of mother am I? Don't I care about how this affects the baby? Duh. Of course I care. I had my freak out time when Taurus Man and I discussed this at the clinic, on the way home, and after getting home. I had my freak out time, want-to-rip-your-face-off time, and want-to-pull-out-my-hair-and-scream-and-cry time. But I'm cool now. Taurus Man is out of my face and as usual, I emptied all my deepest fears and concerns and thoughts to Capricorn Girl, which is like a magic drug in itself, and already have the loose screws and nuts and bolts in my head churning away at ideas and back-up plans to get to work on fixing this.

Firstly, Taurus Man blames me because I'm super sucky at remembering to take my pills and have slacked off A LOT. You should never slack off on any meds, especially while pregnant and especially if you have a chronic health problem that takes ages and ages to raise to a "normal" level. I admit I'm beyond wrong there. Also, when my OB-GYN brushed off my anemia because my blood count was 10.5 and told me to stop taking all my anemia meds for more two thirds of the pregnancy, very much against Taurus Man's advice, I agreed and happily listened to her. I accept some blame there too because I know my body, and I know I need to take my pills at all times. I've been in and out of enough hospitals, clinics, and medical centers to know that every doctor has a different opinion and not every opinion is the right one. I should have listened to my instincts and my body and stuck to what was working for me, not immaturely jumped at the chance to stop swallowing pills. My bad. :(

Secondly, Taurus Man blames the OB-GYN. I totally agree with him here, especially because it takes some of the blame off me. The nurses at the clinic say that the doctor should have known better and done a blood test mid-pregnancy, and another at the end (now) to keep an eye on my hemoglobin regardless of what my levels were at in the beginning of the pregnancy just because of my history with anemia. I didn't tell them that she told me to stop taking my meds, but I'm guessing that would just make them angrier. Also, my frequent spotting throughout the pregnancy from week 19 onwards should have been a greater cause for concern and regardless of my anemic history, she should have checked my blood count just because of that. She should have also made a point of how fast the baby's heart beat sounds even though it registers well on the Doppler, but that's unrelated. Once my fainting got out of hand as I began the third trimester, she did prescribe a pretty strong iron med to raise my blood count quickly, and I am definitely at fault for not taking that medication, but she prescribed it because she guessed the fainting and hyperventilating was because of my blood count, and I did not take the medication because I've been on it before, and those side effects are so severe, I end up in the hospital every time I begin a course of it and my side effects actually further lower my blood count. We put her at fault again here because she ignored my issues with side effects and refused to consider any options other than that medication, when at that stage of the pregnancy, I was so weak that I needed help to turn over in bed, so subjecting myself to extreme side effects was completely out of the question. However, she's the one with the degree and all the experience, and down here, you CANNOT question people's authority (go back to that other rant-y post about the hospital protocols and conditions and so on). So, sit quietly by we must.

Thirdly, Taurus Man accepts a little blame himself because he should have taken me to join the clinic much sooner. YOU THINK? I was advised to join the clinic way earlier than last month, (even though the doctor didn't mention it and banned me from doing research on my own and asking questions) but Taurus Man didn't push the clinic thing because he can't stand hospitals and clinics in the first place and was not willing to take the chance of me having a male doctor against my choice in the public sector (I'm pretty sure I mentioned a touchy-feely doctor at some point in one of these posts) and was pretty sure the health care would be all kinds of bad. So in his defense, he was just being protective and concerned. Not in his defense, he was just being paranoid and focusing on what he was comfortable with and not what was medically necessary for a pregnant person.

That's it for the blame game. At the end of the day, the problem is the low blood count. The solution? Firstly, I'll be joining the hospital's specialist clinic because the clinic doctor said so *pouts*. Secondly, I will resume taking all my meds religiously. Thirdly, remember when I said my docs wanted me to get a blood transfusion at 18 or I would die because my blood count was 4.5? I got so sick and tired and frustrated of constantly being on trials of meds and needing more meds for the side effects of each medication, and running in and out of hospitals when the meds for the side effects didn't work and the side effects were too severe etc that I asked the doctor to give me a few weeks to work things out on my own. Honestly, my main and totally immature reason for backing away was because I was a strict and stubborn vegetarian and I did not want a meat eater's blood in my body. Stupid of me, I KNOW. However, I went back a month later after taking matters into my own hands, without medication, and raised my blood count up to 11.4. My third plan is to go back to what I practiced at that point in addition to being stricter with my meds and seeing/following along with whatever the specialist people say.

I don't want to influence anyone to be as dumb as I've been, so I won't elaborate any more than that, but that's the gist of what's going on. The nurse said I have a week to raise my blood count by at least .1 so that they can see progress is being made and hope the baby doesn't come before that to avoid all the bad, scary things they lectured me about. Better add this to my to-do list.