Yesterday I got a letter from our cord blood banking company that stated, "Please do not be alarmed by this letter."
If there had been a red PANIC button next to our mailbox, I would have hit it right then and there. Don't these people KNOW who they're dealing with at this point? Whenever Baby V gets the sniffles, all my pregnancy loss hypervigilance gets agitated. So... "Please do not be alarmed by this letter." Too late.
The letter went on to state that my blood tested positive for Cytomegalovirus (CMV) when it arrived in their lab. Then they started throwing around the word "herpes," as in, "The virus that causes CMV is part of the herpes virus family and like other herpes viruses, may become dormant for a period of time and then be reactivated.
After learning more about CMV, I must say screw them for being so liberal with the term herpes. Didn't they know I went to Michigan, the STD Champion of the West? I could hear the distant strains of an evil minor-key "Hail to the Victors" playing in my head before I learned there was no reason to worry.
CMV is not the herpes, but basically it's a distant cousin, a kind of mono that 50 percent of the population has had.
I did call our pediatrician, for fear that I'd spread CMV to Baby V. And Dr. M said, "OK, I'm going to tell you a bunch of scary things and then I'm going to tell you not to worry. Congenital CMV in pregnant mothers can cause infant blindness, mental retardation, and pneumonia. But you and your daughter don't have it. She's not going to get it. You're all fine, and I want you to forget you ever heard of it."
Then, because I'm an idiot, I googled it. That's when I learned that the blindness element of congenital CMV might be dormant for awhile, and THEN strike and blind your child.
And even though no one in this house has congenital CMV, I amused myself for the rest of the afternoon by hovering over Baby V and saying, "Are you blind? Are you BLIND!???"
Honestly, cord blood people, do you get some sort of sick thrill out of dropping the H-bomb on new moms?
6 comments:
And here I thought my beloved alma mater Bowling Green State University was the STD champ. That's okay... your Wolverines can have the title, that's cool too.
Dig it, I got a letter from the Cryobank saying Mylo's donor was a rare Cystic Firbrosis carrier. How did they find out? The sperm was also used to impregnate a woman who ALSO had a rare cystic fibrosis carrier gene not found in regular tests. That kid has cystic fibrosis. They also said don't panic. I went straight to the emergency room. Where they were like, "Um, what?". So I am feelin you, sister.
Jill
How scary! I'm glad that you found all is well, and I'm sure all will continue to be well. Hugs!
You know, this world we live in, she is filled with too much information. Back in the ol' days, you would gallavant around with your CMV groovin in your bod and never be the wiser. Now, you have to sit vigilantly by your child's bedside until she gets her first SAT results proving that she could see the paper. It really is too much.
If I were you. I'd write down just the words from the pediatrician - not the first part, the second, pin them on the wall and read them as often as you need to until this anxiety storm passes. Because the kid is allright! In fact, she's dynomite!
I totally feel your pain,
Kate
Love your doctor!
Just had to say, I knew there was another reason why I liked you so much--you're a Blue alum :-) My MIL is one too so you're in the ranks of some fine women (but we already knew that regardless).
And to think, for years I was so proud of UF and all of it's SEC titles--STD champ sounds infinitely cooler if you ask me!
Post a Comment