I haven’t posted much this week because I’ve been running around between doctors appointments.

About 2-3 weeks ago, I had a really bad sore throat.  I thought I was getting the flu and was grateful that I wasn’t in my first trimester when a temparature can be really bad for baby..

Strangely though, unlike the usual sore throat > sneezing > stuffy nose> congestion > cough progression that I have always had for any cold or flu, the soreness completely disappeared two days later. The only symptom I was left with was fatigue that hasn’t gone away.

Fast forward to a week ago when I feel that I have a slightly swollen gland on the left side of my neck.  I didn’t think much of it until it got so big and so sore that you can see it bulging if I just tilt my head a bit and so sore that it hurts when I turn my head.

Due to all of the moving around and switching of health plans we’ve done in the past couple of years I don’t really have a primary care doc. (I had one picked out who’s name was on my insurance card, but I’ve never seen him. )

Last Saturday, the gland became large enough that I realized I really need medical attention in case it is some sort of infection. I called the primary listed on my card – he’s not accepting new Aetna patients. I had an appointment scheduled to see my OB on Wednesday, but didn’t want to wait that long. Knowing that my OB appointments are like 2 minutes long, I thought maybe they could squeeze me in Monday instead of Wednesday…

I call the receptionist and she says “swollen gland? That’s not pregnancy related. Call your primary care doc or go to a clinic.”

Bitch.

So I call Aetna, the only urgent care clinic that accepts Aetna is in NJ.  Off to Jersey I go. A negative rapid strepp test later the doc tells me to start antibiotics (just in case even though he thinks its probably viral.) He says hell call with the results of a more thourough throat culture (which turned out to also be negative.)

Two days later on Wednesday, I have my OB appointment. The doc says “wow, that’s big” and that he’s not worried about the baby, but that I really needed follow up care because “that thing is the size of a golf ball.”  To his credit, he did offer to help me get an appointment with a primary if I couldn’t find one to see me soon.

I did end up being able to get an appointment at the office of a doctor I’d seen once about 10 years ago. Other than being a little wacky, he at least took the issue seriously and ordered a CBC, thyroid tests, mono and CMV titer. I went to quest this morning and had the blood drawn.

My dad calls me this afternoon and says he thinks I probably have CMV, its super common and I’ve had all the symptoms.  He said he was sure the baby was protected though because isn’t that what the “umbilical cord” is there for? (Dad, I think you mean placenta.)

I of course google CMV during pregnancy. Wow, I wish I hadn’t.

According to CDC, CMV infection occurs in about 1 in 150 babies born in the United States, some of whom develop hearing or vision loss, mental disability or other problems. It is the leading infectious cause of birth defects and developmental disabilities in the United States, according to the CDC.

1 in 150! And yet, I bet your OB never talked to you about CMV (according to MSNBC, 40% of OBs don’t). Even though its probably 10 times more likely than say Downs, which is something they routinely recommend screenings for.

Needless to say, I am terrified.

I called the doctor that ordered the bloodtest and asked the receptionist how long the results would take. She said usually about a week for bloodwork from quest. A week of sleepless nights.. so I called my OBs office, a little ticked off that the OB never told me (even though I had the symptoms) that there was a potential (however small) of having something that could be bad for my baby to see if maybe they would re order the test stat.

I start crying on the phone with the receptionist, so she puts the doctor on call on (who I’ve never seen.)

In a pretty bitchy way she tells me that it’s so rare that I shouldn’t worry about it because there is no treatment for it anyway and that I should just stay off the internet. Funny, because everything I’ve read says its NOT really that rare and that OBs are the ones that maybe should get ON the internet. Besides which, telling an expectant mom not to worry about her unborn child is really quite futile, and in my opinion, shows a complete lack of compassion and sense of reality. Thanks for nothing.

Defeated but willing to give it one more try to get the order changed to stat I call the primary care docs office again. This time, I ask to speak to the doctor who I saw yesterday. They take down my name and number and say the doctor on call will call me back.

Some other person calls who can’t even spell CMV (clearly not a doc, but I can hear the doc in the background).  I guess she mistakenly tells the doc its mono I want stat? Because the doc (I think it was the doc) gets on the phone and says don’t worry, I don’t think of mono when I think of mental disabilities and babies. No, NOT mono, CMV! Oh she says, I mean yes CMV. Ok, clearly she hasn’t done her homework either.  She does tell me that the results can’t be ordered stat because its a culture anyway, and that it should be around 3 days or so.  Again I get the “don’t worry about a disease you probably don’t have” lecture. Its too beautiful a weekend she says.

Clearly she’s never been a mom, or pregnant. Or if she has, she has amnesia.

If you are still with me, you may be wondering why I’m posting this.  It’s partly because

A) I am upset and hormonal and needed to get that off my chest

B) I am half hoping that if I write about it, the test won’t come back positive for primary exposure

C) Because if you interact with children on a regular basis (daycare worker, or mom!) and are pregnant, you really need to know about CMV and its dangers and take extra precautions. Because if your OB is anything like mine, you won’t hear it from them.

Links:

http://www.wearsthebaby.com/cmv.htm

http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancycomplications/cytomegalovirusinfection.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22827257/

Filed under: 2nd trimester, good to know, Rant, Test & Procedures by ariana
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