Getting Some Answers

Over the last month we have had two sessions with our NaPro consultant and two appointments with the NaPro Certified doctor, and for the first time since we started trying to get pregnant, three years ago, I finally feel like I have a support system of care working to get to the bottom of everything that has happened.  Infertility, miscarriage and now stillbirth. In the past I have gone to my OB or other specialists talking about how we do NFP, and that I have chart data, but no one really wanted to pay attention to it. (I really like my OB, but understandably, she is more on the side of mainstream medicine).

Well in my first follow up meeting with our NaPro consultant this week we have already started to ID some potential problems.  Signs on the chart that I might have low progesterone.  This is something I have been suspicious about for a long time now. When we were trying to get pregnant with Elisa, I asked about progesterone, because of research I did on my own.  My OB prescribed it to me and I took it for the the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, but we never did any tests to see if I really did need it, or if I did, how much of it I needed. I honestly didn't know that was an option.  Our NaPro consultant wants some more charting data, and blood tests to confirm, but still, already one item being addressed!

Then in our meetings with the NaPro affiliated doctor she has already IDed another potential issue. I have a MTHFR mutation, homozygous for the c677t mutation.

After Elisa was stillborn, the MFM office did the standard blood clotting tests, all which came back negative. In my follow up appointment in February with MFM, I asked for a more all-encompassing blood clotting test, one that I had read about in some forums, as IUGR is highly associated with clotting disorders. Well the results came back in early March, but no one from the MFM office called me to review them with me.  I read the results on my own, saw the mutation so called the office to see if someone could explain it to me. They put me on the phone with a nurse, who said she didn't know what it meant, but would call me back.  She called me back later saying someone explained to her that this mutation is not typically seen as a problem, unless you have other issues.

At that point in time I let it be, I figured the doctors, especially MFM would know what was worrisome and what wasn't.  But, a few weeks later, I started feeling more uneasy about it.  Having been  a chemistry major in college and having taken biochem, I know just enough to be dangerous. So I went to some of the medical research sites I used back in college for papers and found some shocking statistics. C677t mutation causing  1. a decreased ability to metabolize folic acid (very important in pregnancy!!) and 2. correlation to IUGR (not as large as some of the other clotting disorders, but still an increased correlation).  The problem is, however, that the mutation is a relativity new thing being studied, and mainstream medicine tends to only see it as a problem if you have thee or more miscarriages, or two losses that are related.  Luca was so early we have no idea what caused it, so I guess the mainstream medicine side of things was going to wait until we lost another baby to make a change.  That is not acceptable to us.

I took my research to the NaPro affiliated doctor, hoping to show her what a problem it was, but before I could even bring it up she did (she had all my blood work gathered and looked at it prior to my appointment) She immediately talked about how I need to be on methly-folate, instead of folic acid, because my body can't process folic acid with the mutation, and wants me on an anti-inflammatory diet, to hopefully combat any clotting issues (I will also take baby aspirin during my next pregnancy)

It was so affirming having an appointment where I felt she was anticipating my every question.  I didn't have to ask for the science or reasoning behind anything, or wonder what was being forgotten. She has already done multiple panels of blood work on her own, and plans to do more.

With all of this I decided to schedule an appointment with my OB to have a candid conversation about everything.  Her office wasn't involved in any of the testing, so I know it wasn't on her to diagnose anything (that should have been the MFM office). But I still wish she had noticed the tests. She moved offices a little over a year ago and the office staff at her new office seem to not relay things to her.  I am hopping that I am right, and it is just an office staff thing, and once I make her aware things will change, but I also understand that it could just be that she is getting too busy and I need to look for an OB in a smaller office that will have more time to meet with and re-assure someone who knows she is going to need a lot of hand holding during her next pregnancy

I am frustrated that I feel mainstream medicine has really left me out to dry on all of this. But I am so grateful to have found NaPro.  Thank you to you other bloggers out there who peaked my interest, and my NFP friends who helped me find more information.