Angie Dugan
USA
My NAIT story began in 2002 with the birth of my son Zachary. We knew we were having a decent size baby so my OB had prepared us for the possibility of a c-section. After the Dr broke my water he noticed that there was a ton of meconium in my fluid (one of the worst cases he’d seen). I labored but the baby just wouldn’t descend so we opted for the section not realizing how lucky we were to choose that option and having a Dr that didn’t believe in trying to “force” a vaginal delivery. Immediately after the birth of our 8lb 11oz boy they noticed Zachary had a low grade fever so they did a CBC and discovered his platelet count was low at 53,000. They worried the meconium had caused infection so started IV antibiotics right away. His counts soon dropped to 47,000 and while the Pediatricians, Neonatologists and NICU staff discussed possible transfusions and treatment they never discussed NAIT. They did have me have blood drawn but I didn’t understand what it was for. His counts started to climb on their own so we were sent home w/ a count around 100,000. We would later find out that the blood work that was done on me was a screen for maternal antibodies which came back as “strong positive”.
We became pregnant with our second son. We started IVIG treatments at 21wks. We did PUBS twice. The first was at 30wks because I was concerned about viability in case there was an emergent delivery. The counts were about 197,000 then. At 34wks we did a second PUBS to determine delivery date and there were issues w/ clots in the specimine tube so it was hard to know for sure what the counts were so the Dr transfused. The lung test cameback positive for maturity so we scheduled a c-section for 35wks. Trevor weighed 6lbs 11oz and had some preemie issues w/ BP and breathing so he was in the NICU for a week but his counts were over 200,000 so treatment was very successful.
Angie