Pregnancy and Fifth Disease

So this pregnancy has been filled with a few ups and downs. Emotionally it has been a different experience because miscarriage has a way of taking away your innocence. This pregnancy has also carried a bit more anxiety because I had Fifth Disease during week 3-4 of this pregnancy.

It was the first full week of June. School had been out just a week or so and we were gearing up for VBS. I was leading Hailey's group and Micah was in one of the preschool classes and Mari was being watched by a volunteer. On Tuesday morning I woke up with pain in both of my knees. It hurt to do the motions of sitting to standing and vice versa. I figured that I overdid something but honestly could not remember doing anything to cause this kind of pain. I went to bed hoping Wednesday would be better. I was wrong. I woke up on Wednesday feeling like I had been hit by a truck. Every joint in my body ached, my jaw, my elbows, my ankles all ached. I had no idea what was wrong with me. Thursday was more of the same, except I could really feel it in my hands. Thursday morning was also the day I noticed the rash...not on me, on Mari.

We had Fifth Disease, also known as slapped-cheek syndrome due to the red rash on the cheeks. One of the predominate symptoms in adult females is joint pain. Turns out Hailey had it too. She "rashed out" on Friday. The kids showed no symptoms other than a rash and in hindsight a day of fatigue prior to the rash. Micah ended up catching it from us and was sick about 2 1/2 weeks later.

Apparently this late spring our area was a hotbed of Fifth Disease. While being very mild for a healthy child or even adult, Fifth Disease is very serious for an unborn baby. I knew that it carried an increased risk for miscarriage, but it was very difficult to find solid information on what that meant. The best site that I found is http://www.fifthdisease.org/. It had the most thorough explanation. It is important to note that this is a "once and done" virus. If you had it as a child (or adult) you will not get it again because your body maintains antibodies against the virus.

I basically understood it like this. If the mother contracts Fifth Disease while pregnant there is a chance that the virus can cross the placenta and infect the baby. This "chance" sticks around for a l-o-n-g time, at least 10 weeks. If the baby contracts the virus he or she could successfully fight it off, or the virus could cause severe anemia. This means that the blood moving through the baby does not carry enough red blood cells which means there is not enough oxygen in the blood. This causes the heart to work harder to pump blood faster to get more oxygen to the body...essentially congestive heart failure in a baby. Fluids build up causing hydrops and eventually death. Hydrops can be detected via ultrasound early on because it causes visible swelling of the body or head. Anemia can be detected via ultrasound beginning at 17 weeks by looking at and listening to an artery in the brain. If either condition is present after 17 weeks, they can do a blood transfusion through the umbilical cord to hopefully reverse the issue. However, prior to 17 weeks, there is nothing that can be done just due to the size of the baby.

So for me, at my initial ob visit, I told the doctor that I believed that I had recently had Fifth Disease. My doctor ordered blood work which came back positive, positive; meaning that yes I had antibodies for Fifth Disease in my blood and yes the infection was recent. After that I was referred to a maternal fetal medicine specialist. I had two appointments with the specialist. One at 10 weeks to just assess where things were at and visibly check for hydrops and the second at 17 weeks where if they had seen evidence of anemia they would have been able to do the transfusion. I didn't have weekly monitoring because there would have been nothing that they could do had something gone wrong. However, they do have weekly monitoring for a baby over 17 weeks.

Thankfully both of my ultrasounds showed a healthy baby with no signs of hydrops or anemia. Thanks be to God. Since I am well past the 10 week risk period from the date of my infection, I will no longer see the maternal fetal medicine specialist and will continue with a routine pregnancy. My doctor said that they maybe see 1 or 2 patients a year that have contracted Fifth Disease during pregnancy. This year has been the exception. This office is seeing 8-10 patients currently.

17 weeks with a hint of a smile

 We got to see our baby in amazing detail as they completed the 17 week ultrasound. Baby was showing off all the parts of his or her anatomy in fine detail...and nope, we didn't look there so we don't know if baby is a boy or a girl. What can I say, we like surprises. Even the ultrasound tech and the doctor commented on what great pictures they were able to get of a still developing heart. We were able to see a little bit of 3D ultrasound and watched baby sucking on his or her fingers - just like big sister Mari. Amazing.

17 weeks, sucking on fingers