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Caroline
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| Posted: May 07 2008 at 1:47pm | IP Logged
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The specialist who performed the D&E just called to say that they found the cause of the baby's death. I had a CMV infection and it passed to the baby. He said it was very rare, unavoidable, and most importantly, was not something that would recur in future pregnancies. Evidently I had a pretty serious infection. There was an overwhelming amount of the infection in the amniotic fluid. They hadn't seen a quantity that large in 20 years.
Does anyone know anything else about it? I know this should seem like good news--an unavoidable fluke (says the doc) that won't happen again. But I feel like I should have been able to prevent it.
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Devoted Wife to  and Mama to three beautiful boys and another little boy due in September , and two beautiful souls in heaven
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MaryM
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| Posted: May 07 2008 at 4:00pm | IP Logged
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I do not know anything about this and pregnancy, so can't help in that regard. I am relieved for you that they say it not be a problem for future pregnancies. But that doesn't take away those feelings of "what if?" does it. Praying for you and I hope someone has more info to share. 
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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RamFam
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| Posted: May 07 2008 at 5:03pm | IP Logged
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I found a bit of information about this on Wikipedia.
Hope that helps.
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Leah
RamFaminNOVA
Tom ^i^, Kyle (my Marine), Adeline '00, Wyatt '05, Isaac '07 Philip '08,Michael '10, and John Xavier Feb '13
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Courtney
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| Posted: May 07 2008 at 5:50pm | IP Logged
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When I was a speech path in the schools, there was a kindergarten student who was hearing impaired from contracting CMV in utero. When I became pregnant, I was a little nervous about it.
Today I got my speech path association magazine in the mail and there is a large article about CMV being a major cause of hearing loss in children. According to this article, CMV is estimated to be the leading environmental cause of childhood hearing loss, accounting for about 15-21% of all hearing loss at birth in the U.S.
CMV is part of the herpes virus family (like chicken pox or shingles) and is not easily spread from person to person. It can occur following contact with virus through saliva, blood, urine, breast milk and other bodily fluids. I searched for this article online and can't find it, but would be happy to mail it to you. It's mainly about hearing loss. I did find this article
by doing a google search.
One thing I did learn is that once you've had it, you develop an immunity so that you don't have to worry about it with future pregnancies. Most people who contract CMV aren't even aware that they have it. It's often times symptomless. Don't beat yourself up. There was no way of knowing you had it. Feel free to PM me if you'd like me to mail you this article. Continued prayers offered up for you.
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Courtney in Texas
Wife to Mike since 3/94
Mom to Candace 10/97 ,Christopher 4/00 and Connor 11/11
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mavmama
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| Posted: May 07 2008 at 10:10pm | IP Logged
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We have seen many children listed on our (adoption) agency's waiting child list with CMV. I wonder if ti is more common in other countries?
Still, I'm sorry for your loss. That is terribly hard, no matter what.
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Liz
Blessed by 4 wonders
dd11, dd911, ds9, ds8
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hopalenik
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| Posted: May 10 2008 at 10:18am | IP Logged
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Hi,
I know a little bit about this virus. My son is a transplant patient and this virus is on the top 3 for causing big problems to immunosuppressed kids who are otherwise healthy. This virus is endemic to the environment, most adults have had the infection at some point in their lives and have developed immunity. Therefore, adult patients who have had transplants do not have much problems developing infections from this virus-normally it causes like a respiratory infection in adults or kids. However, children-specifically infants who are transplanted like my son can die from this infection. I know of one or 2 who have died, although in the past 5 years the mortality rate has significantly decreased due to new medicines. In short, there was nothing you could do to prevent this infection or keep it from spreading to the baby. Because, you have had it full blown now, you have antibodies and it is unlikely to strike again. There is a treatment for it but doctors don't normally test for this unless you are going to donate an organ or are really immunosuppressed. The testing for CMV viral load is very, very expensive and takes a long time -several days to a week because they do a PCR on the virus load in your blood stream. I know about this because my son has carried the virus since his transplant and can't get rid of it and so we run viral loads 3 to 4 times a year.
God bless, and I am sorry for your loss but this was obviously God's will and you could have done nothing to prevent.
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Holly
Mom to dd 10, twins dd and ds (transplant as baby that failed 05/09, permanent dialysis patient) 8 , dd 5 and dd 3 1/2 and dd in Feb 2009. 2 I hope to meet in heaven.
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4Real Forums : Our Lady of Good Remedy and Care
Topic: CMV/Cytomegalovirus
