Finally some answers...kind of

So several weeks ago we had a consultation with a high risk pregnancy specialist here in town who will be my doctor for all future pregnancies. She is very nice and was very patient with all of our questions. We spent quite a bit of time with her and it is her opinion based on tests run on me and the baby that the problem was my placenta. She thinks. And why isn't she sure? Because the hospital accidently threw away the placenta so she couldn't examine it. Argh! But, she felt pretty confident that based on the development of the baby and my bloodwork the placenta was the culprit. She wanted to do some special blood tests that would be sent to a specialist at the University of Tennessee (they don't do this specific blood test in Iowa). These tests would determine if the problem was with an abnormality in the way that my blood clots. If this is the case, then that would cause a shortage in the blood supply to the placenta, hence abnormal placenta development. So, today she called with the results of the blood test indicate that my blood (more specifically my phospholipids) is borderline abnormal in the way that it clots. This means that it confirms what the doctor originally thought. The good news is that with treatment (twice daily injections of blood thinners throughout the course of all future pregnancies) I can deliver healthy babies. The bad news is that because the results indicated that I am only borderline abnormal, it could still be something else. The doctor said that sometimes the levels fluctuate so our course of action will be that as soon as I think I am pregnant again, I will have this blood test again (it's cheap to have blood sent to Tennessee). If the results are still abnormal (even if it is still borderline) I will start on the daily injections (which really aren't cheap). If the blood test comes back normal, then they will assume it was something else that made me lose the baby.

I'm not sure how I feel about all of this because it is still pretty unclear. (I'm sorry if this post is confusing, you can tell I have no knowledge of medical things).