beating the odds
So, Dr. M., fingering the sleeves of his reassuring white coat, told me what I already knew. If I get pregnant again, there's a 60% chance that I'll develop preeclampsia again. Of that 60%, about half would be at about the same time I developed it last time -- 26 weeks -- and about half would be later, but how much later, neither Dr. M. nor anyone else could say.
In sum: a 40% chance of no preeclampsia, a 30% chance of early-onset preeclampsia, likely leading to the same tragic result, and a 30% chance that the baby would reach something approaching what Dr. M. called "a respectable gestational age" before the preeclampsia began. I don't like those odds. I've already "won" what I think of as the negative lottery once, and I'm sure that I'm perfectly capable of doing it again.
To put it in perspective: There were about 4 million babies born in the United States in 2006. About 1,000 of them (two of which were mine) died of preeclampsia.
You do the math.
2 comments:
Odds are cruel things. Our odds were 2%, and whaddya know, we were in that oh so lucky 2%. Only we know what our tolerance is for those odds. Those of us who've found ourselves on the wrong side of them.
I know I am just getting caught up . . . but does baby aspirin help? In my DE cycle - which are more likely to have pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia - they prescribe 1 baby aspirin a day starting about two weeks before retrieval to minimize the risk.
I am so sorry you lost your children.
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