Lab Tests and More Lab Tests

Three days til we leave for Nogales for our LIT treatment. On June 1st we had a buttload of labwork done in prepartion for this. It's required that both parties have oodles of infectious disease testing before having the leukocytes of the DH injected into the female party. Damned good idea. So this was done, what 12 days ago?

I had a call yesterday that our lab tests were in. So today I called the OB's office to go over the results. I nearly died when she said I tested positive for Hepatitis A and CMV, but as she explained it was positive for "passive immunity" or the IgG fraction. It didn't indicate an infection but only that I had antibodies to these two diseases.

I pulled out my paperwork from last December. My CMV IgG at that time was totally negative. So my exposure had to have been between then and now. A mere six months. I had a eureka moment and quickly called DB's office. They confirmed that it is typical for a person who is normally negative to these diseases to show positive on the IgG fractions after having done an IVIg session....which I did just last month. So that 20g bottle of IgG that was dripped into my arm gave me antibodies to both Hep A and CMV. They should disappear in a few months. Big relief. Oddly my Hep B IgG was at zero indicating that my Hep B vaccination was in dire need of a booster.

Lots of great information was gleaned today.

But there was one snafu. There always is, no?

They failed to run the CMV IgM test (tests for an "active" infection of CMV, whereas the IgG test looks for antibodies from a much older infection). I called around frantically. Most labs told me that such a test would need to be sent out and would take 2 to 3 days to get the results. They would be hard pressed to get them to Nogales in time.

One fine gal over at Health Line Laboratories suggested trying a local hospital laboratory, the reason being: they just do things faster. She gave me the number to the lab at the hospital where I just had my surgery last Tuesday, and sure enough, they could have the test run by tomorrow.

Amazing. I thought I'd figured out most things about the medical system by now, but this is one that I just didn't know. I am willing to bet that they'd be a far better solution for getting IVIg in a hurry, too. :-)

So off J and I ran to have yet another needle stuck into our respective arms. He said, over his Szchewan Shrimp, "I think you're paying these people to do this to me". Snortle.

So in case any of you are interested in just how many tests it takes to get to Nogales...here's a list that'll baffle the mind:

HIV 1 & 2
HIV P24 Antigen
HTLV 1 & 2
RPR
Hep A: IgG & IgM
Heb B: Core Ab & Surface Ag
Hep C: Ab
CMV: IgG & IgM
Abo/Rh (blood typing)