toxoplasmosis

i got a call from my ob yesterday saying she needed to talk to me about some lab results.  i called her back immediately and she told me that my test results came back with a positive screen for toxoplasmosis.  she told me that i needed to call the high-risk ob at my hospital and schedule a consult asap, which would include additional blood work to be taken and sent out to california.

of course, i immediately turned to dr. google to try to get some more information.  it looks like there are two toxoplasmosis markers - igg and igm.  positive igg indicates that you have antibodies for toxoplasmosis, and it is unlikely to cause harm to you or the baby.  usually you have toxoplasmosis antibodies from a previous infection and are now immune to it.  igm means that you have a more recent infection, and puts mom and baby at a higher risk.  for mom it means a higher risk of miscarriage or other complications, and for baby it means a higher risk of neurological defects after birth. 

i am definitely nervous since padfoot had toxoplasmosis shortly after we got her. so unless i have an old infection and antibodies from our cat growing up, this is a relatively new infection.  from what i've read, it takes 6 months to 2 years to build up the antibodies.  we're looking at a time frame of about 2 months from padfoot's infection to me getting pregnant.

i have an appointment scheduled for monday at the high-risk prenatal care office.  they will do the additional blood work and send it out to the special lab in palo alto, ca.  they will also do an ultrasound to check for any developmental issues in the baby. 

i'm trying to stay positive and convince myself that this is just antibodies that i must have developed a thousand years ago from our cat growing up, but it definitely has me on edge seeing as how padfoot just had the infection.  hoping the ultrasound looks ok and the blood work comes back a) quickly and b) negative.  i'll be sure to keep you guys posted on everything and on our experience!

sources: here, here, here