One day last month I was cleaning out my purse for the first time in about 10 lbs of collected crap or more and I ran across one of my husband's "dog tags" from his days in the army. I noted that his blood type was A+ on the tag and thought about how I was B+ and how maybe one of our five kids may indeed have AB+ blood type. I tried to do the whole matrix thingy like they taught us back in 9th grade Biology but I couldn't remember all the rules for dominant and recessive alleles and all that. So I mentioned to my husband that maybe we ought to get the kids blood typed and he said that it seemed a logical idea. Imagine that! ME...logical. (Yeah, I never thought I'd see that in the same sentence either.)
So he left yesterday on a business trip abroad and I was worried because I hadn't heard from him yet so I thought I'd take my mind off of things and took the two youngest on an errand and we happened to pass by the medical lab. Samiya noticed and said, "Mom, can we go get my blood tested to see what I am?"
Aiman, of course, thought this was a fantastic idea, too. How often is it that the youngest boy gets to do something before his two older brothers get to do it? "Me, too! Me, too!" I checked to make sure I had the money for such a frivolously logical endeavor and I did....so I said okay.
We went in and Samiya hopped in the chair. The phlebotomist poked her finger and smeared 3 drops of blood onto 2 slides. Aiman began to have second thoughts about this whole blood thing and I told him to park it. If we're going to do one, we're going to do them all. So, Samiya came out O+. I thought that this was weird. Maybe my husband's "dog tags" were wrong. It wouldn't have been the first time that the Egyptian army had made a mistake in paperwork, right? I mean, I've always had B+ blood. I typed it myself in that same 9th grade Biology class AND I had donated blood religiously all my life until some idiot decided that I might be spreading Mad Cow Disease because I lived and ate meat in Germany back in the 80's. Whatever. Then Aiman's test came back A+. WHAT???!!
So, I told the woman, "Uhm, they have the same father and I'm B+. How can I have and A and and O baby?"
She said, "Are you sure?"
I said, "Of COURSE, I'm sure! Are you suggesting I CHEATED on him???!!"
"Uhm, no, ma'am," she said. "Are you sure you are B+?" Oh.
"Yes, of course, I'm sure," I replied. But then she'd put that little tiny iota of doubt in me so I shelled out another 12 pounds and had mine tested. And as sure as peanut butter is special food group all its own, I was B+ just like I said. The phlebotomist scratched her head and seemed perplexed. I told her I'd look into it and she promised to do the same and we'd meet back at the lab the next night.
So much for getting my mind off of worrying and my husband! Crap! I got on the computer as soon as I could (this morning at 6a.m. because that rotten Randa wouldn't let me have a turn!) and searched Google.
I FOUND it! It actually IS possible for me to have ANY blood type child. Check out this cool chart I
found on www.bloodtyping.com/inherited.html
| PARENTS' BLOOD TYPES | POSSIBLE CHILD | NOT POSSIBLE CHILD |
| A and A | A, O | B, AB |
| A and B | A, B, AB, O | no |
| A and AB | A, B, AB | O |
| A and O | A, O | B, AB |
| B and B | B, O | A, AB |
| B and AB | A, B, AB | O |
| B and O | B, O | A, AB |
| AB and AB | A, B, AB | O |
| AB and O | A, B | AB, O |
| O and O | O | A, B, AB |
See? A and B parents' blood types equals a possible A, B, AB, or O child. (I'm guessing that the word no means that it's not possible for us to have children with no blood type....I'm kidding.)
SO, there you have it. The internets have provided information where a health professional could not. I'm guessing that it may be due to the fumes of all the stool samples she has to work with so I don't blame her, really. But I'll give her my chart and maybe she won't cause any more future divorces because she'll be in the know.
Can't wait to find out what the rest of them type as.
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