Showing posts with label testing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label testing. Show all posts
Friday, October 2, 2009
Rejected
Well, the high risk doctor doesn't want to see me anymore. I've been rejected. Which in this case is fantastic news!! We had our last followup ultrasound yesterday after the news back in July that there were some risk factors seen on that scan, and everything looked absolutely perfect. Baby Mikke is measuring almost two weeks ahead, keeping with the family tendency to have big babies. We got some cute pictures and another DVD, so I'll get those posted this weekend. It was such a relief to get such good news yesterday! In celebration, Baby Mikke was quite active last night, actually keeping me from falling asleep for the first time. The new hobby in our house is watching my belly jump around!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Great News
I'll be back a little later with our new ultrasound pictures, but I just had to get our great news out there! Our 2nd round of tests came back and our risk of Down's Syndrome dropped to 1 in 5000!! The doctor was amazed, he had to go back and make sure he'd recorded the original results correctly because it was such a drastic change. Thank you to everyone who kept us in your prayers!
We also had an amazing ultrasound this morning. They showed us all the tiny bones (the ribs and fingers are my favorites), the heart and blood flow, the fluid in the stomach that proves the baby is processing fluid, and we even got to see the mouth open and close to swallow. The organs all look great, and the brain and spine, too. The doctor kept saying everything looked "stone cold normal."
The best part was watching the baby move around. The ultrasound tech kept saying, wow, this little one is really active! When she was trying to get a recording of the heartbeat, she'd get the start of it and then the baby would wiggle out of the way. Little rascal! It also took a long time to get the baby to roll so they could see its spine, and required lots of jiggling my belly and getting me to turn this way and that.
We reminded the tech and the doctor that we don't want to know the sex, so they told us when to look away, and then confirmed that yes, it's either a boy or a girl! We got a DVD of the whole ultrasound but we'll have to be careful when we watch it in case we can find out by accident. If I can get it edited to a good clip I'll share it here.
What a relief! There are of course still problems that could arise but for now everything is looking really good and healthy. And as you'll see when I get the pictures up, our baby is quite a cutie already!
We also had an amazing ultrasound this morning. They showed us all the tiny bones (the ribs and fingers are my favorites), the heart and blood flow, the fluid in the stomach that proves the baby is processing fluid, and we even got to see the mouth open and close to swallow. The organs all look great, and the brain and spine, too. The doctor kept saying everything looked "stone cold normal."
The best part was watching the baby move around. The ultrasound tech kept saying, wow, this little one is really active! When she was trying to get a recording of the heartbeat, she'd get the start of it and then the baby would wiggle out of the way. Little rascal! It also took a long time to get the baby to roll so they could see its spine, and required lots of jiggling my belly and getting me to turn this way and that.
We reminded the tech and the doctor that we don't want to know the sex, so they told us when to look away, and then confirmed that yes, it's either a boy or a girl! We got a DVD of the whole ultrasound but we'll have to be careful when we watch it in case we can find out by accident. If I can get it edited to a good clip I'll share it here.
What a relief! There are of course still problems that could arise but for now everything is looking really good and healthy. And as you'll see when I get the pictures up, our baby is quite a cutie already!
Friday, July 17, 2009
The Odds
At our last ultrasound, the doctor pointed out an abnoral collection of fluid at the back of our baby's neck that can indicate a few different chromosomal problems, including Down's Syndrome, Trisomy 18, and Turner's Syndrome. It can also indicate heart defects, but this will be easier to rule out at later ultrasounds when the heart is bigger. All of this was very scary to hear about our tiny, perfect baby, waving around on the screen! None of it proves there is definitely a problem, but it does mean the risk is higher for these issues.
In conjunction with the ultrasound, they did a first round of blood testing, which would further clarify our risks. This blood test can only help identify Down's Syndrome and Trisomy 18. We got our results last night, and the good news is that our risk of Trisomy 18 is very low. Since this genetic issue is usually fatal to the baby, this is a big relief! The scary news is that our odds of Down's Syndrome are 1 in 70. For comparison, the "standard" odds just based on my age are 1 in 600. So I am about 8-9 times more likely to have a baby with Down's than a "normal" 28-year-old.
Now, the odds are still strongly in our favor!! If someone told you there was a 69 out of 70 chance you'd win the lottery, you'd sure buy a lot of tickets! I get another blood test in 3 weeks and an ultrasound in four, so hopefully that will give us some more information. We could rule out a lot of the potential problems by getting amniocentesis, but that would be taking a 1-2% risk of miscarriage to rule out a 1-2% chance of a genetic problem. The numbers just don't make sense to us.
I'm not posting this to worry anyone. I just want to share the facts, and get more people praying we're in the 69 out of 70! And if we're the 1 out of 70, what a family to born into. You will give us all so much love and support, no matter who our little one turns out to be. That is definitely a big comfort through this!
In conjunction with the ultrasound, they did a first round of blood testing, which would further clarify our risks. This blood test can only help identify Down's Syndrome and Trisomy 18. We got our results last night, and the good news is that our risk of Trisomy 18 is very low. Since this genetic issue is usually fatal to the baby, this is a big relief! The scary news is that our odds of Down's Syndrome are 1 in 70. For comparison, the "standard" odds just based on my age are 1 in 600. So I am about 8-9 times more likely to have a baby with Down's than a "normal" 28-year-old.
Now, the odds are still strongly in our favor!! If someone told you there was a 69 out of 70 chance you'd win the lottery, you'd sure buy a lot of tickets! I get another blood test in 3 weeks and an ultrasound in four, so hopefully that will give us some more information. We could rule out a lot of the potential problems by getting amniocentesis, but that would be taking a 1-2% risk of miscarriage to rule out a 1-2% chance of a genetic problem. The numbers just don't make sense to us.
I'm not posting this to worry anyone. I just want to share the facts, and get more people praying we're in the 69 out of 70! And if we're the 1 out of 70, what a family to born into. You will give us all so much love and support, no matter who our little one turns out to be. That is definitely a big comfort through this!
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