Crying and Laughing...

Tuesday I went in for the second blood draw for the integrated screening. Basically this combines the results of a first trimester blood draw, the NT scan, and another blood draw in the second trimester to provide the risks of several genetic defects. It's a screening, not a diagnostic test. It has a much lower false positive rate than just the blood draws separately. I felt this was a good initial step for us to take because at my "advanced maternal age" many go straight for the amnio. The amnio carries a risk of miscarriage (perhaps 1 in 200) which was something I would rather avoid after having lost two babies due to miscarriage.

After the blood draw, the nurse said she would be calling me with the results in 3-5 days. That made me nervous and excited all at once. Originally I was led to believe that I wouldn't get the final results until my big ultrasound and genetic counseling on 5/28. I worried that if I got the results early and they were bad, I would have to another 12 days of torture for my actual appointment and ultrasound. On the other hand, if the results were good I would have a little more peace of mind the next two weeks.

This morning was the third day after the blood draw. I was downstairs listening to the baby's heartbeat on the doppler.

I thought I heard my phone ringing upstairs over the whooshing of the baby's heartbeat. I RAN upstairs. I missed the call but it was just from my dermatologist. As I was listening to the voicemail, the phone rang again. This time it was from the perinatal center. Thank God I got the first call so the phone was in my hot little hands already. That was one phone call I wanted to take live and in person.


I'm crying and laughing and thanking God all at the same time!

The perinatal center had the integrated screening results. The baby is screening negative!



The risk for down's syndrome is 1 in 890.
For my age (37) the standard risk is 1 in 140 so we beat those odds!

For trisomy 18, the risk is 1 in 10,000.

For neural tube defect, the risk is 1 in 3,000.

I know it's not a guarantee but those are all good numbers for my age!!
They consider 1 in 300 a "positive" screen.

Woohoo! Thank God.

Now we'll see how the baby looks at the big anatomy scan on 5/28. I'm praying that there are no soft markers or other problems and we can be reassured that the baby is healthy.

Big Milestone! NT Scan

This day has been a big worry for weeks. Time for the NT scan. And I had to do it all alone. Chris is 700 miles away. We said goodbye last night and I cried like it was going to be a month apart instead of 2 days. I really depend on his support. Chris told me it was in God's hands and we'll be okay. He's been through pretty much every medical fertility related procedure that I've had in the past year. And trust me, that's a lot of sitting up by my head time.

Is the baby going to still be alive? Is the baby still growing? Is the baby going to be healthy? Are we going to be the typical family of my dreams? Will they tell me the NT measurement? Will the measurement be normal? Will I get ultrasound pictures? (Not high on my priority list, but it was high on Christopher's since he couldn't be there.)

My OB sent me to a perinatal specialist for my Integrated Screening. This means that I will get a blood draw and ultrasound between 11-13 weeks. A second blood draw is taken during during weeks 16-18. Then all three results are combined (integrated!) and we get a final result. This screening has a 92% accuracy in detecting down's syndrome. The other trisomy disorders are slightly lower. It has a 5% false positive rate. If the risks come back high, then we may consider an amnio. I worry about the risk of miscarriage so we're going through this screening first.

Everyone at the perinatal office was nice. And of course the waiting room was full of couples. They took my blood first and the nurse explained the testing that I was getting. It's the integrated so I won't get any results until after the second blood draw at 16 weeks. I asked if I would get the NT measurement and she said no, but I would get u/s pictures today. (Chris would get to see too!)
That left me kind of sad that it would be such a long wait for any of the results. I thought maybe I could catch a glimpse of the measurements on the ultrasound monitor or just ask/beg/plead with the tech.

The u/s tech was a very sweet lady. My first external ultrasound. YAY! No dildo cam. AND they didn't make me go with a full bladder. Nice people, I tell ya.

My hope of seeing the measurement on the screen quickly vanished. The monitor for the mother was far away on the wall. Nice flat screen TV but it sucked for my spying efforts. I even wore my glasses instead of my contacts just so I could have a better chance to see the numbers. At that distance I would have needed binoculors.

She changed the views a couple of times. I saw the baby but I didn't see any movement. I was getting ready to ask if the baby was alive. She probably would have thought I was crazy. Then she let me listen to the heartbeat! What a relief. I should have ate some breakfast. Maybe the baby needed some sugar to get moving.

I got to see all the body parts and she told me everything that we were looking at. Little arms and legs, the stomach, the spine. She showed me one of the hands as it was up in the air waving at us!

At the end she told me everything looked great for 12 weeks. She still had the measurement screen up and I asked her what the NT measurement was. She pointed it out and said 1.43 was great. They look for under 3. Whew! I didn't have to beg, cry, or get angry to get the results. I wanted to hug her!


I couldn't even wait until I was out of the office building before calling Chris. As soon as I hit the hallway, I hit speed dial. "Patches is doing great!"


The baby measured 12 weeks 2 days with a 157 HB. I should be 12 weeks 3 days so the baby is measuring pretty close. I have a face on skeltor pic and one decent side profile view. It's not as clear as what we saw on the screen though. But it's a baby!

Profile

Heart beat and profile of baby

Skeletor Patches ready for Halloween!