Waiting

On the 19th, we had another check up. The baby's heartbeat was 141. Rylan opted to stay with MawMaw because he didn't want to ride in the car for an hour! Anyway, today was the day for the triple screen blood draw. I had it done with Ry and everything came back fine. So, I had the draw. I honestly think anything about it. I think my head was clouded that the doctor said we could come back in 2 weeks for an ultrasound. I couldn't wait to see the baby again and make sure everything was fine. Not to mention to find out if Ry was having a brother or sister. Stupid me.

This Tuesday (26th) while in Chicago with Joe on a trip for work, my nurse called to tell me the results of the triple screen. I completely forgot that I'd be getting those results this week. She said that I tested positive for Down's. And that's when everything went blurry. I tried to listen to her, standing in the middle of the hotel hallway (cleaning lady was in our room- great timing), listening to Ry cry because he was hungry and I was forcing him to stand and be quiet when he was so uncomfortable, trying to hold it together at least through the phone call. The nurse said that it's probably a false positive. She went on to reassure me that it's a screening process and not diagnostic. Apparently out of her 7 years as a nurse with an OB, she had told many, many, many women that their tests were positive, and only 2 of those had babies with Down's. Seems right, there's obviously not a huge population of people with Down's.

I did exactly what the nurse told me NOT to do, as soon as we were in our room, I ordered room service for Ry, gave him a juice, texted Joe about 60 times, and started googling. I found several sites stating that these tests are notorious for false positives or that a positive can mean other things. For example, a woman carrying a female fetus is more likely to have a pos, also twins can mess with the numbers, if the woman has gestational or type 1 diabetes. It can also be that there's another chromosomal abnormality not related to Down's. There's where it gets tricky for us....

The nurse is making an appointment with a specialist to review my results further and determine what we need to do. However, before that we have our u/s this Tuesday (Aug 2nd) which would most likely show any abnormalities.

After 3 nights of no sleep, recurrent- body trembling heart palpitations, constant worry, even puking in the grocery store yesterday from the stress, I called my OB's office, explained my situation and asked if I could get in yesterday afternoon. I was put on hold for several minutes, and then the receptionist came back on and said that the nurse said I would be fine to wait until Tuesday, and not to worry, that it is most likely nothing. I just wish I knew if she had pulled my chart. That would make a lot of difference to me. I can say that I felt a teensy weensy bit better after hearing that, but if they didn't pull my chart, then I'm just part of the norm to them. So, not much relief.

I'm not sure if it was the date night we had or complete exhaustion, but I actually slept some last night! So, just 3.5 more days and we should know something.......