21-1-2009 - Quad Test Results

My mood while writing this blog: Stressed

Well, I opted for doing the Quad test last to check for abnormalities, including Downs. I really didn't think too much about it, feeling that my age group has great statistics. My doctor originally told me I had about a 1 in 900 chance of Downs and I thought the test would just reconfirm that. My doctor called me at 5:30 p.m. on Monday and left a message. He said the results were fairly good, but the baby is at a little higher risk for having Downs based on the results. At first I wasn't too worried, because I have heard that these types of tests have high rates of false positive results and the doctor didn't sound too grim on my voicemail. Thank goodness he was nice enough to leave his cell phone number and told me I could call anytime in the evening to discuss the results further. So, I called him and talked to him for about 10 minutes. He said everything looked pretty good except for the Downs result. My risk increased from 1:900 to 1:239. He said I could make an appointment for the high-risk OB-GYN in town to get another consult and have more tests done. I asked him if he would be able to see any abnormalities at my 22 or 23-week ultrasound, which is scheduled for February 18th. He said they are always looking for things like that on ultrasounds and he agreed that waiting for my next ultrasound would be my best course of action to see if something additional shows up then.

My husband's brother is a doctor and his wife used to be an ultrasound tech before being a stay-at-home-mom. They both said not to worry too much and false positives are extremely common with those tests. Any risk greater than 1 in 380 is considered a "positive", but most babies are born perfectly healthy. They opted not to have the testing done with either of their two children. I think we may sneak up to the hospital with them this weekend to do an ultrasound early. My sister-in-law said she would be happy to take a look and apparently she's trained to spot certain tendencies, such as bone abnormalities, etc., for possible syndromes.

I feel that 1 in 239 is still a pretty low risk, still less than .05% when you think about it, but comparatively speaking I wish it would have just come back as 1 in 2000! My husband is a little more worried, but he hasn't done quite as much research as I have on the topic. I suppose the good news is that we might be able to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl a little earlier than expected and it's so nice to be able to go in early for an unofficial ultrasound for peace of mind.....hopefully!