12-8-2009 - Quad screen and week 19 fetal survey

My mood while writing this blog: Ok

My quad screen came back last week abnormal - higher than normal risk for Down's syndrome, 1:99, which is the risk for a 39.5 year old - I am only 33 (almost 34)!. So that had me freaked out. I was worried, anxious, sad... My husband tried to calm me down, but still.

The nurse at the OB clinic was not too helpful. The doctor paged me later. My fetal survey/US was already scheduled for early the following week, so they scheduled me for genetic counseling immediately prior to the US. The nurse and doctor said that they would look for markers of Down's syndrome on the US. Then we would have to decide whether we wanted amniocentesis or not. Felt like a long four and a half days to wait.

The genetic counselor was really good. She said that my quad profile did not completely fit what they would expect for a child with Down's. They would expect the HCG level to be higher. So that was good news. The US went really well. We are having a BOY! The doctor said: "You have a good lookin' baby", meaning that they did not find any defects. Only 50% of kids with Down's will have defects on US though, so they only lowered my risk from 1:99 to 1:150. But he said that they are conservative, and some places will lower the risk by 95%. We decided against amniocentesis. There is a 1:400 chance of miscarriage with it.

We got some great pics of the baby - profile, feet, hand - check them out on my page!