i am so thankful to live in this time in which modern medicine has allowed me to get pregnant when i might never have been able to otherwise, but sometimes i think knowing so much is just... too much. i had two appointments in the past two days and i am still reeling from everything that we learned, thanks to all of this advanced science.
yesterday the hubby and i had a mandatory appointment with the genetic counselor at the perinatologist's office. all of the testing to see if there's anything chromosomally messed up about our baby is optional, but they want to make sure that everyone understands the options. because i'm 35, we're in a new category of risk called (so lovely) "advanced maternal age," on top of just having an IVF pregnancy which they believe poses some risks. they tack other features on to my diagnosis as well, such as "history of infertility," which just seems redundant because obviously if i had IVF i was having some fertility problems, right? anyway, it all seems a little crazy to me but this is just how it is.
so we met with the geneticist, who was very nice, and she first wrote out a family tree for both of us and asked about genetic conditions and things that run in the family. she told us about some genetic problems that are common in people of our backgrounds, but luckily since our ethnic backgrounds are so incredibly different the likelihood that both of us are carriers of the same thing is very small. and if only one parent is a carrier, it doesn't matter -- you have to have both. so that's good news. also, the initial genetic screening they did from my bloodwork all came back negative for whatever things they already ran for me (i have already forgotten). more good news.
then she went over the risk of us having a kid with one of the bigger chromosomal problems, which are all caused by the baby ending up with three copies of a certain chromosome instead of the normal two: Trisomy 21, which is Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18, and Trisomy 13. most babies with Trisomy 18 or 13 are stillborn or die within their first year. they calculate your initial risk for these things based just on your age -- and they use your age at delivery, not conception, which for me will be 36 by, like, two weeks. i don't get that either, because if we're talking about the genetic makeup of the kid, shouldn't it be my age when i grew the egg that became the kid??? but whatever. so a 36 year old, on average, has a 0.61% chance of having a baby with a chromosome problem. Down syndrome accounts for almost half of those births. this was a higher number than i expected, truthfully, but we're still talking about a 99.39% chance that everything is fine.
then she ran through the various procedures we can opt to do to find out more about our specific risk. some are done simply by taking my blood, which can pick up proteins that are being produced by the baby. cool, huh? and then some are the more invasive types like the CVS (chorionic villous sampling) when they use a big needle to take out some of the placenta, and the amniocentesis, when they use another big needle later on to take some of the fluid the baby is swimming in. both of those procedures have a risk of miscarriage. the risk is relatively small, but still bigger than anyone would like: about 1 in 200 or 300 for the amnio, and 1 in 500 for the CVS. i do not like those odds, personally. so the hubby and i decided that we'll proceed with the screenings that can be done via bloodwork, and make further decisions based on the results of those. they told us those screenings are 95% accurate, and i think that's a statistic we can be comfortable with. we start that process next week.
so then today i had my next regular visit with the perinatologist. the baby is still doing great (we saw little arms and legs and its little brain!) but they had some small concerns about me. first they noticed in the sonogram that i have something called placenta previa, which is when the placenta is laying on top of the cervix. later in pregnancy this can obviously be a huge issue (as the cervix is the baby's exit route), but they told me that many, if not most, pregnancies begin this way and it's nothing to worry about now. apparently in the first trimester the uterus isn't that big yet so there isn't a lot of room for the placenta, but once it grows more the placenta generally ends up in the right place. (it doesn't actually move, but it ends up in a different location as the uterus moves and grows.) she did say that it could cause me some spotting, so i should be aware of that. and THEN she found a blood clot in my uterus, also near the cervix and the placenta. she told me that this, too, is normal and not a big deal. generally they come out or dissipate on their own, but again i could experience some bleeding. AND we're still not allowed to have sex due to all of this and the risk of bleeding and trauma to the placenta or baby. it has been so long now i have almost forgotten what sex is like... but i mostly feel bad for the hubby because personally i am not in the mood, what with all my constipation and bloating and suppository use and utter exhaustion.
in addition, it seems that my thyroid function is a bit low, so they're going to monitor that to see if i need medication, and i was deficient in vitamin D3 so i had to pick up a supplement to take.
this was a lot to process, and i have to say it took away from the joy of seeing the little chipmunk up on the screen. i'm glad he or she is doing great, but i hope my body can keep up with the challenge! i left the appointment feeling a bit disheartened and anxious, but then i realized that there are bunches of people who probably have all of these issues and no one ever knows because they're not being so closely watched, and everything goes away on its own and is fine. so while i am grateful that every tiny detail is being scrutinized, i have to wonder if all of this information is really best for me. i wish the doctors could know and not tell me, though i realize that's impractical and probably impossible. i guess i just have to take it with a grain of salt and focus on the positive. the baby's growing and doing great. i'm doing my best to take care of myself and this tiny thing inside of me. that's all i can do.
No comments:
Post a Comment