Results & one exhausting day.

I have been waiting for the NT Scan results since Monday. I wasn't to sure when they would be calling and the "sitting duck" situation was getting really old. Every single time the phone would ring my mind prepared me to hear it was the doctor's office and they needed to see me ASAP.

This morning at 8:00 on the dot, the phone rang. I was barely awake and looked at the ID. UTMB - the doctors office. I was so out of it, I really didn't register that it could be the results. It was the sweetheart of a sonographer, Carol. She said they had received my blood work, but when she tried to calculate everything together, a measurement was off. She could not calculate my results. All she could explain was that the baby needed to measure between 45 & 80. Our measurement from Friday measured 41. My heart sank and the tears started instantly. I asked is this was a bad sign and she reassured me that it wasn't, but we needed to come back to the hospital for her to remeasure and perform another ultrasound. It was something she overlooked and there was no reason to believe anything was wrong. This gave me no reassurance. She gave me her personal blackberry number (another very bad sign, I thought to myself) and told her I would have to talk with Ron before I could schedule anything. I would call her back shortly. I called Ron not really knowing how to tell him what I had just been told. I knew he was busy and would have to move his schedule around. He said tomorrow would be best for him. I said OK and hung up the phone. A few short minutes later he called back and decided this would have to come first. It would make for a very long day and night to sit and wonder what, if anything, was going on.

We made our way to the hospital within about 2 hours of the initial phone call. Carol was extremely apologetic for what she called "her mistake." I was already preparing myself for the worst, feeling I was not being told the whole truth about what was seen or found. I tried to stay positive. We started the ultrasound and and the first thing I always look for is the heartbeat. It was there, but our little one was very, very still. Soon enough he/she started bouncing around. The measurement that was off/small was now measuring great - 53. Carol told us "that a great measurement. She proceeded with the rest of the ultrasound and wiggled our little one around by asking me to cough -BTW, I thought only men were asked to cough in exams - but hey whatever! It worked and the baby did an entire turn and put it's back to us. Not what we wanted. So she said we would take our time and just wait for him/her to turn and we only needed one more measurement under the chin. Finally the baby rolled back towards us and put his/her head right back down to his/her chest. Great! I coughed, she tickled me and said, "OK lift your chin". I, being the ever-willing, compliant patient that I am, lifted my chin! "Not you, I was talking to the baby!!" It gave Carol a big laugh and we had a bit of comic relief! I told her I had no idea how lifting my chin could effect the position of the baby or my uterus, but hey, whatever you say, your the expert! We all had a good laugh and before we knew it, she had her measurement and it was over. She said everything looked really good. She would go plug in the numbers and be right back. The specialist would most likely come and see us, and not to take that as a bad sign when we saw him.

Ron and I sat in the dark ultrasound room making chit-chat. Trying not to let the thoughts get to heavy. Trying to remember everything Carol said that was positive. About 10-15 minutes later Carol came back in and said the specialist was on his way. We both probably looked scared to death. She gave us two-thumbs up and quietly said "it's all good". I asked what the specialist's name was and she said Dr. "B". I recognized the name. I asked if her was Russian and she said, "no, he's Polish." Hmmm, OK I thought it was the same Dr. B that diagnosed the triploidy and performed my amniocentesis last time. Let's just say he was not my favorite person/doctor. I had many nightmares that had this man as the main player. Soon enough the"not-my-favorite" doctor was walking through the door holding the results.

He quickly explained what the charts meant. We have a less than 1 in 10,000 chance of having a baby with Down Syndrome or Trisomy 18/13 genetic conditions. Before the NT scan & screening, our chances, being I'm 29 years old, were this:

Down Syndrome - 1 in 633
Trisomy 18/13 - 1 in 1,091

That put it into perspective. The results were as good as they could get. I have the same chance of a genetic issue as a 20 year old woman would. The greatest wave of relief swept over both of us. I don't think I had taken a deep breath since the phone call from Carol at 8:00. Carol explained to Dr. B that he had diagnosed our baby with Triploidy in our last pregnancy and he looked at us and I think may have remembered us a little bit. I reminded him that when he performed the amnio, he told me I was scaring him! He said that Triploidy is so rare there is no way to even give chance of it happening to anyone. He took no account of that history as a factor in this pregnancy. Again, it was a fluke. We thanked him again and told him we would see him on Oct. 22 for the anatomy scan. Carol will also be our sonographer for that scan. We left the ultrasound room, with a hug and more apologies from Carol.

We started to walk and I took one, huge deep breath. Tears started and I could barely hold it together. I was so relieved. It was a long & terrifying 4 hours of ups & downs. I knew everything was OK for now & just felt so overwhelmed for a few seconds. Ron was asking "whats wrong, everything is OK, why are you crying?" I couldn't answer. If I said anything, I would have let it all come on out in the middle of that empty hallway. I know how it feels to leave without the relief. I know how things could have gone in a totally different direction. I know what it feels like to walk into that waiting room full of pregnant women trying to hide your tear-stained face. I know I felt a tremendous amount of deva-vu this morning and alot desperate pleads of, "please God, no, not again". Though teary eyes, we nearly made the mistake of exiting through the psychiatric ward waiting room! They really need to block that exit option! We nearly made the same mistake last time & joked about how possibly terrifying that could be!

So, we stopped by and had some lunch at one of the best restaurants on Galveston Island, The Original Mexican Cafe and just sat and let it all sink in.

So, we're good for now. No guarantees, but "good for now" is OK with me, for now. I'll always worry until I hear this little one scream from the top of it's lungs, but "good for now" is all I can ask for. Our vacation scheduled for next week is still a go! We're more than ready for some real relaxing & enjoying life, for now!