Hi everyone ..... remember me?! 
I've had one mother of a month, but it's only now that I've had chance to come on and tell you all about it, and sorry in advance for it being so long (in fact it's HUUUGGEE sorry) ....
On 27th November I had my triple test, and the results were not good. The odds of having a baby with Downs Syndrome were already 1 in 243 due to my age (36) but the results of the triple test showed that the risk was actually higher than that, it came back as 1 in 150.
So we booked an amniocentesis. I know that a lot of people don't like these, for various reasons, but we decided that for us it was the right decision to make. I've got to say though, that the two or three days leading up to the appointment were just horrible - I was frequently in tears, and constantly asking myself if we were doing the right thing. The night before the appointment, I got two hours sleep. To decide to do something which has a risk of miscarriage just felt like madness but, difficult as it was, it was the right thing for myself and OH to do.
On 5th December I went in for the amnio. The procedure itself was not too bad - I got my crying out of the way and then hid behind my hands all the way through, making sure I lay completely still. We were told we would get the Downs result in 2-3 days, and the other chromosome results in 10-14 days.
Next day, we got an unexpected early phone call .... no Downs! Of course this was fantastic news, but we still had to wait nearly two weeks for the second result.
On 18th December we got the second phone call, and were told that all the other chromosomes were normal too. This was great, we were totally over the moon after a pretty crappy time (nearly 2 years TTC, a miscarriage, two lots of early bleeding, bad triple test results ....) and it just felt like phew, everything was now going to be alright. We only had the 20-week anomaly scan left to do, but were so excited about the amnio result we didn't really stress too much over what we thought would be just another scan.
On 20th December meanwhile I managed to end up in A&E - I'd just had a bath, sat down to watch TV and within five minutes I was doubled over with pains all over my midriff/chest area - OH drove me to hospital, I was howling in agony all the way and dripping with sweat They checked baby's heart, my heart, took blood, gave me a shot of pethidine which did nothing for 15 minutes and then WHAM the pain just disappeared which was bliss They put it down to some gastric thing and wanted to keep me in overnight, but I asked if I could go home and they said yes, and gave me a prescription. I got similar pains a couple of days later, although not as bad, and I haven't had them since so I'm hoping I won't get it again. (EDIT: it was gallstones and so I had my gall bladder taken out 6 weeks after Oliver was born!)
On Christmas Eve over lunch we finally told my son and OH's two sons about the baby, and they were all chuffed to bits. Nobody else knew apart from my mum and OH's mum so finally, at just over 20 weeks, we were able to tell the rest of the family, which we did the same day whilst going round delivering Xmas pressies. Everyone was over the moon - I did little purple sparkly cards containing the big announcement and two scan piccies (had been dying to do them for ages ).
On 27th December I had my 20-week anomaly scan. Instead of OH, I took my son with me so he could see his new little brother or sister (I'd got my doppler out the night before so he could listen to the heartbeat ... I always swore I wouldn't buy one but hey, they were going cheap on Ebay ).
After about 40 minutes of scanning, the sonographer said that there was more fluid on the baby's brain than there should be, and that she was going to get the consultant to scan me. The consultant scanned me (I'd sent my son to the waiting room at this point) and after another 30 minutes or so she told me the same - one of the ventricles was measuring 11mm, which is 1mm over the 10mm limit for the 'normal' category. She said that she was referring me to St Mary's Hospital in Manchester to be scanned by the neurology department. I got a call later that day saying that I had an appointment the next morning at St Mary's. As you can guess, I was in bits that day and night as I really wasn't clear about what it all meant and, as I've found out in the past, searching on Google only leads to a flurry of confusion and stress for those of us who are medically-untrained!
The next day, my appointment at St Mary's thankfully ended with good news, but came coupled with yet something else, which I'll mention in a minute. I got scanned for about 45 minutes - there were two neurology doctors in attendance plus two staff, so it was all a bit daunting. Anyway, they were so thorough in their scanning - they must have measured the suspect ventricle about 10 times, and one of the docs took over the second half of the scanning and so yes, I certainly hope they got it right when they told me at the end that the ventricle was measuring 10mm and therefore fell back into the 'normal' category. It was a bit hard to take in - I told them I was convinced the ventricle would get bigger (thanks a lot Google
) but they said it won't, and I know that I have to accept what they say.
Now for the bad news which will hopefully turn into good news next Tuesday - they were scanning the heart for ages, and they said at the end that they want to have the heart connections checked out again, this time with one of the heart consultants. They gave me an appointment for next Tuesday. So, everything still isn't 100% but we just have to keep everything crossed that Tuesday can turn into good news just like all of the other bad things have done.
On top of all that, my business sales absolutely shot through the roof during December which gave me absolutely no forum time whatsoever - but on the other hand it kept my mind busy during a really stressful time. I'll be busy for the first couple of weeks in January too when I re-open, but hopefully after that I'll be able to find some time to come on the forum. I'll pop on next Tuesday to update this thread after I've had the heart scan.
I'm sure I've missed a ton of things whilst I've not been on here and it's going to be impossible to catch up, but I do hope you are all well and all had a lovely Christmas, and have a great New Year's Eve tomorrow night too!
I've had one mother of a month, but it's only now that I've had chance to come on and tell you all about it, and sorry in advance for it being so long (in fact it's HUUUGGEE sorry
) ....On 27th November I had my triple test, and the results were not good. The odds of having a baby with Downs Syndrome were already 1 in 243 due to my age (36) but the results of the triple test showed that the risk was actually higher than that, it came back as 1 in 150.
So we booked an amniocentesis. I know that a lot of people don't like these, for various reasons, but we decided that for us it was the right decision to make. I've got to say though, that the two or three days leading up to the appointment were just horrible - I was frequently in tears, and constantly asking myself if we were doing the right thing. The night before the appointment, I got two hours sleep. To decide to do something which has a risk of miscarriage just felt like madness but, difficult as it was, it was the right thing for myself and OH to do.
On 5th December I went in for the amnio. The procedure itself was not too bad - I got my crying out of the way and then hid behind my hands all the way through, making sure I lay completely still. We were told we would get the Downs result in 2-3 days, and the other chromosome results in 10-14 days.
Next day, we got an unexpected early phone call .... no Downs! Of course this was fantastic news, but we still had to wait nearly two weeks for the second result.
On 18th December we got the second phone call, and were told that all the other chromosomes were normal too. This was great, we were totally over the moon after a pretty crappy time (nearly 2 years TTC, a miscarriage, two lots of early bleeding, bad triple test results ....) and it just felt like phew, everything was now going to be alright. We only had the 20-week anomaly scan left to do, but were so excited about the amnio result we didn't really stress too much over what we thought would be just another scan.
On 20th December meanwhile I managed to end up in A&E - I'd just had a bath, sat down to watch TV and within five minutes I was doubled over with pains all over my midriff/chest area - OH drove me to hospital, I was howling in agony all the way and dripping with sweat
They checked baby's heart, my heart, took blood, gave me a shot of pethidine which did nothing for 15 minutes and then WHAM the pain just disappeared which was bliss They put it down to some gastric thing and wanted to keep me in overnight, but I asked if I could go home and they said yes, and gave me a prescription. I got similar pains a couple of days later, although not as bad, and I haven't had them since so I'm hoping I won't get it again. (EDIT: it was gallstones and so I had my gall bladder taken out 6 weeks after Oliver was born!)On Christmas Eve over lunch we finally told my son and OH's two sons about the baby, and they were all chuffed to bits. Nobody else knew apart from my mum and OH's mum so finally, at just over 20 weeks, we were able to tell the rest of the family, which we did the same day whilst going round delivering Xmas pressies. Everyone was over the moon - I did little purple sparkly cards containing the big announcement and two scan piccies (had been dying to do them for ages
).On 27th December I had my 20-week anomaly scan. Instead of OH, I took my son with me so he could see his new little brother or sister (I'd got my doppler out the night before so he could listen to the heartbeat ... I always swore I wouldn't buy one but hey, they were going cheap on Ebay
). After about 40 minutes of scanning, the sonographer said that there was more fluid on the baby's brain than there should be, and that she was going to get the consultant to scan me. The consultant scanned me (I'd sent my son to the waiting room at this point) and after another 30 minutes or so she told me the same - one of the ventricles was measuring 11mm, which is 1mm over the 10mm limit for the 'normal' category. She said that she was referring me to St Mary's Hospital in Manchester to be scanned by the neurology department. I got a call later that day saying that I had an appointment the next morning at St Mary's. As you can guess, I was in bits that day and night as I really wasn't clear about what it all meant and, as I've found out in the past, searching on Google only leads to a flurry of confusion and stress for those of us who are medically-untrained!
The next day, my appointment at St Mary's thankfully ended with good news, but came coupled with yet something else, which I'll mention in a minute. I got scanned for about 45 minutes - there were two neurology doctors in attendance plus two staff, so it was all a bit daunting. Anyway, they were so thorough in their scanning - they must have measured the suspect ventricle about 10 times, and one of the docs took over the second half of the scanning and so yes, I certainly hope they got it right when they told me at the end that the ventricle was measuring 10mm and therefore fell back into the 'normal' category. It was a bit hard to take in - I told them I was convinced the ventricle would get bigger (thanks a lot Google
) but they said it won't, and I know that I have to accept what they say.Now for the bad news which will hopefully turn into good news next Tuesday - they were scanning the heart for ages, and they said at the end that they want to have the heart connections checked out again, this time with one of the heart consultants. They gave me an appointment for next Tuesday. So, everything still isn't 100% but we just have to keep everything crossed that Tuesday can turn into good news just like all of the other bad things have done.
On top of all that, my business sales absolutely shot through the roof during December which gave me absolutely no forum time whatsoever - but on the other hand it kept my mind busy during a really stressful time. I'll be busy for the first couple of weeks in January too when I re-open, but hopefully after that I'll be able to find some time to come on the forum. I'll pop on next Tuesday to update this thread after I've had the heart scan.
I'm sure I've missed a ton of things whilst I've not been on here and it's going to be impossible to catch up, but I do hope you are all well and all had a lovely Christmas, and have a great New Year's Eve tomorrow night too!
