Mother's Day

Hope you had a nice Mother's Day weekend! This is a rather long post b/c there is a story that has to be told for the record in detail, so I'm warning you now you might need more than a few moments to read this update. Sometimes i have diarrhea mouth, but here you might call it diarrhea fingers. In the end though, it all works out and is GOOD all around.


Here I am at 21 weeks..I am wearing a cute dress that John picked out at Bass Outlet for me. it's not maternity, just a bigger size (medium!). We spent Mother's Day at our house; my parents, sister and her family and brother and his family were here for a BBQ. I got a few gifts too, including some bibs from John, Tux and Tails - they were pink, but supposedly purchased before we knew what we were having, a nice outfit from Mom that says "I Love my Mommy" along with a book entitled Sippy Cups are Not For Chardonnay. I am only a few chapters in but absolutely hysterical!!! I am totally relating to it! Also some candy and from my niece and goddaughter Alexis a beautiful bracelet with blue and white and green pearls. I also got some incredibly soft receiving blankets and according to the tag "super cozy blanket" from John's mom, in green, to match the color of the baby's room. Plus tons of cards and well wishes from people, so thank you to everyone!


Since I had indicated 2 postings ago that we did the amnio and I would post the results, I will do that now - everything is FINE with the results that we've gotten - let's get that out of the way b/c everyone I have told this long story to reacts a little differently, but ultimately, it's GOOD news. We had a little glitch - my amnio sample sat in the courier's car for over a week - it was never delivered to the hospital lab. Even though they could not count on it working, fortunately they were able to run and get results for the FISH test which is the prelim test that tests chromosomes 13, 18 and 21 and also tests for an extra X and and extra Y chromosome. As I've mentioned (have I???) I'm known to be a big worrywart, so when I didn't get a call that first week I was starting to wonder...then I decided to try to go with the "no news is good news" mantra by Tuesday night. I know, why didn't I just call them myself, right? I thought about it, believe me, but I was really trying to be pretty cool and calm b/c we only did the amnio for our own peace of mind since all of the tests indicated up to then that the baby is perfectly healthy. So, just picture, when I get a call on my cell phone in the office last Wednesday, I don't recognize the number, but pick it up anyway b/c one other time that happened and it was the doctor's office calling to say my bloodwork results were in and then I had to wait the entire weekend to find out it was all fine...and on the phone is the doctor...I swear my heart was coming out of my mouth it was beating so hard and fast, b/c they said the doc usually only calls when it's not what they were hoping to find. However, Dr. Gonzalez was fabulous and immediately reassured me that everything was fine, so please don't panic, it's about the results, but there is nothing bad because there are no results. So I can feel my heart rate start to go down (a little, b/c I'm now registering what he has just said). And then he tells me the situation. I was given the option to redo the test at my convenience, or not do it at all, as he once again reviewed my prior test results and scans and said everything looked good. Since my first reaction was to redo the test, that is what I decided on, and we went in on Thursday at 9am. He spent a good half hour with us, obviously still very upset about the situation (this was the hospital's courier service that they have used for 15 years, never had a problem with, and it was the OWNER of the company no less that dropped the ball!) and explained how the mistake was discovered. They did an amnio on Wednesday and the tech realized she'd never seen the results from the amnio done the week prior (mine) and thought maybe it came in and got filed in someone else's chart - they had also sent out 5 other patients' bloodwork, but nothing was in their files either...so she called the lab, who reported that they had never received anything from them on that date. The courier is then contacted and this is when it's discovered that the samples were never delivered. While we are talking to the doctor, the tech comes in to say she has good news...the FISH test was successful in being run, and everything was fine. They will try to run the full test, but they don't know that it will work - essentially testing all the remaining chromosomes for abnomalties. the doctor then explains to us that the FISH test is so that you are able to provide the results for the most common problems that would occur (this includes Down's Syndrome). While there could be problems with the other chromosomes, which is why the full results take 2 weeks, they are much more rare, and based on my tests up to this point, there are no indicators of this being too likely. Dr. Gonzalez ran through a few theoretical scenarios, one of them being that if I had the scans and bloodwork results that I had and was 25, amnio would have never crossed my mind, let alone would it have even been offered to me. He said he would give us a few minutes to talk about it and decide, while he called the lab himself to confirm what the tech told us (the pathologist was not in yet to review and sign off, so they had not faxed the report over to the office yet).


I burst into tears - of relief I think - and both John and I felt the same that we did not need or want to redo the amnio. We felt very reassured by Dr. Gonzalez, and also confident that our little guy is a strong, healthy baby. I think some of the relief was the fact that I didn't have to do the procedure again. Like I said in my post 2 weeks ago - it didn't really hurt; it was a little uncomfortable and weird. But this time I had half a day to think about it and having been through it once, of course I'm questioning if I just convinced myself it wasn't so bad b/c I certainly didn't think I'd be back so soon to do it again! I never saw how big the needle was, but I asked John if he saw it and he say it was huge.


So, while this was a bit upsetting, we are not dwelling on it, but it is a part of the journey we are on for 9 months before the baby arrives and I wanted to document it. When I've told people the story most are incredulous, and question how it could happen. Well, we are all human, yes, and while it seems odd that if this is what the company does - serves as a medical courier (not also walk dogs, housesit, or deliver newspapers) - how could they not have sign off and confirmation protocols in place, at least we can say that what happened to us resulted in some changes being made to the protocols. Like any situation, you look to blame someone but ultimately it doesn't change anything for our situation. We are writing a letter to the lab (since it's their courier) as well as the courier company to express how upsetting it was for us. I am sure while this might have been the first time this happened to the doctor's office I was at, it's not the first time it's ever happened to someone out there in the world.


I've decided that sometimes it pays to be the worrywart...had I called that first week on Friday, they might have discovered then what had happened. But I am really trying to not worry too much. As of last Monday, I have gained about 10 pounds total from what I was before I started getting sick, when I ended up losing a few pounds...no, I'm not counting the weight I lost and then gained back as gained weight...why should I? it was only maybe 2-4 i think anyway. I know for sure that I've been feeling the baby kick for at least the past 1 1/2 weeks since I am feeling it more and more now. Definitely weird but very cool. Still working on names, though my niece Emily, who is 4, calls him Clarry - no idea where that's coming from - it might be one of her "my little ponies" names I'm thinking.

i am off to eat a late dinner since it took me so long to write this chapter! :)