Emotional Roller Coaster
So here’s the deal, the doctor told us when we first went to our appointment that when we hit a certain point in this pregnancy we could go and have blood work done to see if the baby had Cystic Fibrosis and/or Downs Syndrome. Not that if the baby had this anything could be done, but we could prepare ourselves a little better to take care of the baby. Just do our research so that the baby has the best life possible. I don’t know much about either one of these so I thought it’d be a good thing to test so I could educate myself.
So the first week of January I went to my drs appointment and they said we were to the point that I could go take the blood tests if I was interested. I said let’s do it. So they gave me the paperwork and sent me to the lab.
The lab isn’t in the drs office, it’s across town and it seems to take them a couple weeks to process and get the results back to the drs office. No big deal, I wasn’t worried either way about the results. So Tuesday the 21st when hubby got to work he received an email (we’re signed up for their website, etc) that said that the baby came back free and clear of both of those tests. Obviously something could be different when baby comes out but for now the tests said all was okay. He called me and we were both happy.
I went to class that morning and after I was finished I went and sat in the commons area at the school and my phone rang. I noticed the number was the drs office number so I assumed that they were calling with the results that I already knew. Now the drs nurse is Jessica so I really assumed it was Jessica but when I answered the phone it was the Nurse Practitioner in the office, Jill. I was a bit confused when she told me who she was but no big deal. I knew the results right?
Then Jill proceeded to tell me about the results. She didn’t address the 2 tests that we knew we were testing for, instead she said that the baby came back high for having Trisomy 18. I had a 1 in 45 chance of the baby having this. I remained calm (which if you know me isn’t me at all sometimes but I didn’t freak out). She told me that they wanted to send me to a specialist in Springfield for further, more in dept testing. She asked if that would be an option and I told her yes.
Then I asked her what Trisomy 18 was or what it meant. So what this means is that if the baby actually has this, that the baby won’t make it. From what we’ve found on the internet (which is a scary place) but I verified through my aunt (she’s a doctor) my findings were correct is the baby will go from being born a still-born to not making it very long. There are some results of a baby making it into their teen years but they were in and out of doctors and surgeries and the family who kept this baby alive through teen years was very wealthy. Also from what I found, the baby won’t have a very good quality of life if they do make it through.
So after I talked to Jill, I sent hubby a text message that I needed to talk to him. I started packing up my stuff because I was about to lose it and didn’t want to in the middle of the school so when hubby called I told him I had to call him right back. I took off toward my car and I just lost it. I called hubby back to tell him what was going on and had the hardest time getting through it.
They told me to contact the insurance providers and see if an exception could be made. I called hubby and he contacted them. Did I mention this was 3:30 or later on a Monday afternoon when this all took place? The insurance company told us that it could take up to 3 days for this to be approved and then they notify via snail mail. WHAT?
Poor pregnant girl who has hormones flying through her body, I was up in tears just freaking out. Hubby had a phone number to call on Tuesday to see if any decision had been made. He called me around 11:20 or so and said that they approved us to go to this drs office. Amen! So I called my drs office back to let Barb know that we were okay to move forward. I got her voicemail so I left her a message, then she called me back and said she called the drs office in Springfield and confirmed I still had an appointment.
So at noon I get a phone call from the drs office in Springfield and their insurance lady (don’t know her name) and she wanted to know how I knew we were approved. Said that insurance companies will tell you what you want to hear to get you off the phone and will go back on their word. Did I get this in writing. Well no because you guys didn’t give us any time to get this approved, but we’re supposed to get it in writing. She said that they can even go back against what they have in writing and she just wanted me to know.
Okay, let’s just set the pregnant girl off again… lol. Hubby was in meetings for work so I sent him a text that said he needed to call me ASAP. He called me back about 15-20 minutes later and he wound up calling and talking to her. She proceeded to call our insurance company just to verify so all was good. whew! So we were still on for Wednesday.
Now we’re just waiting on the other test results. They said that if those come back good then we’re basically free and clear. If it comes back abnormal then they’ll want to do the amniocentesis. So a bit of stress has been lifted off of our shoulders, now just waiting for the rest to be okay.