George Allen Miller One Geek's take on all things SciFi

In what can only be called universal irony, just as I was finishing my last post the doctor called us with results from the AFP test my wife had taken earlier this week. When a doctor calls you to discuss test results on a Sunday you had best put the computer down and listen. At first I was skeptically positive and told my wife that it was ok, doctors often called their patients on Sunday afternoon to tell them a routine test was all positive. Fail.

The doctor in fact told is that a part of the test shows that there is a chance of Trisomy 18 in our child. What the hell is that? I was prepared for down syndrome, premature birth and even preeclampsie, my wife had that with her first child, but what I wasn’t prepared for was Trisomy 18. Not only was I not prepared I had never heard of it before and my geek brain kicked in to think it was a cool name for a starbase.

Well, it really isn’t. Trisomy 18 is some serious shit. A little research later and I’m scared, my wife is depressed and next week is going to be nerve rackinglly filled with ultrasounds and amniocentesis tests. If you don’t know, Trisomy 18 is a condition that happens in about 1 – 3000 births. Survival rates are virtually non-existent. Some children make it to teenage years but with serious medical problems. Most die at childbirth. Wow. Talk about a having a bad phone call.

Some further research later and now I’m confused about just what the AFP screening told us. Just because we have this risk of Trisomy 18, doesn’t mean we have it. In fact, the doctor said there is a 1-50 chance, that’s 2%, that we do. Online I read even if you have the chance for it, you are 11% to actually having it. Further, positive results of an AFP screening, which is just a simple blood test, may not indicate that everything is actually ok. Positive results can be negative and negative results can be positive. Why the hell do they have this test? I’m sure it has it’s merits but come on.

So, the next few days will be somewhat insane. I’ll be sure to post here the results of the two more tests we have to do. I’m not as worried now as I was. 2%/11% are fairly good odds in our favor so I’m going keep upbeat on this one and try to be as positive as I can. With any luck we’ll be tested next week and this will just be a bump in the road towards a healthy pregnancy.