Sept. 7, 2006

Today we saw Dr. Hemnifsy and a geneticist at UT Hospital.

Dave and I waited in the waiting room for a very long time. Then, we sat in the geneticists office for even a longer time. The office was interesting, and somewhat entertaining. There were pamphlets everywhere on Downs Syndrome, and stuff about genetics. We laughed with each other, trying to figure out why we were there! Someone had made a big mistake, and this was such a waste of time! The lady (who we were still waiting for) had a buddha statue on her desk. We made fun of that too.

Then, she finally came in and rattled off the possibility of something called Trisomy 18, Edwards Syndrome. Then she shot off all the stats, and the different probabilities....

Then, we were moved to an ultrasound room....here we were again, another long Tennessee ultrasound. This was getting old! This gal didn't act like there was a thing wrong, really acted positive about what she saw. She left, and said the Dr. would be with us soon.

He didn't come soon, and when he did he was still chewing his lunch and pulling on his white jacket. He sat down abruptly, slapped the wand on my stomach, then called out, "cysts on brain, diaphragmatic hernia, heart on wrong side, bowels on outside......." all while I watched my little boy swimming around with the hiccups.

Everything next happened like a freight train that wouldn't stop. I sat up yelling something while he left the room angrily telling me he would get another "expert" to verify what he had found since I didn't believe him.

Dave and I were alone again in the room, weeping. I wanted to go home (to Phoenix with my family), had to go home.......Dave just shook and cried, staring at his cell phone not knowing who to call.

Well, the "experts" came back in, 3 of them. They hovered over me very interested, almost excited about all the science in front of them. Were Dave and I still there? What about our baby boy? Was anyone interested in him?

The next thing we knew we were talking again to the genetic counselor about Trisomy 18. This time we listened. We learned here that the baby was "incompatible with life", and we should consider terminating the pregnancy. I couldn't believe my ears. I said no. She said I needed to have an amnio to verify the results so that when our boy was born, we could have him stay in our arms instead of the intensive care team taking him away and needlessly working on him. The next thing I knew, I was having the test taken.

The next day, the priliminary results from the test came back. Our little guy had Edwards Syndrome (Trisomy 18).

Psalm 4:1 Thou has enlarged me when I was in distress.