Bad news from OB office!

Last Wednesday while I was at work I got a call from my OB office telling me that my AFP (alpha feta protein which checks for abnormalities and neural tube defects as well as down's syndrome among a few things) was positive for neural tube defects and Trisomy 18. I was shocked becuase I never thought anything like this would happen to me. I started crying and I told my manager that I needed to leave work for the day. When the doctor's office also called I moved my ultrasound up to the next day.

On Thursday I went in and before my ultrasound the doctor came into to talk to me about my positive results and he informed me that based on the test results we had a 1 in 3 chance of have a baby with a neural tube defect. That was super high so then I was even more worried. The ultrasound tech started to do my ultrasound and everything looked good except for the head. I noticed this right away. The ultrasound tech couldn't tell us anything but she said that she will go get the doctor. Dr. Eastman came back in and told us that our baby doesn't have a brain or a skull and he will contact the perinatologist Dr Barsoom to confirm this. I immediately started crying and I didn't know what to think. The nurse came in next and said that they could get me in at St. Luke's Hospital right away to do a Level II ultrasound, which is more defined, and do a teleconference with Dr. Barsoom. Before we left the doctor's office we met one more time with Dr. Eastman. He told us that this condition is not compatible with life and our option is to induce labor. He told us that the baby may be stillborn upon birth or may live a few minutes or hours. He told me that he would give us prostaglandins to induce birth and have the baby naturally. He was great at explaining everything and assured us that there was nothing we could do to prevent this since we were taking prenatal vitamins. It just happens.

Next we went over to the hospital and got admitted for our next ultrasound. The ultrasound tech took a few pictures and then got Dr. Barsoom on a big TV screen and she showed him a few pictures of the baby. He confirmed that the baby has anencephaly which means there is no skull or brain. He also gave us options just like Dr. Eastman did. He also told us that we would do some genetic testing and they would also test me for MTHFR which takes the folic acid away from the baby. He also said that we would have a 3% risk of having another baby like this, so that was a relief. We talked to him for a little while longer and answered our questions.

We left there thinking what do we do next? Of course we have a lot of decisions to make and our family and friends have been great during this very difficult time.