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Showing posts with the label gift

The Diagnosis: An extra chromosome

On the day we found out we were pregnant, we were cautiously ecstatic.  With every week, it became harder and harder not to talk about it. By 8 weeks, we had told our family and some close friends.  It was such a time of joy and thankfulness. At 10 weeks, I excitedly went in for my first OB/GYN appointment.  Because I was of a certain age, I was offered an advanced blood test for chromosomal defects.  I hadn’t thought about this much, but since I wanted the best for my pregnancy, and because insurance covered it, I agreed to take the blood test. A few days later, I received a voicemail from my OB. Her tone of voice was the kind of tone you never want to hear from your doctor when they ask you to call them back.  When I finally talked to her, she told me that the new blood test had come back positive for Trisomy 21, otherwise known as Down Syndrome.   She said that because this was a new test of placental DNA, it was known to be 99% accurate, but it w...