The Dreaded Day is Done!

Finally, this anxiety-stricken day is over.  On an awesome note, I didn't end up needing a biopsy, because the ultrasound of my thyroid didn't warrant one.  I still need to hear official results after the doctor views my scans, but at least it doesn't mean that my thyroid needs to be removed as of right now.  We will see what it is up to after some blood work.

After that, we made our way to our genetic counseling appointment, which has weighed heavily on our minds for some time.  We learned some important information!  To start, we know for sure now that neither of us are official "carriers" of a translocation (forgive me if I am botching this explanation).  This means that no one can tell us that 100 percent of our children will have a chromosomal issue.  Whew!  That being said, our official risk as quoted by our genetic counselor was 1 in 67, opposed to the 1 in 500+ typical rate.  This seems high to me, but it is definitely better than it could be.  

Interestingly, Parker having two chromosomal issues (double aneuploidy) does not seem to raise our chances.  In fact, it is really the Down Syndrome that increases our chances.  Our genetic counselor was able to use her access to medical journals to provide us with some other cases of babies born with Down Syndrome and Klinefelter's Syndrome (a 1 in 25,000 chance for mothers above age 35).  This was important to us, because as of yet, we have not had access to any other official information related to our situation. 

So, we have a lot of choices to make, though maybe not overnight! Obviously, chances continue to increase as both of us get older.  We will need to find a balance between our age and health, and the years between our children.  My awesome husband told me to think of it practically...if you took 67 pennies, painted one black, and seen how many times you picked up the black one...it won't happen for us again.

Lots of reading and thinking for us tonight!