Things are progressing well... Baby is growing and bump is rather big!
Gone through the amnio test and results came out fine. That seems like a lifetime ago... I last updated this blog in March. Well, on 1 April, I did the First Trimester Scan at KKH and the ultrasound showed that the nuchal translucency (NT) was high. Below is a reference pic of NT - the amount of fluid in foetus neck area. Mine was 3mm and combined with my age, they said I was high risk for Down Syndrome (DS).
Of course I was horrified but a bit shocked and numb and even thinking that hmm okay I am prepared to abort if it's really DS... The KKH doctor provided consultation that interpreted the blood test results from two weeks ago and with these NT results, recommended that I can do an amnio or the Harmony DNA test since there is a high risk for a genetically/physically unhealthy baby. I knew I wanted to be sure of the results so I chose to schedule an amnio (amniocentesis) that will test foetus's DNA and 100% confirm if its DNA is okay. Harmony tests are 99% accurate since they extract foetus's DNA from mother's blood so I didn't want that.
So on 16 April, I had to follow up with a scan of the foetus' heart to look for structural defects as a high NT is indicative of that too. In the days leading to that, I googled a lot of medical papers about high NTs and it seems like different countries have different tolerance ranges for what they deem high risk. Seeing the tables and lists of unhealthy and unfortunate conditions that babies ha and their NT was scary too. Explaining this to husband, parents, grandma was not easy, but luckily husband and I are on the same page on aborting. In the end, I don't think they got what a high NT meant anyway. To them, they are fine as long as the foetus is fine. If not, they left it up to us to decide.
It was a bit nerve-wracking during the heart scan, as it was same ultrasound lady that found the high NT. She is a serious and quiet person, and I saw her get mad at her colleagues for screwing up her records. The foetus internal organs were scanned, the skull and brain structure, length of bones, everything was checked. Then we waited to see the doctor for an interpretation of the scan. Thankfully, the scan results were okay. No abnormalities detected in the heart.
The amnio consultant was a lady with an American accent. She spoke slowly and patiently explained the procedure and all the genetic disorders we could have, such as DS, Turner syndrome, etc... The accent had a hopeful upbeat effect to her words, which softened the blow, because it carries a risk of miscarriage, since there will be a needle going near the foetus! The seemingly high miscarriage risk (1 in 200!) is rather scary when I googled it but seems like that statistic is outdated so doctors call it "low risk" now. We were given two choices, a standard chromosome check or one that is more comprehensive. Husband wanted to cover more bases so it was the comprehensive one which is like $500 more expensive? I can't remember. My amnio was to be on 30 April. But the procedure can be partially covered by Medisave and in the end, it was $706 out of pocket, with about $1.4k from Medisave (I have to check the records on that). The results would be out in 3 weeks, in time for the abortion window. The American-accent lady will call me with the results.
So 30 April arrived, the day of the amnio. I was rather sleepless the night before. Once at KKH, had to get a blood sample taken first from the monitoring dept, then I had to bring it up to the diagnostic dept where the procedure will take place. There was another ultrasound scan, this time was a young lady who was cheerful. There were a lot of measurements taken of the foetus head. Husband and I waited for our turn. It seems like there will be several mothers doing the procedure today too. I was a bit distracted and anxious thinking about the long long needle that would like to be poked through my skin, muscle, womb and amniotic sac... Husband noted that the doctor finally arrived, and a pregnant lady was called into the operating room, so we looked out to see her expression when she emerged. It was rather quick, according to him, as I was distracted again. I saw that she had no expression on her face and she went back to her waiting family without saying much. Okay, seems like what they say is true, it is a relatively painless procedure. Similar to an ant bite.
It was finally my turn. The doctor was KH Tan. I believe he came from delivering a baby as he seemed tired but he and his nurse were patient and spoke slowly so as not to spook me. I entered to small room and he asked if I knew what was happening today, and why we are doing this. He said in a soft tone, "Good" when I could reply. Iodine was applied after he located the foetus with the scanning device. I was surprised to see the actual length of the needle, and how fine it was. Like an acupuncture needle? How could it pierce through everything and not break? I could monitor the foetus position as well. He said the foetus position was good and found a pocket about fingers to the side of my belly button. He had one hand controlling the scanner and one hand with the needle and I looked away when they said "Take a deep breath".
OMG. It hurt like a bitch. The stab was not ant bite level. It was like a sharp pain in my stomach muscles, like a stab. So the needle was in and I could see it on the monitor, and the foetus too. OMG the foetus is moving! I was scared but couldn't move of course. Doctor has to draw 30ml of amniotic fluid, taking about 20 seconds. Would the foetus hurt itself with the needle there? I was thinking about all this when the doctor said it went well and withdrew the needle, putting a plaster over it. Then he asked if it hurt. I said yes, to which he was a little surprised.
I cleaned up the iodine with the help of the nurse and went out to my husband. I was a little high from the adrenaline rush and started joking with him about my stomach of steel hurting, causing laughter which was really really painful. I dug my nails into his hand describing the pain to him and he made me laugh some more which hurt like mad. We were rather noisy and I was a little scared why mine was painful and others seemed okay. We waited to pay by credit card - $706 - and had a form to note if any complications arose from the amnio, such as leakage, bleeding or fever. No lifting of anything allowed. But no bed rest needed either.
Anyway. The pain was in my stomach muscles, not so much the womb or anything. I couldn't do much movement with the pain so I took it easy. It took about 3 days for the pain to go completely. And thankfully no complications. It was also the Circuit Breaker period (started on 7 April, ended in mid June) so we were all working from home, so I could chill.
On 11 May in the morning (8.20am?), I received a call from an unknown number on my phone and it was the American accent lady. I was groggy with sleep but also excited but nervous and scared of bad news. In my dark bedroom, I heard her say "Congratulations, the results found no abnormalities, and would you like to know the sex of the baby? It's a boy..." I thanked her and was very pleased in my heart of hearts. I told my husband, who was very happy too and weirdly confident that he had earlier predicted it would be a boy.
So that call was received on week 19 and now I'm at 32 weeks. A lot of baby things were bought and changes to my body happened. Baby name was decided and we are making space for our new housemate. I am always anxious and excited about the prospect of being a mother and about this new person I am bringing into this COVID-19 world, but I am still hopeful it will be all good.
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