At long last...another Blog Roll post :)

I'm a little behind *ducks* so I'm cherry picking at the moment...:O)

The blog roll post for Aug. 23 was this: "Looking back, what minor event in your life has made a major outcome in how things turned out?"

What? I get only one? :-P

Well, here goes.

I have a daughter. She's healthy, happy, and whole...but it almost wasn't that way.

I had a perfectly normal, boring pregnancy for the most part. I did all of my prenatal visits, took my vitamins, was more careful with what I ate, etc. And I never felt more wonderful in my life. :)
(No morning sickness either...please don't hurt me. :-P)

When I was about 18 weeks along, my OB mentioned I should take the AFP test to screen for Down's Syndrome and spina bifeda. No, I told her, it wouldn't make a difference in whether I chose to continue the pregnancy, so why take it?

But I also trusted her medical advice. So, I took the test. The odds came back at 1 in 86...which is pretty high for woman my age. DH and I were stunned. My OB said, gently, that I'd need to have another ultrasound and an amnio to confirm the results...but she also mentioned that the AFP test itself had a high error rate.

The first level 2 ultrasound I got at 18 weeks had to be repeated (DD was jitterbugging all over the screen, so the tech couldn't get any measurements.) The tech asked me to come back, and again, I almost didn't. Not because I was afraid the AFP test had been correct, but because it really wouldn't have made a difference to us at the time.

But I came back, mainly because I had to know. DH had bronchitis, so he waited in the car. And I got up on the table and the tech pressed the wand into my belly. I watched DD move around on the screen, saw her heart beating and her brain inside her head. Then I realized that the tech was really quiet. I asked her what was wrong and she said--probably violating all the rules about what ultrasound techs are and aren't allowed to say---"You're dilating."

Yeah. Not what I was expecting at all. She got the doctor to confirm the results, and I went that night into the hospital for emergency surgery to close my cervix. I spent the next nine weeks on bedrest until DD was born at nearly 31 weeks. It was a near miss, to say the least.

DD made it, of course, but if it hadn't been for at least three choices on my part, the quick eyes of an ultrasound tech, and the skills of her doctors, she wouldn't have.

The irony that the one prenatal test I almost didn't take is the one that ultimately saved her life is something that hits me now and again. How do you account for serendipity like that?