Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Just Say "No" to Penta

It's been a while since I've posted anything, mostly because life has been crazy the last month.  I'm 24 weeks pregnant now with baby #2, a healthy baby boy.  However, if you would have talked to me a month ago, I clearly thought something different.  This is my story about taking the Penta and why I don't recommend even bothering.

I get it, I'm not a doctor.  But I'm not a fool, either.  Take the test if you want, but the stress is not worth it.  When I signed the paper to do genetic testing, I didn't know what I was in for.  5 days before Christmas, I was called by the NP in my Doctor's office.  She sounded empathetic and in a few words told me that the Penta test I had taken had come back abnormal for Down's Syndrome.  She told me a specialist would be giving me a call in the next few days.  Terrified and crushed, I hung up the phone bawling.  My husband, who was driving at the time, began freaking out because I couldn't even speak the words to tell him what she had said.  After I managed to get the words out, he squeezed my hand and told me that everything was going to be alright.  Thank God I have him by my side.

Unfortunately a week went by and I heard nothing.  I called my doctors office and the specialist trying to either get an appointment or figure out what the heck was going on.  By then I was almost 20 weeks.  I then learned that the specialist had gone on vacation and wouldn't be able to see me until she got back (2.5 weeks after the initial abnormal test).  I got fed up and called my doctor's office to try to get some kind of answer.  They had me go in for a blood test called a MaterniT21 (99% accurate).  Again, it was a waiting game.  After weeks of crying, stressing, praying, and missed sleep,  I learned that the second test came back negative for DS.

There are several things that irk me about this whole situation.  Why was I not told that the Penta has a fairly high false positive rate?  Why did I have to read this on the internet?  After reading blog after blog on the web, I learned that so many other women had had the same problem.  I mean, we are talking about our sanity here.  This scenario robbed the joy out of my pregnancy for an entire month.  It caused unnecessary stress that was not healthy for me or the baby.  And I don't want any other women to go through the same thing.  Sorry, Penta.. you need to go away.




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