Laster Miracle Baby's Medical Fund
Donation protected
May 6th was a day my husband and I will never forget. We were so excited to be seeing our baby on an ultrasound at 13 weeks pregnant after a stressful past few weeks of trying to conceive through IVF. Lots of things go through your mind when appointments like this come up like "Is the heart still beating?" "What's the sex of the baby?" Normal concerns in every pregnancy, but we never in our wildest dreams imagined what reality was going to hit us this day.
We go in to the ultrasound room ready to take a peek at this baby we worked so hard for. I told the ultrasound tech I was apprehensive as our son had been born with a birth defect (Craniosynostosis) and I was concerned about something like this happening again. She started the measurements and stopped at the very first thing they measure: the nuchal translucency. This is the area behind the baby's neck. She became quiet and I knew something wasn't right. I saw a measurement on the screen that said 6.8 mm. After already knowing lots about the screening process, I knew that it wasn't supposed to be greater than 3.
The doctor came into the room and told us that the measurement is very alarming and that she'd like to do an amniocenteses to check the chromosomes. She started spilling off odds to us. Less than 1% of all pregnancies have a NT measurement over 3 mm and that it's not necessarily the fluid that is the problem, rather it is an indicator of a serious problem. At this point we had an 80% chance of a major chromosome problem, most of which were deadly, and that our best case scenario was that he had Down's Syndrome. She said that if he didn't have a chromosome issue and fell into the remaining 20%, that it was most likely a heart condition, genetic syndrome, or skeletal displaysia. Her last words were, "Don't go off and terminate just yet, there's a 1-5% chance he's fine."
Excuse me?! Terminate?! We just spent $3,000 to get this baby, he is wanted more than anything and now she's telling me that we may want to kill our baby?!
We left her office that day without words, drowning in tears, essentially writing off this pregnancy as if he had already died.
We were able to begin testing a week later, but figuring we had an 80% chance he wouldn't make it, we had little hope. When we received word that our baby boy had 23 perfect pairs of XY chromosomes, we couldn't believe it. We were the 20%!! We finally had some hope that our baby was going to live.
That glimpse of hope was shortlived when the doctor followed up our good news with the news that he most likely has something else seriously wrong, that the baby was still at risk for having a fatal syndrome and we would have to do more testing. So, we opted to do some more detailed genetic testing to rule out any other conditions that were not compatible with life. Since my insurance put a $1,000 cap on genetic testing, we were looking at paying out of pocket for the rest, but thought it was important to have all the information we could have to do what was best for our family.
As the weeks progressed, each test result would come in negative. We also had two echocardiograms to check the heart that came back perfect as well. So now, at 28 weeks, we cannot find a single thing wrong with this miracle baby, aside from the fluid behind his neck. We are finally getting excited and realizing that this little boy may fall into the small percentage that everything is just fine! We are cautiously optimistic at this point that everything is fine. There is a chance that he can have a medical issue that is not seen before birth, which scares us, but we are confident that he's made it this far for a reason and that he will continue to fight after he's born as well.
Another extremely stressful part of this whole ordeal is the medical bills that have been piling up for this little guy. We are already several thousand dollars in debt for Hudson's (our current son) surgery, as well as the IVF procedure, and now have accumulated several thousand dollars in more medical bills due to the testing and ultrasounds for this unborn baby boy. So, this is why we've decided to set up this fund instead of a baby registry. We want to try to be as financially prepared for this baby as we can in case more medical issues come up, by paying off some of this current debt. We've decided that if by God's Grace this baby is healthy at birth, any remaining funds will be donated to other families experiencing this terrible "diagnosis."
We appreciate all of the prayers and support we've received the past several weeks, as it has gotten us through the darkest time in our lives, and ask for continued prayers for a healthy, happy baby in October.
We go in to the ultrasound room ready to take a peek at this baby we worked so hard for. I told the ultrasound tech I was apprehensive as our son had been born with a birth defect (Craniosynostosis) and I was concerned about something like this happening again. She started the measurements and stopped at the very first thing they measure: the nuchal translucency. This is the area behind the baby's neck. She became quiet and I knew something wasn't right. I saw a measurement on the screen that said 6.8 mm. After already knowing lots about the screening process, I knew that it wasn't supposed to be greater than 3.
The doctor came into the room and told us that the measurement is very alarming and that she'd like to do an amniocenteses to check the chromosomes. She started spilling off odds to us. Less than 1% of all pregnancies have a NT measurement over 3 mm and that it's not necessarily the fluid that is the problem, rather it is an indicator of a serious problem. At this point we had an 80% chance of a major chromosome problem, most of which were deadly, and that our best case scenario was that he had Down's Syndrome. She said that if he didn't have a chromosome issue and fell into the remaining 20%, that it was most likely a heart condition, genetic syndrome, or skeletal displaysia. Her last words were, "Don't go off and terminate just yet, there's a 1-5% chance he's fine."
Excuse me?! Terminate?! We just spent $3,000 to get this baby, he is wanted more than anything and now she's telling me that we may want to kill our baby?!
We left her office that day without words, drowning in tears, essentially writing off this pregnancy as if he had already died.
We were able to begin testing a week later, but figuring we had an 80% chance he wouldn't make it, we had little hope. When we received word that our baby boy had 23 perfect pairs of XY chromosomes, we couldn't believe it. We were the 20%!! We finally had some hope that our baby was going to live.
That glimpse of hope was shortlived when the doctor followed up our good news with the news that he most likely has something else seriously wrong, that the baby was still at risk for having a fatal syndrome and we would have to do more testing. So, we opted to do some more detailed genetic testing to rule out any other conditions that were not compatible with life. Since my insurance put a $1,000 cap on genetic testing, we were looking at paying out of pocket for the rest, but thought it was important to have all the information we could have to do what was best for our family.
As the weeks progressed, each test result would come in negative. We also had two echocardiograms to check the heart that came back perfect as well. So now, at 28 weeks, we cannot find a single thing wrong with this miracle baby, aside from the fluid behind his neck. We are finally getting excited and realizing that this little boy may fall into the small percentage that everything is just fine! We are cautiously optimistic at this point that everything is fine. There is a chance that he can have a medical issue that is not seen before birth, which scares us, but we are confident that he's made it this far for a reason and that he will continue to fight after he's born as well.
Another extremely stressful part of this whole ordeal is the medical bills that have been piling up for this little guy. We are already several thousand dollars in debt for Hudson's (our current son) surgery, as well as the IVF procedure, and now have accumulated several thousand dollars in more medical bills due to the testing and ultrasounds for this unborn baby boy. So, this is why we've decided to set up this fund instead of a baby registry. We want to try to be as financially prepared for this baby as we can in case more medical issues come up, by paying off some of this current debt. We've decided that if by God's Grace this baby is healthy at birth, any remaining funds will be donated to other families experiencing this terrible "diagnosis."
We appreciate all of the prayers and support we've received the past several weeks, as it has gotten us through the darkest time in our lives, and ask for continued prayers for a healthy, happy baby in October.
Organizer
Erin Laster
Organizer
Reno, NV