Magical Flying Testing Kits!

I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday weekend! Ours was filled with fireworks, hot dogs and family; the only way to spend the 4th of july!

I realized a few days ago that I forgot to post an update on my back. My doctor reviewed my x-rays and my spine is NOT fractured again and it is completely healed from the previous fracture. There was some sort of "haziness" on the image that made it look like there may have been another break. He did see a slight Spondylolisthesis, which did happen with the original break. This is pretty much where one vertebrae slides forward causing pressure on the nerve roots. My doctor does not think the issues with my spine will cause extra problems when I finally get pregnant as long as I am careful. There are braces that are specifically made for back support during pregnancy, but I would rather not have to wear one of those. My doctor wants me to start physical therapy to strengthen my back and help correct the slipped vertebrae. I am starting in a couple weeks, but until then, I am 99% pain free!

Our DNA collection kits were in the mail last Thursday when I came home for lunch. We had been told 1-2 weeks for the collection kits to arrive, but they were there in just 4 days! I asked for magically fast mail delivery and that is what we got! We had to rush around after work to make sure the samples could be overnighted to RGI. The samples had to be sent sometime Monday-Thursday so they didn't sit in the lab all weekend. With it being a holiday weekend, we had to get them sent Thursday or we would have had to wait till Tuesday. We probably could have waited a few more days, but I am not very patient and I'll pretty much do anything to speed up this process.

 

The kit included a large packet of papers, a styrofoam container with a biohazard bag to send the samples and overnight fedex packaging.We had to take some paperwork to the bank to have them notarized to send with the blood samples. Then we had to rush over to the lab to get blood drawn and then get to fedex before the overnight driver left. It was pretty weird walking down the street with biohazard bag in my hand. Half of the paperwork did not have to be notarized, so we left those unsigned till we got to fedex. One of the papers that surprised me asked if we wanted to know the sex information about the embryos. I knew that was a decision we had to make, but I hadn't really thought about it since our initial consultation.

We both agreed that we did not want to know the sex information of the embryos. While it would be interesting to know the sex of our future baby before I am even pregnant, that is just not something we need to control. The sex information of the embryo does not change the outcome of the testing for EB and we just want a healthy baby. Every aspect of this pregnancy is going to be 100% planned and we want to leave something to be a surprise. Right now I don't think I want to know until the baby is born. I may change my mind down the line, but for now I'd like to have it be a surprise. Brian said he would rather know the sex of the baby at the 20 week ultrasound, but I'm calling dibs on this decision!

Hopefully the testing time will follow suit and take half the time. 4-6 weeks seems so far away right now. We are filling our weeks up to keep busy while we are waiting. We will be fishing in Canada most of next week and after that we have appointments nearly every week.We are even making plans for the nursery to get some projects started. I never thought I would be wishing for the summer to fly by!

-Emily