ITP - High risk OB appt for my big ultrasound!

dixielane

(xpost from 2nd tri) I know this isnt the high risk section, but while I am "high risk", I'm not really..super high risk, lol if that makes sense. Mainly, my risks are just "different" because a few things, and it may not even cause issues for me. I know a few of you here have ITP (Low blood platelets), so I wanted to throw this out there.

 I go Friday for my big ultrasound, a gender scan, and to speak with a genetic counselor.

 My background info is: I'm 22, this is my first pregnancy, My platelets stay within 67,000-120,000 so they aren't super super bad. But my OB referred me to this specialist just incase. Seemed like she just wanted to be well informed herself, so is working with this specialist to make sure everything is good for me.

What can I expect? I am especially nervous when I found out I'd speak with a genetic counselor, I have always heard genetic counselors talk you into doing a ton of tests, or making you feel like things are wrong with your baby since they analyize *everything*. Is this true?

Any imput would help!

FutureMrsDenman

I lurk here and am not pregnant at the moment ... but saw your post and just wanted to wish you luck and  happy and healthy rest of your pregnancy.  Both my Dad and one of his sisters had ITP.  I'm glad your numbers are staying relatively good!  Actually they sound really good!  So congrats on that.  I hoe that they continue to stay up for you the rest of the way.

Have you ever visited the discussion boards over at www.pdsa.org?  I know they used to have a fairly active set of boards and ITP and pregnancy was often discussed.  I think they even had a separate forum for it.  Back when my Dad and Aunt were suffering with their ITP I was a regular on the sit and learned a lot from the posts.

Take care!

alizabethy

I saw a genetic counselor when I got our BFP with DS. I'm sure it depends on who you see, but I felt NO pressure at all from the counselor.

The first part of the visit was a very long interview - they take a strong history of your family going as far back as you can really remember or know. Then they take other factors into account and can give you different levels of testing to consider.

I was 35 when I had DS, so I "qualified" for many tests. But we didn't want to do anything invasive, and the counselor was great about it. I felt no pressure, and she was still able to give us a lot of information about the pregnancy.

Hope that helps! 

dixielane

Is there a point to Genetic counseling if I AM NOT going to do any testing? I feel absolutely no reason to do any tests whatsoever. And if I can, I want to decline all of them, I am a healthy 22 yr old with no huge risk factors, so I am comfortable with that.

It sounds like GC is just to work up to getting tests done...which Im not going to do....?