Blood test results worry

violetmoyo · March 2015

Hi all, I recently went for my 16 week doc appointment and I had blood tests done to check for any abnormalities with the baby. Today I got a call from the health centre asking me to come in next week to review the results. I'm super worried because I already have my usual appointment next month which I assumed I'd get my results then. Is this normal to be called in to discuss results suddenly?

KonaCoffeeBean · March 2015

Different providers could certainly have different policies for sharing test results, but no it's not normal at my practice, at least. They email normal test results and call for abnormal results. I think people are asked to come in if follow up testing is needed. Try not to worry while you wait, false positives/ambiguous results are not uncommon.

trytry38ever · March 2015

At my docs they call you if something is abnormal but I believe on the sign in sheet it asked permission to be able to give information over the phone if not it would have to be in person. Which you could have missed checking off or your doc office just won't share information over the phone. I was called because I am a carrier of i believe cystic fibrosis I'm not exactly sure anymore, but all they wanted was to get my husband in for blood test to make sure if he was a carrier also. We both had to be carriers in order for it to show up if he wasnt chances of it showing up would be 1 in 10000. If he was a carrier 1 in 4 chance the baby would have it. I was super worried but once his test came back he was negative no more problems. I would say try your hardest not to worry till they tell you exactly what's going on. Of course I'm sure you are going to worry out your mind.

Alyllyra · March 2015

I don't know if it is normal or not, but I second what the others said about trying not to worry about it. Harder than it sounds, I know. Try to take your mind of it, though. Fx it is nothing.

Brooker25 · March 2015

At my docs they'll call me if something is abnormal and needs to be discussed. However , Ive been called in for pretty much nothing and have wondered why I needed the appointment.
Anyway, those tests only look at your risk for certain abnormalities. Your baby might have a elevated risk for one of them but it certainly doesn't mean your baby has any of them. There are a number of times I've heard of women who got their results back elevated for an abnormality , whose babies turned out just fine.
My sister in laws doctor told her if she has high anxiety about those tests, not to get it done due to the high false positive rate. He told her in six months he had six women test with a high risk for downs and none of them had it.

Hope this helps !

klshady · March 2015

Violet-I'm in the same boat as you. My 16 week results showed elevated risks and I'm being referred to a specialist next Friday for what sounds like a very involved ultrasound. My midwife told me in advance about the high false positive rates but it still doesn't prepare you for the phone call and the weeks of worry--I just keep telling myself whatever will be, will be and change my worry thoughts into excitement that we should find out what we are having that day as well.

Chryssa-72603 · March 2015

Yup, I think every doctor has different policies. Mine told me when they took my blood that they would only call if there was a problem. Well, I did get a phone call last Monday saying that the baby had an increased risk of a neural tube defect. They referred me to a high risk OB for an ultrasound. Luckily, I didn't have to wait very long as I went in for the ultrasound yesterday. I just replied to 2 other posts about this, so I'll copy and paste by reply here:

I just went through this as well. From what I've heard, the rate of
false positives is very high. I had to force myself to not be too
worried all week until I went for my ultrasound yesterday. It turns out
that the baby is totally fine. The genetic counselor, sonographer, and
doctor were wonderful. They must have taken at least 200-300 images
during the ultrasound. They were very informative and super thorough.
The genetic counselor went over everything with us before the
ultrasound, and she was very reassuring. Of course she couldn't promise
us that nothing was wrong, but she was very kind about it all and
explained all of our options thoroughly. Even before the happy results,
I started to feel much better after talking to her. Even though the
sonographer can't really say much, she reassured us almost immediately
that everything looked ok to her. Even we could tell that nothing
looked abnormal. They were looking for signs of spina bifida, which
would have been very obvious on an ultrasound. The appointment lasted
about 2 hours! The awesome part about all of this is that we got to see
a LOT of the baby! Of course I can't tell you that you will definitely
have the same results, but I hope that you will also have a great
medical team to help you through (and obviously I hope that yours comes
out like mine did!)

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