Prayers please for my DN!

[Earstou]

My niece is expecting her first child in July. She had an ultrasound last week and the baby has an enlarged liver. They told her this might indicate Downs Syndrome, and if the liver continues to enlarge, they will induce a month early. So please pray for her and her baby!

On the bright side, I get to call her and tell her my DD is engaged!!!!

 

[SueM in MN]

Glad to send prayers and pixie dust her way.

And congratulations on your good news. I also have a DD who just got engaged, so I know how excited you must be.

 

[michelle9343]

Sending your niece prayers and pixie dust. I know first hand how difficult the news/ waiting is. I am sure that it was a routine ultrasound and she expected to leave being excited instead she left completely freaked out. It happened to me with my DD. It was kidney not liver and ended up she has a very rare genetic disorder. I can say while I was going through it all of the Drs kept telling me " we see things like this all the time and it is usually nothing".My advice is tell the family to keep giving her support but try not to say don't worry it will be o.k.. That is what everyone did to me and it made a very difficult time much harder.

 

[faeflora]

Sending more prayers

 

[ktink]

More thoughts and prayers coming your way.

 

[mickey12810]

Thoughts and prayers are with you.

 

[HopperFan]

There is only one way to tell if the child has Down Syndrome before they are born and that is to do a diagnostic test of their chromosomes. This can only be done via CVS early in the pregnancy or an Amnio later on.

Quote from DS specialist "It is important to keep in mind that even the best combination of ultrasound findings and other variables is only predictive and not diagnostic. For true diagnosis, the chromosomes of the fetus must be examined."

In recent years there has been the use of many screening tests used during pregnancy. Many are contraversial because of their unreliability. Of all the folks I have know in the last 22 years of this adventure of mine that have had positive screening results, NONE had a baby with Down Syndrome. But plenty were missed.

Quote from DS specialist "What is the difference between a screening test and a diagnostic test? In diagnostic tests, a positive result very likely means the patient has the disease or condition of concern. In screening tests, the goal is to estimate the risk of the patient having the disease or condition. Diagnostic tests tend to be more expensive and require an elaborate procedure; screening tests are quick and easy to do. However, screening tests have more chances of being wrong: there are "false-positives" (test states the patient has the condition when the patient really doesn't) and "false-negatives" (patient has the condition but the test states he/she doesn't).

Your niece's number one priority right now is what she knows as fact, that there is concern with the baby's liver. Hopefully they are watching closely, trying to determine why it is enlarged (I also never met a child with DS with a liver problem), making plans to treat the baby once they are born or even seeing if they can offer treatment prior to birth. It's a miracle all the things they can correct before they are born. If she is not in a major city she should not hesitate to get specialist advice elsewhere. I drove several hours during pregnancy two so I could see a top specialist.

Best of luck to her and her baby !! I wish them good health !!