Bananas

I just got back from our appointment and the genetic counselor shared the results with us. He said, "I wasn't sure about her. Sometimes I looked at her and couldn't tell. Her features are not so striking (I knew what he meant), but other times I was thinking maybe she does have Downs. She was fooling us." She's such a tease. Mermaid does indeed have three cute little squishy looking #21 chromosomes where most other children only have two. That's called Trisomy 21 or Downs Syndrome. My Hero said, "We put the 'O' in chrOmOsOme."

Then the geneticist joined us and said Mermaid may or may not have Mosaic Downs, but that really makes no difference because some kids with Downs have fewer limitations than some kids with Mosaic Downs and vice-versa. If we really wanted to pursue it, they would have to take different tissue samples and chase it down. But it wouldn't change the prognosis. They had only ordered the "Fish 21" in case the extra chromosome didn't show up in the original karyotype (blood test). We set up an EKG and echocardiogram and we'll meet with an opthomalogist. We spent the rest of the time talking about early intervention which generally consists of physical therapy, occupational therapy (I don't know what that means, yet) and speech therapy. They also gifted us a book, "Babies with Down Syndrome; A New Parents' Guide." Free books, definitely a benefit. All of these regular appointments will alter our freestyle life, but a little structure could be a good thing.

One thing I really appreciated was that the geneticist always referred to "children with Downs"; never "Downs children." I've been doing that, too because I feel that the person comes first. Now, that I've read Plainbellied's post, I know it's the protocol in the communities of people who love and care for children with Downs.

I guess we'll be visiting the geneticist every year moving forward, as well as the opthamologist and probably an audiologist. New friends; benefit. The four year old girl with Downs our geneticist met with before us could read and was starting to write. She carried on conversations with them, etc. My 6.5 year old still doesn't read. We'll just watch and see what Mermaid has in store for us.

Lastly, I asked about sibling workshops or something to address the needs and concerns of our other children. The counselor said, "Oh, they're going to be bananas about her! Children with Downs are so social and funny. They love music and dancing. They'll be just bananas for her!" Of course, we all are!