Don't forget...

...to watch for me tomorrow in the General Relief Society Broadcast! It has been an amazing experience to be a part of the choir for this broadcast! I was surprised & amazed at how much work goes into putting together one of these choirs. I will blog more about the experience next week (hopefully).

Just to let everyone know, I will be sitting in the section on the right about halfway up & 5 seats in from the aisle. I will be in a white blouse & black skirt so I should be easy to spot :) (actually we will all be in white & black which I will write more about later...)

Let me know if anyone has any sightings of me since I won't be able to see any of the conference until afterwards...

The results are in...

About 5 weeks ago now I was finally able to get blood drawn and sent to the lab to find out if I am a carrier for Muscular Dystrophy. I haven't posted anything about actually having the test done because we wanted to get the results back first before I mentioned it to anyone. So here it is: The results came back NEGATIVE (I'm not a carrier), but the main reason we didn't want to tell anyone yet is because I'M PREGNANT (and I knew I was right before the test was done)!! So if everyone who reads this could make a comment so we know who reads my blog and who we still need to call with the news, I would appreciate it!! (or feel free to call although I can't guarantee that someone will be here to answer the phone with all the kids activities going on right now - I will blog more about them later...)

So now on to the long details for those who want to read more. I just want to start out by saying that the Lord works in mysterious ways...

Looking back over my blog entries I have realized that I have not brought everyone up-to-date on the more recent developments, so I'll start where I left off (see More Updates). My doctor called our insurance company and found out that they would not cover the test :(. Also, the lab that I had to go to to get the blood drawn was requiring that the doctor order another test that they could run in their lab since the blood that they would be drawing from me had to be sent to another lab for the testing (and they wanted some business too). The other bad thing about this lab is that they would not take responsibility for the blood once it was drawn and it was up to me to get the mailing materials for it and have it shipped off to the lab in Texas. So the doctor wrote up an order for the MD test and another one for a routine cholesterol screening which the insurance would cover and the lab here could run. I picked up the lab order along with the papers that the doctor finished filling out for me. Then I went about calling shipping companies to try and find one that had packaging materials for lab specimens and that could ship out the package quickly.

During all of this, DH's work office was going through some conversions that would change them all from contract employees to regular church employees (my husband now officially works for the church after being with them for 4 years). Along with the transitioning to church employee status, we also switched insurance companies. So for the last 2 weeks of June we were covered by 2 insurance companies. Since the first company wouldn't cover the test, we decided to wait until the second company was effective and then called to see if they would cover it. After I called the second company, they needed information sent from the doctor so that they could determine if I needed the genetic test and if they would cover. So I had to call the doctor's office again and request that they send the info to the new insurance company (I really think the doctor's office was getting very sick of me by this time).

After I requested the info be sent to the insurance company I called the insurance company a couple of days later to find out if they received the info they needed and if they would cover the test. I was told that they had received the info and that my case needed to be reviewed by a nurse and then it would be sent on to a specialist if it wasn't a "regular" test that was done (which of course was the case with me). My case was currently on the desk of the nurse and she wasn't going to be in until Monday (this was a Friday). They assured me that I would be contacted once a decision had been made. So back to the waiting game...

A week or two later I received a phone call from my dr's office informing me that they had been told by the insurance company that they would only cover the test if I received genetic counseling before and after the test was performed. I received this phone call just a day or two before we were leaving on our trip to Washington so I couldn't really do anything about it until we got back. When we got back from our family vacation, I tried calling the insurance company to see if I could get out of the counseling since I had already talked to two genetic counselors and they both said that I should probably have the test done (that's how I figured out what test it was to begin with). When I had called a genetic counselor's office before, I was told that they were scheduled out for 2 or 3 months already and I really wasn't excited about having to wait even longer now. The insurance company wouldn't budge on the issue.

With the way things had been going for me up to this point, I was about ready to just give up. DH & I had talked about getting pregnant and we both felt that the time was right (and when that happens for both of us we know that it is a higher power working on us). It was still important to us that we get the test done (especially since I had been so adamant about getting the test done before we had any more kids), but we both felt like it was time. It did not take long at all for me to get pregnant and once I found out that I was I made one last attempt to get the MD test done. I had been told by our insurance that I needed to see a genetic counselor at either the University of Utah Hospital or LDS Hospital, so I found a phone number online for the genetic counselors at the University Hospital. When I called, they asked me how far along I was in my pregnancy and I answered, but I was a little confused on why they were asking about my pregnancy. It turns out that the genetic counselers' office that I had called are perinatal genetic counselors, even though the number I found online stated nothing about that. I mentioned that I wasn't really planning on being pregnant at this time and it wasn't the baby that I wanted testing on, but they said that if I went to a regular genetic counselor they would just send me back to them since I was pregnant... Anyways, they told me that the earliest they could see me was on Thursday (this was a Tuesday), and I was shocked. I was sure that they would tell me that I had to wait a month before I could get in. Luckily, I was free on Thursday so I scheduled an appointment.

We ended up making Thursday a combined trip because my sister had just moved to an apartment in Salt Lake to be closer to work and she needed me to bring some furniture up to her in my van. So I went to my parents' house with Blondie & Kitty and we loaded up the van. Luckily I was able to keep some of the seats in so we all went downtown to Salt Lake. My parents dropped me off at the hospital and then took my van and the girls to my sister's apartment to unload and wait there until I was done.

I met with the genetic counselor and she wrote out a family tree and where the MD is located on the tree and then she said that the chances were not very high that I was a carrier as well, but she would recommend I get tested. So she pulled out some paperwork that she had printed out and was ready to order the test for me right there! I was expecting to have to go somewhere else to get it done, but as it turns out I didn't even need the order I had from my doctor. She was very helpful and helped me fill out all the info on the paperwork (and there was a lot) and then got some signatures from the doctor at the hospital. I called the insurance company to see what they needed from the counselor and of course the person that I needed to talk to was on the phone at the time. So I left the number of the counselor's office and we waited for a phone call which wasn't coming... The counselor had to leave at noon and it was 11:30 at this time. So we decided that I should probably just leave and the hospital would call me when I could come in and have the blood drawn. Just as I was walking down the hallway to leave, the phone rang and it was the insurance company! Yea!! So I made it down to the lab right after that and then just had to wait for my turn. They took 4 large vials of blood and then that was it. Now it was time to wait again - the turnaround time for this test is 5 weeks!

I have been anxiously waiting these last few weeks for the results to come in. We made the decision to not tell anyone that I was pregnant until we had the results back. That way we could give the results & announce my pregnancy at the same time (and if the results came back that I was a carrier for MD, we would decide how to proceed from there - and know that this was God's will).

Tomorrow would have been 5 weeks exactly, so I have been very anxious this last week. Yesterday I was out all morning and when I got home there was a message from the genetic counselor saying that they had some test results for me. So I called back and he wasn't in his office so I left a message. I was very nervous when I made the call and then having to leave a message just made it worse. So I sat around the rest of the afternoon with the phone by my side wondering when I would hear back from them. Finally when I thought that I would have to wait another day, I got a call around 4 in the afternoon. It was the counselor with wonderful news! They are going to be sending me a copy of the test results, but I basically have less than a 1% chance that I am a carrier!

Now, more about my pregnancy... I am about 10 weeks along, my due date is April 17 (which is Laura's birthday unfortunately), so we are hoping for a week early. I have not thrown up once (yea!), but I have had a general all-around nauseous feeling just about every day. I have been extremely exhausted (which is one reason why I haven't been blogging much lately) and around 1 or 2 in the afternoon I have to lay down for a little while. I seem to be much more tired than I remember with my other pregnancies, but it's probably a combination of having 4 other kids and getting older. I have an appointment to see my midwife next week and hopefully we will be able to hear the heartbeat at that time! (To Chez: Yes I was pregnant when you & Tan called to announce to us that you were pregnant - we just weren't ready to tell anyone yet. DH said you sounded disappointed when you heard that I hadn't been tested yet...)