Angel Baby

Triploi--what?? Balanced translo--who?? It was then I realized I shouldn't have taken Spanish in high school, because he was obviously speaking a language I had never heard before. I just smiled and pretended to know what he was talking about...I don't think I was very convincing, however, because my doctor then proceeded to draw a little picture (.....like that really helped). I was just relieved to find out it was just a chromosomal something or other, and as I started to get up he said "We'll have to get you and your husband karyotyped for balanced translocation"
SPEAK ENGLISH MAN!!!
"ummm...okay, and that means?"
"We'll just need to get some bloodwork done on the both of you"
Oh, ok. That doesn't sound too...wait a minute...is he saying that WE could be the cause of the miscarriages?

As soon as I got home, Dr. Ruth went straight to work--hmmm---that sounded a little disturbing. I meant that I went online to see what the heck this doctor was going on about. As I looked up "balaced translocation" words like "severe birth defects", "recurrent miscarriage" and "infertility" appeared...I realized that the reassurance in my doctor's voice was quite decieving.

I was terrified as we waited for the results of the bloodwork, I just knew that I was the cause.... we got a call 2 weeks later, and it turns out Joel was actually the one who is the carrier. Who knew? It was a shock to both of us and I didn't know what to say ( I had previously made such a big deal (because I thought it was me that had the bt), saying how he'd be better off marrying someone else because then he could have the "perfect little family"---oops.) He didn't seem too worried, however, saying that maybe we're just not meant to be parents (yes, I almost smacked him--but I think I was too in shock from that comment). What do we do now? I have no idea. We could do IVF with preimplantaion genetic diagnosis which is only aboout $18,000...chump change (also, all the studies I"ve read indicate that it's not very successful for bt) , use donor sperm (nice thought...but I think I would feel a little violated...don't ask me why! Plus hubby says that's a no go), adopt (love the idea, scared to death of the future), or we could keep trying naturally (which doesn't happen very easily for us anyway) and if it actually does work, we'd take a test @ 10 weeks (if we ever make it that far) to see if it would have unbalanced translocation (balanced is good...or at least doesn't cause any birth defects--it's what Joel has...but if it is unbalanced it would cause severe birth defects...and that, to me, is very scary).