Today I had an amniocentesis. The visit took about 2 hrs, but the actual procedure took about a minute. You can be sure I didn't look at the needle. The sonagram/ultrasound guided where to place the needle, but I didn't watch that either. The doctor was very amicable and professional, and made me feel at ease.
Most of the appointment was spent with a genetic counselor, talking about what the test detects and what it doesn't. I am happy to be receiving irrefutable information about all chromosomal disorders and 96% accuracy on spina bifida and other neural defects. If only we could know about gene mutations to the same amount of accuracy. I guess that's one thing we'll never know for sure.
The procedure itself was not painful....more like discomfort and pressure. The doctor took two 50 mL centrifuge tubes of slightly yellow clear fluid. The fluid containing over one thousand cells will be shipped via FedEx to labs in Florida where they will be spun down, pelleted, and cultured with a mitogen. After the cells have grown, growth will be arrested in metaphase, when the chromosomes are thickest, and isolated from the cells for chromosomal analysis. We should know results in 10 days or so.
Now that was a scientist's description to be sure! Let us know when you have the results!
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