HLAB 27? AS? ESPN?

The Husband's body is the oh so unlucky recipient of a nasty disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis AS for short. It effects his spine, as well as, his other joints and he currently depends on an infusion of a drug to help manage the pain and hopefully delay the progress of the disease.

Although Husband was misdiagnosed for many years, we did know about the AS before we tried to conceive. We also knew that there was a chance in passing this condition on to our offspring. It is a genetic disease (although we do not know anyone in his family for sure who has had it).

Of course, this caused alot of apprehension, especially on Husband's behalf of ever having children. He would never want to pass his pain on to his child. Since knowledge is power, we did our research and we spoke with his specialist on just what chances there were in passing on the gene that carried AS. We were told it was a small chance and even if the gene was passed on, it was an even smaller percentage that the disease would actually even develop. I believe when all was said in done, our child would have a 10-20% risk of developing AS (I may be a little on the high side with that).

Truthfully, I believe Husband put aside alot of his fear for me and my want to have a child. I felt confident in the risks and we took a chance. I know not everyone would have decided on this but we did.

Ever since The Girl was born (having a girl lowers our risk even more), Husband has wanted her tested for the HLAB27 gene - the gene that would tell us if she's carrying the genetic marker for AS. The peditrician has delayed us, saying there was no reason to draw blood yet but finally, after talking to each other yet again, Husband and I decided that this was too important and was weighing on his mind too heavily to not find out. At her appointment last week, with a different peditrician, I requested the test and was granted it.

The blood draw was a painful experience, both for The Girl and for myself. I held her in my lap, my arms wrapped around her one arm. One phlebotomist came in to hold her legs and the other did the needle prick and blood draw. Thankfully she got a vein in one shot (otherwise I would have left) but my poor little baby screamed and sobbed like I've never heard before. It was terrible and I hope to never hear her like that again.

That was late Thursday, tomorrow is Tuesday. I have no idea how long the blood test will take (as I was entirely too traumatized to even ask) but I will be calling the office tomorrow to see if the results are in. I am praying constantly for The Girl but also The Husband that this result turns out negative. I know this will hurt Husband deeply if its positive even if it doesn't necessarily mean anything. I don't want to be the barrier of bad news and I hope I won't have to be.