Strange question

When I was pregnant with our 2nd son.  My blood work kept coming back with scary results.  I was told that my son may be born with spina bifida,

[kricklekrin]

To finish the question.....  I don't know what happened. Anyways, I can't help but wonder if this has anything to do with my chiari diagnosis.  I have read that spina bifida and other related conditions are connected with Chiari.  

My 16 year old has been having headaches, visual problems, numbness in face and arm, for about 3 years.  He was not born with any birth defects, a beautiful, healthy baby boy.  I was so relieved, because after being told that he may have birth defects, being pregnant and feeling joy turned into having nightmares about an alien coming out of my stomach.  My husband said I would scream in the middle of the night.  

I will have an MRI of his brain in the near future, but I wanted to put this out there to see if anyone was familiar with this.

Could the blood test I had while pregnant have anything to do with my Chiari diagnosis and our son possibly having this malformation?  Like I said, strange question.

  

[*Stormy*]

Very strange...it just makes you want to think that there must be a connection there. There is a form "spina bifida occulta" which can be present but can't be seen on scans and there are several members here that have it and Chiari.

I don't think that the blood test itself could have in any way affected you or your son, but the results may have been a precursor to something that is happening to your son now. As for yourself, you were probably born with the Chiari yourself and who knows? Maybe you even have the Spina Bifida occulta type too, I believe it's hereditary. Definitely something to check out anyway with all the stuff going on with your son now. I wonder if there is anyway you could look up that bloodwork from when you were pregnant and find out what it is exactly that they saw? I had the option to do those tests and declined, but now I wonder if something wonky would have come out of it when I was pregnant with my 3?

Very strange..let us know how you DS MRI goes..
Carolyn

[blondeballerina07]

The tests they do to screen for possible spina bifida tests for a protein that is made and necessary in neural tube formation during development in the fetus. Chiari can be caused by a neural tube defect when it is a congenital form not acquired and spina bifida is also caused by a neural tube defect so it is possible that if they tested for the particular protein it could come back not with in the normal limits if other neural tube defects are occurring. It is a very complicated and long biological process I tried to shorten and simplify it for easier understanding and typing hope it makes sense.