Reflections.... and another holiday!

I am just so glad and thankful that the down syndrome scare was just a false alarm and nothing more. The whole ordeal lasted only about about 30 hours but it felt like a long nightmare.

Surprisingly, I got to know of a lot of stories that friends or friend's friends also had the same ordeal - blood test showed high risk then amnio results came out negative. Or I guess it shouldn't be surprising from the statistics. Although my results showed that I was 4 times more at risk then a normal person in my age group, it was still 1 chance in 190. As my sis put it, just imagine there's one big lucky draw prize with 189 other people - a standard response would be "cannot get one la...". But of course, there's always the off chance of "being lucky" at the wrong time!!

Looking back, I would have been spared the ordeal if I never took the blood test in the first place. I know some gynaes don't even recommend it unless the pregnant mama is in a high risk group. So, perhaps I went through all the stress, worry, discomfort & risk from the procedure and $$ for absolutely nothing. Or maybe things happen for a reason. In a way, it was a good wake-up call (or a "kick-in-the-butt" reminder) to tell me that I have so many great things going on in my life. To really appreciate what I have. To not take things for granted...
Perhaps I was at a point in my life where I really needed to be kicked-in-the-butt !!! ;)

Oh, and we went for a short holiday because of this. Hubby suggested we needed a short getaway whatever the results, and I thought it was a great idea. Wanted to stay two nights in Clearwater Sanctuary (our 4th visit there in the past 2.5 years. It's an absolutely lovely place and definitely our sanctuary) but only the 1st night was available, so we ended up in Hotel DeLa Ferns, Cameron Highlands on the second night.

We received the wonderful news about the negative results midway through our journey up north, so we were in a fantastic happy mood. Our first meal after the results was a simple late lunch of chicken rice, meatballs and beansprouts at an unknown, quiet corner coffee shop in Gopeng but I felt like it was the BEST meal ever!

Wanted to take photo then realised........ aiyah..... I forgot my camera!!! Must have been the result of packing under duress (it was about an hour before the anticipated phone call from the hospital). At that time, I was glad for the packing distraction but as I packed, my heart was thumping and I could see that my hands were shaking.

Managed to take only a few holiday photos with hubby's blackberry -

Elyssa at the balcony of our room in Clearwater Sanctuary
(I just couldn't capture any smiley moments with the slowww blackberry camera. She looks quite round here eh?)

Eating beef noodles at the famous "thin sisters" stall near Sam Tet school, Ipoh

Elyssa with her Minnie Mouse sweater in Cameron Highlands