Uncertain of what the future holds
“It was pretty hard on us.”
Katie Ahrens recalled the pain both her and husband Levi felt upon learning that their son Levi – still forming inside Katie’s womb – had spina bifida.
Spina bifida is a congenital disorder where vertebrae overlying the spinal cord do not fully form and instead remain unfused and open.
“It affects each child differently,” Katie said.
The first warning came via a blood test when Katie was 16 weeks pregnant. That test showed that there was a 1-in-250 chance that Levi had spina bifida. A second test four weeks later confirmed it.
“We thought we had done everything right,” she recalled. “It was hard to hear.”
For more on this story, see the March 18 issue of the Chronicle.
