Thursday, November 20, 2008

BIG u/s

So I had my big u/s today, I guess they still consider it the "big" one because it's 20 weeks, anatomy scan, etc. even though I found out the sex about 4 weeks ago. "Patches" looks great and he is SO cute, moving around and kicking away. He's actually flipped since I saw him last and his head is on the opposite side than it was before. It was so great to see him, he is just precious.

So the u/s tech found that one of the ureters leading to one of the kidneys was enlarged, not by much, just less than one millimeter bigger than their cutoff. Cool, no problem. She mentioned it to me, said how common it is in boys, and was very non alarmist about it. She was like, our cutoff for normal is 4mm, this is measuring 4.8mm. Cool. She had a hard time looking at a lot of structures because Patches was curled up, so she had me try to move around, poked at him, etc. and he wouldn't budge.

So she finishes and goes to get the doctor. My favorite doctor wasn't there yet so I had to see my LEAST favorite doctor, the one that said my baby without a heartbeat at 6 weeks wouldn't survive. Ugh. Fine, I'm thinking whatever, maybe that was a one time incident and I better make friends with her cuz she could be delivering my baby when the time comes.

She comes in to the u/s room and takes her own look at the baby and voila, he is in a great position! She finds all the things she needs to find, and takes a look at the kidneys. She tells me that BOTH ureters are enlarged and it doesn't look good to her. She says that Patches has a 1% chance of having Down's and asked if I had declined genetic testing - UMMM, NO, I had NT scan and quad screen (hello, read my chart before you say stupid crap???). Both came back with extremely low risk. She gives me the speech about what I can do, amnio, etc. So she leaves the room, I clean up and go for my office visit.

I talked to her during the office visit and had her explain it further. She was less abrupt but still not reassuring at all. She was obviously trying to be nicer but I guess it's just not in her nature. After talking with her, we totally ruled out an amnio, she basically said not to do it unless we'd terminate (which just isn't in the cards for us).

Baker was with me and he really seems to not be concerned. And maybe my instincts are terrible, but my gut is telling me that it is not a genetic/chromosomal issue. There are a few reasons for that, first being that my quad screen was so very normal, and the fact that there are literally no other markers for it present in his little body. In addition to all of this, the ureters were measured no less than 2 WEEKS AGO and they were totally normal. I remember that distinctly.

So, we're facing one of 4 outcomes:

1) Patches has Down's.

2) Patches has hydronephrosis and will require surgery after he's born

3) Patches has hydronephrosis due to reflux and will require monitoring after he's born

4) Patches has hydronephrosis but it will resolve itself when he's born - this is simply an in-utero condition.

The wonderful nesties have suggested this one:

5) Nothing is wrong with Patches, he's fine and the doc is full of crap.

My gut tells me that it is not #1, but to brace myself for either 2, 3 or 4, but hopefully 5.

Sorry this is so long, thanks for listening. I am really feeling okay - I really have this whole "whatever happens, he's my baby and I'll deal with it" attitude about it all.

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