To our surprise, we actually rather enjoyed our appointment. Before we began, I explained to the technician that because they found the fluid at my 20 week appointment, I didn't really get to "enjoy" my ultrasound and I wasn't given any pictures. I asked that she just check everything again to make sure that all looked well, and asked that she take some pictures for us. She agreed and even agreed to print out the pictures we didn't get from the 20 week visit.
The tech quickly went through all of the major organs, legs, feet, arms, hands, etc. Everything looks good she said. I asked if the doctor was going to come in after she measured the head and ventricles and she said "probably". I asked if she could do a 3D picture for us and she agreed....as soon as they brought up the 3D picture, it put everything in perspective for us.....here he is...perfect. What a perfect little face he had...and he looks just like Jake. So handsome.
After she took her measurements, she left the room to get the doctor. This was the part we dreaded. Up until this appointment, every time we had met with the doctor, we got more bad news. Not even two minutes later, the doctor came in....a new perinatologist, whom we had never met before. She started to scan me and asked me some questions about who I had met with (neurosurgeons, etc). She then said "here's the cavium, yep, its here, its definitely here". She turned to us and said "Are you familiar with the medical terms?" We explained that we were familiar with the corpus collosum. She confirmed that was what she was talking about and explained to us, while showing us the image on the ultrasound, that it was present. I informed her that we were told that they could only see a partial on the previous exams, and she agreed that she saw the partial, but followed up with the fact that it is very hard to see the bottom half on an ultrasound and the top half is the most important. What a relief that was to hear, as she pointed to all of the flowing blood in the section that we could see.
Then she showed us a side view of one of the ventricles. It was big. But she quickly eased our minds by telling us that she saw nice thick membranes....which she indicated was very good because the thicker the membranes, the better for future brain growth. She used the analogy of a heavy rock on grass. She said that the thicker the grass, the better chance for the grass to grow again after the rock is removed. It made sense to us.
We had to actually ask her about the ventricle sizes...she said they were 2.3cm. (23mm). Obviously this is bigger than the 19mm they had been 3 weeks ago; but she eased our minds by telling us that is not a significant amount of change and that the measurements are always a bit off anyways, depending on how the images are seen. Head circm measured 75th percentile...again good and not alarming huge. We set up another appointment in four weeks.
Kevin and I left the office feeling quite good. Of course we still hope and pray that the ventricles don't get much bigger, but for now, we can try and relax for the next four weeks and know that Austin is moving, kicking and growing well.
Here's a pic of the lil guy....
No comments:
Post a Comment