Saturday, May 28, 2011

31 Weeks

















So incredibly happy that I have some good news to report from this week! Since last Wednesday, Jordon and I had been so worried about our little baby boy, but had been trying to put our faith and trust in God that everything would be okay. Well on this past Wednesday, we went into our OB's office for our 3d ultrasound which we had scheduled way in the past. We weren't sure if we even really wanted to have it done considering the circumstances, but the window for getting a good picture of the baby's face before he got too crowded in the womb was closing in, so we figured we just do it and try to enjoy it!

The sonographer was SO nice and worked with us a bunch to get a good picture of Tyler. Unfortunately, he is already stubborn and had a hand in front of this face, along with his umbilical cord, so it was difficult to get a good face shot. I tried drinking soda, drinking cold water, moving around, using the bathroom, and nothing seemed to work. In fact, at one point he had both hands, and a foot in front of his face haha. We managed to get some OK shots, but nothing too great. But what made the experience worth the $ we paid for it was a little reassurance we got. We weren't sure whether to let the know sonographer about the ventriculomegaly (it was a different tech from the one who found it the week before), but we ended up letting her know. She went ahead and scanned his head and from her measurements, his ventricles were only 9.4mm, while measurements of greater than 10mm are needed to diagnose ventriculomegaly. She said she would be surprised if they told us anything was wrong when we went to UVA on Friday. I was pretty relieved, but still nervous that there could be an underlying syndrome which caused whatever the other tech had seen the previous week.

On Friday, we woke up at 5am (although I'll be honest, I don't think I really even slept that night) and took off for UVA. I had been praying long and hard that the appointment would go well and we'd have peace about the situation, and until Thursday night I really had been feeling okay about the situation, but Friday morning I was a wreck. I literally felt nauseous because I was so nervous, but Jordon was amazing helping me through it all.

When we got to our appointment, the sonographer started by looking at Tyler's ventricles. She measured them between 9 and 10 mm and told us she'd seen "normal" ventricles up to 12 mm and some physicians even considered up to 12mm normal. That was definitely reassuring. Then she did all sort of other measurements, especially the size of his head, abdomen, arms and legs.

She had the doctor come in, who went ahead and did another quick ultrasound. She measured his ventricles even smaller, once even at 7mm and at most 9.4mm (the measurements are dependent on the angle of the probe and location of the head so they can definitely vary), so she told us she really wasn't too concerned. Plus she measured some of the other ventricles other than the main 2, and all those weren't even close to being enlarged. She wants us to come in a month from now to make sure they don't progress and swell up, but as far as she was concerned, Tyler probably just has a little larger ventricles. If they do progress any, she said we could think about delivering at UVA in case he needs a shunt put in to drain the fluid after he's born, but again she wasn't too concerned. I asked her about the chance that a syndrome was causing it, and she said she wasn't really concerned about it, but if we wanted we could meet with a genetic counselor we could. We actually had already made the appointment for after our ultrasound, but it was good to hear the doctor didn't even think it was necessary!

We then met with the genetic counselor which made me even more reassured Tyler was healthy. We discussed any possible causes of the swelling, specifically infection, and she said if I had one of the infections that causes this, I would have known. As far as she was concerned it was probably just error in the original measurements at our office and he just had slightly big ventricles, as some boys do. I asked about the possibility of down syndrome, because I had scared myself so much with information about it's association with ventriculomegaly on google, but again she wasn't concerned. She said Tyler was looking perfect other than the slightly bigger ventricles, and with DS you'd seen other things like more skin on the back of the neck, a small stomach, or short arms and legs. She said ventriculomegaly on its own is actually not a strong indicator of DS. She also said if it would be anything genetic, it'd probably be some genetic disorder that only boys get that causes some developmental delay, but because his ventricles are still in the normal range, our case wasn't presenting at all like the syndrome. She said if we really wanted we could do an amniocentesis, but she wouldn't even recommend it at this point. Jordon and I had decided before the appointment that we wouldn't even bother if they recommended it, because we obviously would never terminate if anything was wrong and because we wanted to trust God up to the birth that Tyler was exactly as he was supposed to be, but it was still good to hear even a genetic counselor didn't think it was necessary.

Tyler's head is definitely still big (measuring at the 95th percentile) which makes me a little nervous that I may need a c-section, but I've realized now I'd much rather have a healthy c-section baby than have a baby with any health problems naturally. This whole experience has made me so incredibly grateful for my little man, despite my ever increasing back pain, fatigue, heat intolerance, and peeing haha. I thank God so much for listening and answering our prayers, and I thank everyone who prayed SO MUCH for helping us. It is amazing to know you have people behind you on things like this, and it really helped me to have peace that God was hearing our pleas and looking over Tyler. Jordon and I know that everything will be okay with Tyler, but will continue to be praying for his health, and hope you will too!

Mark 11:22-24
"'Have faith in God,' Jesus answered. 'I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, "Go, throw yourself into the sea," and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

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