Perinatologist Appointment
We went to our perinatologist appointment yesterday, me, Jack, Granny Ernestine, and our baby daughter. It went very well in terms of getting genetic counseling and seeing the baby again on ultrasound. We took a blank video tape and got about 40 minutes of fetus footage to start her video album to go with the still shots of her as a one-celled being back on her conception date in 2002. My how times have changed.
We met with the genetic counselor who said our original Down Syndrome testing odds came back at 1:28, our follow up test with corrected maternal age came back at 1:330, and our third correction came back at 1:90. Don't ask us to explain this. The bottom line is we just want to know if we'll deliver a live child, Down Syndrome or not. In truth, we do not believe we are carrying a Down's child, but diagnosis cannot be made without either amniocentesis, which we refuse to do, or delivering the child and getting a good look at her. The other tests showed she has a 1:10,000 chance of chromosomal abnormality.
The rest of the appointment was the ultrasound, where the perinatologist (the partner of the one who worked me up/over in the hospital two weeks ago) took measurements of every tiny part of our daughter. He joked along with us as he went and concluded our baby showed no outward signs of Down Syndrome.
Our daughter looks ripped, by the way. You should have seen her biceps. Jack nearly fell off his chair when the doctor rolled the ultrasound wand over her rather well-endowed leg muscles. She looked like she was part jumping frog or maybe Uncle Mike Jennings. Remeasurement of her femur suggests it is a normal length (perhaps compared with the rest of her dimensions, rather than compared with the dimensions of other babies of her gestational age), but her tibia bone was proportionally long. Part frog, part gorilla, apparently. The doctor also commented on her prominent ears and we thought her profile showed an upturned nose. What a looker!
Unfortunately we expected this appointment to provide us more information about my bedrest and the integrity of my placenta. This was not the focus of the appointment, apparently. We did, however, learn that the hematoma is indeed a subchorionic hematoma (SCH), and it has shrunk from 8 cm to 6.6 cm in two weeks' time. That is excellent news. Neither the placenta previa nor the status of my cervix was evaluated. We have no news about how much longer I'll be on bedrest, whether bedrest is helping prevent early delivery, or how serious a threat this particular SCH is. Most SCH's are diagnosed in the first trimester. The ones diagnosed in the second trimester or third trimesters with profuse bleeding are more worrisome. We do see our OB next week, so perhaps we'll get more information then.
Thanks for tuning in!
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
So this is what it's like to have a high risk pregnancy. Well at least we had no new trips to the hospital, thank goodness.
Last week my OB's office called to warn me we'd be getting an official letter from the State of California. It seems my triple screen test came back positive for Down Syndrome. My OB reviewed the results and asked them to rerun the test using age 34 instead of 39, since I was 34 when our frozen tot was created. When the State reran the test, it came back negative for Down Syndrome, but because the first result was positive, Jack and I are eligible for genetic counseling with our perinatologist. I was laughing on the phone with the nurse as she was telling me all this, thinking, "Yeah right we have a Down Syndrome child," because (ahem) she has a long femur and Down's babies have short femurs. Even so, Jack and I have shifted our thinking to include Special Olympics fame.
Friend Sarah came to visit us for three days and, to make me feel at home, she wore her pyjamas and lounged around with me sipping tea, watching the tube and gabbing. It was delightful. While she was here I did have some scary new abdominal pains last Friday. Although I was very concerned that my cervix was dilating and labor pains would be imminent, the doctor on-call said if my bleeding didn't significantly increase then bedrest is all I could do anyway. Thank the Sweet Lord the pains stopped by Sunday. Woohoo!
Of course Monday night I ended up on the bathroom floor, shaking, sweating, fighting back simultaneous nausea, diarrhea and loss of consciousness. Jack really loves when I do that.... It passed so we didn't call the doctor. Had I hemorrhaged at the same time I would have gone right to the hospital. I was not dehydrated. I have been having a few vasovagal responses (especially after transabdominal ultrasounds) which may be caused by pressure exerted by my growing daughter on my nerves and arteries. Ah, motherhood.
Jack marvelled the other night about how many people get pregnant fairly easily and go on to have normal pregnancies without a daily white-knuckle existence. He says, "I'll breathe easy when you make it to October 15th." That will mark 28 weeks, which would be a relatively safe time to deliver a preemie. A baby born at 21 weeks does not survive.
Earlier this year I began to complain that *somebody* had gone ahead and renewed my subscription to the Disease of the Month Club without me knowing. Although I'm still not worried about the partial placenta previa diagnosis (yet), I can't figure out what it means to have an apple-shaped clot in there with our baby. A subchorionic hematoma - a blood clot that forms between the placenta and the uterine wall - can result in early labor. But that doesn't seem to be my situation. We'll know more when we see our perinatologist again. Let's all pray that clot has completely disappeared by the time I have that ultrasound on Monday!
Last week my OB's office called to warn me we'd be getting an official letter from the State of California. It seems my triple screen test came back positive for Down Syndrome. My OB reviewed the results and asked them to rerun the test using age 34 instead of 39, since I was 34 when our frozen tot was created. When the State reran the test, it came back negative for Down Syndrome, but because the first result was positive, Jack and I are eligible for genetic counseling with our perinatologist. I was laughing on the phone with the nurse as she was telling me all this, thinking, "Yeah right we have a Down Syndrome child," because (ahem) she has a long femur and Down's babies have short femurs. Even so, Jack and I have shifted our thinking to include Special Olympics fame.
Friend Sarah came to visit us for three days and, to make me feel at home, she wore her pyjamas and lounged around with me sipping tea, watching the tube and gabbing. It was delightful. While she was here I did have some scary new abdominal pains last Friday. Although I was very concerned that my cervix was dilating and labor pains would be imminent, the doctor on-call said if my bleeding didn't significantly increase then bedrest is all I could do anyway. Thank the Sweet Lord the pains stopped by Sunday. Woohoo!
Of course Monday night I ended up on the bathroom floor, shaking, sweating, fighting back simultaneous nausea, diarrhea and loss of consciousness. Jack really loves when I do that.... It passed so we didn't call the doctor. Had I hemorrhaged at the same time I would have gone right to the hospital. I was not dehydrated. I have been having a few vasovagal responses (especially after transabdominal ultrasounds) which may be caused by pressure exerted by my growing daughter on my nerves and arteries. Ah, motherhood.
Jack marvelled the other night about how many people get pregnant fairly easily and go on to have normal pregnancies without a daily white-knuckle existence. He says, "I'll breathe easy when you make it to October 15th." That will mark 28 weeks, which would be a relatively safe time to deliver a preemie. A baby born at 21 weeks does not survive.
Earlier this year I began to complain that *somebody* had gone ahead and renewed my subscription to the Disease of the Month Club without me knowing. Although I'm still not worried about the partial placenta previa diagnosis (yet), I can't figure out what it means to have an apple-shaped clot in there with our baby. A subchorionic hematoma - a blood clot that forms between the placenta and the uterine wall - can result in early labor. But that doesn't seem to be my situation. We'll know more when we see our perinatologist again. Let's all pray that clot has completely disappeared by the time I have that ultrasound on Monday!
Monday, August 14, 2006
MIDNIGHT SCARE
Well, another week, another drama. On Friday night I woke up at 2:15 am in a pool of blood and fluid. Jack thought my water had broken - waaaaaaay too early. When we got to the ER we were able to be admitted directly to Labor & Delivery. The nurse checked me out and took some samples and agreed it seemed like my water had broken, but final diagnosis needed to be made with ultrasound. Jack kept having to lie on the floor because he felt faint. In usual form, I refused to believe miscarriage is possible. As we waited for the ultrasound technician to come in from home, we got to hear the baby's heartbeat, loud and strong as ever. When the technician came in, she was able to immediately tell us that the amniotic fluid level was high - PHEW. It turns out I have partial placental previa, which means I could go into premature labor and may need a C-section if it doesn't right itself over the next month. We were elated to find out the baby was not in immediate danger and was in fact healthy and swimming around like a minnow.
We found out this little gipper is a baby girl. Yahoo! We cracked up when we saw her on the screen. She had a thumbs-up on her left hand and a hang-ten on her right. She's apparently oblivious to our little scare in the night. It looks like she has deep set eyes and jowls and in our photo it looks like she's smiling. Later on, the perinatologist said this little girl has a long femur, and is developing quickly.
My doctor kept me in the hospital for the weekend, but felt it was safe to send me home on bedrest. I'll have another ultrasound in 3 weeks, which will tell us if the placenta has grown away from the cervix or if it's still posing a problem. My body has apparently attempted a correction of the situation and has grown an apple-sized blood clot to dam up the area that started bleeding. On ultrasound, we saw our baby girl had the back of her head resting comfortably on the clot like a pillow.
So I'll be on bedrest for about a month and maybe two. After the end of two months, I'll be safe to deliver a preemie with a fighting chance to survive, if I go into early labor. I'm hoping the previa will "go away" over this next month though.
Well, another week, another drama. On Friday night I woke up at 2:15 am in a pool of blood and fluid. Jack thought my water had broken - waaaaaaay too early. When we got to the ER we were able to be admitted directly to Labor & Delivery. The nurse checked me out and took some samples and agreed it seemed like my water had broken, but final diagnosis needed to be made with ultrasound. Jack kept having to lie on the floor because he felt faint. In usual form, I refused to believe miscarriage is possible. As we waited for the ultrasound technician to come in from home, we got to hear the baby's heartbeat, loud and strong as ever. When the technician came in, she was able to immediately tell us that the amniotic fluid level was high - PHEW. It turns out I have partial placental previa, which means I could go into premature labor and may need a C-section if it doesn't right itself over the next month. We were elated to find out the baby was not in immediate danger and was in fact healthy and swimming around like a minnow.
We found out this little gipper is a baby girl. Yahoo! We cracked up when we saw her on the screen. She had a thumbs-up on her left hand and a hang-ten on her right. She's apparently oblivious to our little scare in the night. It looks like she has deep set eyes and jowls and in our photo it looks like she's smiling. Later on, the perinatologist said this little girl has a long femur, and is developing quickly.
My doctor kept me in the hospital for the weekend, but felt it was safe to send me home on bedrest. I'll have another ultrasound in 3 weeks, which will tell us if the placenta has grown away from the cervix or if it's still posing a problem. My body has apparently attempted a correction of the situation and has grown an apple-sized blood clot to dam up the area that started bleeding. On ultrasound, we saw our baby girl had the back of her head resting comfortably on the clot like a pillow.
So I'll be on bedrest for about a month and maybe two. After the end of two months, I'll be safe to deliver a preemie with a fighting chance to survive, if I go into early labor. I'm hoping the previa will "go away" over this next month though.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Week 19
Greetings, friends and family! I decided to start this blog after reading friend Jessica's on this same site (thanks, Jess!).
Today I begin my 19th week of pregnancy. To celebrate, I got dressed and went in for a dental appointment - something I could not have managed in June or July, or even last week. Thank goodness for Zofran! I've been so sick through my first trimester with "hyperemesis gravidarum" that I haven't been able to keep people properly updated - I hope this blog helps.
Here is what eMedicine has to say about hyperemesis gravidarum:
Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy is extremely common. Studies estimate that nausea and vomiting occurs in 50-90% of pregnancies. The nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy usually begins by 9-10 weeks of gestation, peaks at 11-13 weeks, and resolves in most cases by 12-14 weeks. In 1-10% of pregnancies, symptoms may continue beyond 20-22 weeks...
The most severe form of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy is called HYPEREMESIS GRAVIDARUM (HEG). HEG is characterized by persistent nausea and vomiting associated with ketosis and weight loss (>5% of prepregnancy weight). HEG may cause volume depletion, electrolytes and acid-base imbalances, nutritional deficiencies, and even death. Severe hyperemesis requiring hospital admission occurs in 0.3-2% of pregnancies.
I've been out of the hospital and on Zofran every 4 hours for about three weeks. Despite my being so sick, Jack and I are both giddy about our growing baby. My tummy is now sticking straight out at my belly button like a small ski jump. Next week we have a 4-D ultrasound and should find out if we'll want a pink or blue receiving blanket.
Greetings, friends and family! I decided to start this blog after reading friend Jessica's on this same site (thanks, Jess!).
Today I begin my 19th week of pregnancy. To celebrate, I got dressed and went in for a dental appointment - something I could not have managed in June or July, or even last week. Thank goodness for Zofran! I've been so sick through my first trimester with "hyperemesis gravidarum" that I haven't been able to keep people properly updated - I hope this blog helps.
Here is what eMedicine has to say about hyperemesis gravidarum:
Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy is extremely common. Studies estimate that nausea and vomiting occurs in 50-90% of pregnancies. The nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy usually begins by 9-10 weeks of gestation, peaks at 11-13 weeks, and resolves in most cases by 12-14 weeks. In 1-10% of pregnancies, symptoms may continue beyond 20-22 weeks...
The most severe form of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy is called HYPEREMESIS GRAVIDARUM (HEG). HEG is characterized by persistent nausea and vomiting associated with ketosis and weight loss (>5% of prepregnancy weight). HEG may cause volume depletion, electrolytes and acid-base imbalances, nutritional deficiencies, and even death. Severe hyperemesis requiring hospital admission occurs in 0.3-2% of pregnancies.
I've been out of the hospital and on Zofran every 4 hours for about three weeks. Despite my being so sick, Jack and I are both giddy about our growing baby. My tummy is now sticking straight out at my belly button like a small ski jump. Next week we have a 4-D ultrasound and should find out if we'll want a pink or blue receiving blanket.
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