April 28, 2010... We set off on a normal pregnancy journey at 19.5 weeks to find out if we where having a beautiful little boy or girl! Matt, Gracie and I headed to the ultrasound with pure excitement.
The visit began just like any other ultrasound and I remember asking her if that was my bladder... No, that's babies... What? Isn't that a little large? Yes. She continued trying to scan then let me know that I could use the facilities. She was going to go get the Doctor to 'try and move baby because she was having a hard time seeing what she needed'...okay. As soon as the Doctor got in the room it was clear that something was wrong... She began with there is nothing you did wrong, this is something that just happens...(I began crying uncontrollably, Gracie is scared... she never likes to see her Momma cry. Luckily the sonographer takes her out for a walk so we can talk to the Doctor.) She was what we have come to call a dooms day Dr... we left terrified and confused. They were able to get us another appointment with a fetal specialist that afternoon. We tried to stay positive until we learned more.
The next Dr we met (which we have spent a lot of time with) was kind. We learned that our baby has a rare condition,fetal urethral(urinary tract)obstruction, which causes a blockage of fetal urination. Babies urethra is either closed or has a valve problem which prevents them from emptying the bladder and subsequently it becomes very large. Because baby is unable to urinate properly the amniotic fluid ,made of babies urine, dries up. There is a "cascade of secondary effects result in significant morbidity and/or mortality for the baby. This includes problems to the urinary collection system (hydronephrosis) and kidneys (renal dysplasia) attributed to the back pressure from the urinary blockage. Underdevelopment of the lungs (pulmonary hypoplasia) develops from the lack of amniotic fluid during a critical time of the pregnancy." (This was taken from http://www.fetalhope.org/fetal-lower-urinary-tract-obstruction-luto.html if you would like to learn more) He has 1/3 chance to not make it, 1/3 chance to make it but need a kidney transplant and 1/3 chance to make it with minimal problems. First we would undergo a series of amniocentesis that they would pull urine off of babies bladder to be sent off for testing. The testing would aid in letting the doctors know how they are functioning at this time. The hard part is that they did not know how long his bladder had been full. That afternoon, they pulled our first of four samples to be sent off. Once the results from all where evaluated it would determine our eligibility for fetal shunt surgery which would relieve his bladder and help regulate the amniotic fluid.
Still overwhelmed but hopeful we headed for home, Dr. would be calling us on Friday with the results from or first test. Thankful that we had a team of Doctors close to home that dealt with rare conditions like ours.
For now we would rest assured that God had us exactly where he wanted us to be.
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