To steal the words from one of my Besties Carson's mouth "This won't be the first time that baby gives you a heart attack". As you read from my second prenatal appointment the nurse/midwife was unable to detect our baby's heartbeat. I was sent to the hospital (since our ob/gyn does not have one) for an ultra sound. Low and behold after the ordeal of the traditional, then vaginal ultrasound I had confirmation that my food baby was in fact a living growing baby BABY. I was on top of the world, until I got knocked down on Wednesday November11, 2009. My doctor's office, who doesn't even call to confirm appointments, is on my phone at 8:21am.
"We detect a problem with your ultrasound, we think you have an omphalocele and we are sending you to a specialist in Dallas. We will call with the appointment later on."
....uhhhhhhhhhhhh WHAT?! what does that mean!? The nurse was really unable to shed any light on my concern, and my concerns had to wait until later. Trigger and Addy had a vet appointment, and I had to put my google'ing on hold till later.
In true fashion I was unable to get a hold of my husband...gotta love the Navy...until much later, and by then I had already educated myself on ALL the worse case scenarios...with pictures and youtube video I might add. Sickly enough I was glad to see I was still an effective researcher and able to formulate a few theories on my own.
Finally Kraig called, and I struggled with telling him on the phone or waiting...I caved. I hadn't talked to anyone and I needed to let it out. I felt much better, and tried to be sensible. Omphalocele is a tricky diagnosis and can have many chromosomal abnormalities associated with it. Needless to say this is something no expectant parents want to hear.
Later that day I got a hold of my doctor's office...which is no small feat...and got the details for our appointment with the specialist in Dallas. It was for Wednesday November 18th. A WEEK!!! Dear Lord, we have to torture ourselves with google and discovery health, and any other source of information for a WEEK!!??
The next week was filled with a roller coaster of emotions...I was home alone a lot. No work to occupy my day, so I became an unofficial expert on all things omphalocele.
My saving grace, and ray of hope came when I read a journal about fetus development in the 10th week. The intestines appear to protrude from the fetus, turn and then return to the fetus. This process takes about a week...and appeared to be occurring during my ultrasound! I was 10weeks 2 days, please God let this be it!
That was my mantra until our appointment today. We sat down with a genetic counselor, and then had a level 2 ultrasound which showed I was right!!! The sonographer at my hospital was wrong...and there is nothing wrong with our lil' Baby Vav! Kraig and I were so relieved, our lil' one was kind of tired this morning, probably because I didn't run on the treadmill today =)
Everything looks great, and they just want to see us back in January to confirm.
Well, that's two roller coaster rides now...I wonder what the next one has in store.
Girl..I know oh so well all those emotions!! Parker "had a hole in his heart at week 20"...which closed one week later..but what a week that was doing research and imagining him having heart surgery the day he was born!! and then well we all know how baby X's story developed!! Yes they keep your heart pumping and the nerves sharpened from the time those little buggers are conceived!!!
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