November 4th, 2010, our 29 week ultrasound. This has been the one I've been waiting for. The mass should have stopped growing by week 28, so I was anxious to hear what the number would be. Once again, we had to wait over an hour in the waiting room. I suggested to Gia that she bring some toys, or her Leapster, but she chose not to. There were about 3 other pregnant ladies in the waiting room. Normally, it's just us. I think Kara was the best behaved out of everyone who came with me that day. Gia wanted to play the Spongebob game on my iphone. Jim managed to find an Xylophone app that he just couldn't resist. I had to beg both of them to lower the volume too many times!
Finally, we were brought back to the room (with yet another "new" tech.) She started the ultrasound right away. She couldn't find the mass at all. This was the first time in a couple of weeks that I became emotional at the ultrasound. "What do you mean you can't find it?" was all I kept thinking. Was she not experienced enough? Does she not know what to look for? Apparently not, because she kept referring to older ultrasound pictures, trying to locate it on them. As the pregnancy progresses, there is a chance that the mass will start to take on the color of the rest of the lung...I was wondering if this is why it couldn't be seen. Finally, she called in another tech to help her out. She found the mass right away.
I felt like they were rushing us, but at the same time, I felt like it was taking forever. My heartburn was killer that day and I didn't have any Tums with me. I still had a bad cough from the cold I was just getting over. In the meantime, Karalyn started getting very whiny and cranky. As Jim was trying to entertain her, she pulled his nose and made it start bleeding right before the doctor came in. I was very ready to hurry out of there!
This time, they didn't even attempt to do the 3D ultrasound. And we only got one printed picture of the baby. Normally, we come home with at least seven. We didn't complain about having to wait so long, but we felt like they should have taken their time with us. We left feeling very unsettled after that appointment. The doctor (a different doctor than the one we usually have) came in to review the results. They always look at the pictures and then take a look at the mass on the actual screen. He told us the number of the mass. This number was smaller than what we were told 2 weeks ago. I couldn't understand it. He said there is, once again, no sign of hydrops.
We left feeling like we didn't learn any new information from that appointment. Now we will wait until week 31 to hear what our "usual" doctor has to say. We also have the follow up appointment at CHOP on November 23. I am anxious to hear what they have to say and find out what our next steps will be. Will our bi-weekly ultrasounds now stop? I guess we will just have to wait and see.
"When things are bad, we take comfort in the thought that they could always be worse. And when they are, we find hope in the thought that things are so bad they have to get better." Malcolm Forbes
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