Follow-up appointment

We went this morning for our follow-up ultrasound with the fetal medicine specialist. I came away from the appointment feeling slightly reassured but also somewhat confused and disappointed. What I was really looking for was for the doctor to say "Oh, false alarm! Your baby's perfect!" Here's what we got instead:

• The baby has this spot on his heart, which often means nothing, but can also be a marker for other problems such as Down Syndrome
• All the other detailed measurements they took today, along with my bloodwork, are normal.
• There really is no way to say with 100% certainty at this point whether there is or isn't a problem, with the exception of an amniocentesis, which is not something we are considering (has too high a risk of pregnancy loss.)

The doctor threw around a ton of medical terms, along with some very random metaphors to Dick Cheney, weapons of mass destruction, and the proposed healthcare plan. So after he finished explaining everything and asked if we had questions, the first thing I asked was "What is the take-home message from this appointment?" His response was "Your baby is fine."

Here is some of the information from the handout they gave us on the Echogenic Focus.

• Is seen as a "bright white" area in the fetal heart
• A normal structure, simply more echogenic (brighter) than normal
• Present in 5% of all fetuses
• Not associated with any increased risk for heart defects
• Some increased risk for Down Syndrome (estimated to be 2X the age-related risk)

One nice thing the doctor kept saying was that the Echogenic Focus is more common in "skinny" women, and then proceeded to call me skinny at least two more times. You know that gave him some bonus points and slightly made up for the hard-to-follow metaphors. He did schedule us for another appointment in 6 weeks, but I'm pretty reassured for now.

Consider yourself updated!