ilfaith
05-07-2009, 03:21 AM
I think I may have mentioned a while back that at my level 2 ultrasound the doctors and technicians noticed that the baby had a somewhat enlarged cisterna magna as well as a smaller than normal appearing stomach and wanted to keep an eye on it. Of course when I returned home I googled, and was devastated to find the things that an enlarged cisterna magna could be a sign of.
I had another u/s about a month ago and the doctor noted that while the ciserna magna was still larger than normal, the rest of the brain structure looked perfect and there were no other markers for genetic abnormalities...the stomach still appeared empty, but there was no excess of amniotic fluid to suggest any swallowing problem. However they did find a slight cardiac arrhythmia so they wanted me to come back again just to follow up.
So today I returned; this time I saw a different physician in the practice. The arrhythmia had corrected itself (good to know I didn't give up caffeine for naught) and the stomach was nice and full. The cisterna magna was still enlarged, but hadn't grown. But the doctor said that because of the more complete ossification of the skull, it was impossible to rule out Dandy-Walker (a congenital brain malformation with a pretty wide spectrum of symptoms...google it if you like) with just the ultrasound. I should add that the previous doctor was pretty certain it was not Dandy-Walker, but who knows if this doctor saw something the first one missed.
So now they want to schedule me for a fetal MRI. Of course they left me a voice mail and when I tried to call back I kept getting their answering machine which doesn't leave an option to leave a message or provide a way to reach a specific extension. I tried calling for nearly two hours, until the office was closed for the day. It was beyond frustrating. Hopefully I'll be able to schedule something tomorrow morning.
The only positive thing was that the u/s technician was able to get some 3D images of the baby's face, she said it wasn't something she would normally do during a routine ultrasound, but he happened to be in the perfect position to get some great shots so she couldn't resist. If I have a chance to scan them, I'll post the pictures. I'm convinced he looks just like my other boys.
Of course when I left the medical center I found out that my younger son needed to be picked up from school because he had developed a rash (which has apparently been going around...some sort of virus)
I had another u/s about a month ago and the doctor noted that while the ciserna magna was still larger than normal, the rest of the brain structure looked perfect and there were no other markers for genetic abnormalities...the stomach still appeared empty, but there was no excess of amniotic fluid to suggest any swallowing problem. However they did find a slight cardiac arrhythmia so they wanted me to come back again just to follow up.
So today I returned; this time I saw a different physician in the practice. The arrhythmia had corrected itself (good to know I didn't give up caffeine for naught) and the stomach was nice and full. The cisterna magna was still enlarged, but hadn't grown. But the doctor said that because of the more complete ossification of the skull, it was impossible to rule out Dandy-Walker (a congenital brain malformation with a pretty wide spectrum of symptoms...google it if you like) with just the ultrasound. I should add that the previous doctor was pretty certain it was not Dandy-Walker, but who knows if this doctor saw something the first one missed.
So now they want to schedule me for a fetal MRI. Of course they left me a voice mail and when I tried to call back I kept getting their answering machine which doesn't leave an option to leave a message or provide a way to reach a specific extension. I tried calling for nearly two hours, until the office was closed for the day. It was beyond frustrating. Hopefully I'll be able to schedule something tomorrow morning.
The only positive thing was that the u/s technician was able to get some 3D images of the baby's face, she said it wasn't something she would normally do during a routine ultrasound, but he happened to be in the perfect position to get some great shots so she couldn't resist. If I have a chance to scan them, I'll post the pictures. I'm convinced he looks just like my other boys.
Of course when I left the medical center I found out that my younger son needed to be picked up from school because he had developed a rash (which has apparently been going around...some sort of virus)