Elizabeth (greyautumnrain) wrote,
Elizabeth
greyautumnrain

18 week update

I had my 18 week ultrasound today. It was mostly good, but the 'mostly' is a kicker. The fetus has a four chambered heart that is beating nicely, kidneys, a bladder, a stomach, appropriate brain structures, a face and a spine that all look good. On the other hand, the doctor saw a bright spot on the heart that he said was probably nothing, but it's presence doubled the risk of the baby having Down's syndrome. I then realized that I hadn't actually gotten to results back from my early screening. I had been pretty relaxed about this pregnancy, partly because I have an active toddler keeping me busy and partly because when you start feeling fetal movement at 12.5 weeks it's hard to worry about the little one. Now on the other hand I am concerned. I called my doctor's office and spoke to the nurse about the test results. She said my risk of Downs was 1 in 520 according to the screening, and they didn't have today's fetal survey yet. She said not to worry, it was probably nothing. It probably is, but since I've been told not to worry before about things that turned out to be pretty major problems, I am not so easily convinced. If the ultrasound doc is correct and the Down's risk is effectively doubled, that would be 1 in 260, which is in the territory of what is considered a 'positive' on the early screening. It's still not a high risk, but it's high enough that I am concerned. I think I will be calling the office again tomorrow and asking to speak to my actual doctor about it once they have the fetal survey. I don't especially want an amnio given my blood type and all, but then again I don't want to spend the whole second half of this pregnancy worrying.

In other news the fetus has a penis, giving us one of each assuming all is well with the little guy.
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