For those of you that knew me a few years ago...I'm sure this is a big surprise. I was one of those people that was SURE I didn't want to have any kids. Really sure....

Or so I thought...I guess life just started happening. I started not having so many deadlines and finish lines around the corner (undergrad, vet school, internship, get a job, move, etc...) and life just started slowing down and falling into place.

Then I reached a point where the days were turning into weeks, the weeks into months and I thought to myself, "Is this it? This is it for the next 50 years?" And so I suppose the natural sequence of events found their way to me....a little late in life but now I'm embracing the path towards pregnancy...

....even though it has not been embracing me.
Here's my journey.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Maybe I shouldn't ultrasound myself at work??

I'm not sure what's going on.  I'm worried that something is wrong with the baby.  It's been a very long week.  Maybe I shouldn't ultrasound myself so much at work, but then again maybe I caught something in the early stage?

On Monday, just because I like to see the little one moving all around, I ultrasounded myself at work and saw what appeared to me to be a really big bladder.



But I had no idea when bladder formation was complete, when they learned to pee, how big the bladder got etc, etc...So of course, knowing me, I went to the Internet to try to find *normal* fetal bladder ultrasound pics.  I was really happy when I started seeing images that looked just like mine but then became quickly worried when all the ones that looked just like what I was seeing on ultrasound were for anomalies.  All pictures from ultrasound journals on how to make diagnoses.  Cue panic attack.

Yeah, that's NOT the same picture as the one up above, but just flipped...it just looks like that. :-(
(And this one from a u/s journal showed the bladder size at 9.6mm....mine has gotten up to 27mm)

However, I knew that I had an obgyn appt that Wednesday, so I *tried* to not fret too much, and tried not to overload myself with Internet information.  (tried.)  After a VERY long 2 days, I had my appt on Wed and was just dying to hear, "oh, you silly thing, quit ultrasounding yourself, it's nothing at all!"  However, I only saw the nurse practitioner and she told me that usually she doesn't start looking at the anatomy for a couple more weeks so she didn't really have a good reference range to know if the bladder was big but she would run the pictures by the doctor and see what she wanted to do.  I wanted to say, "but all the pics I was finding online were from 12-15 week ultrasounds!!"  (I'm 14.5 weeks)  But, I didn't...I didn't want to be overreacting and she didn't seem too concerned, she didn't do an ultrasound that day and I went on my merry way.


Well, I had to wait alll day on Thursday to get the call from the dr's office.  And then at 5:30pm I finally get the call saying she wants me to go to a maternal fetal specialist. Cue panic attack #2.  The nurse said the ob didn't have "too much emotion" about it, she wasn't like "oh, that's nothing, it's fine" and she wasn't "oh my gosh, get her in stat."  So I have an appt set up with the specialist on Monday.  Actually, the specialist doesn't take my insurance so I am going to the hospital to their special imaging center for further ultrasound imaging.  Then what?  I don't know if they sent that info back to my ob, if they tell me something on Monday while I'm there or if they send it to a specialist??  I guess only time will tell....for right now, I"m kind of a wreck because (of course) I've checked my baby every day on u/s to see if the enlarged bladder resolved on it's own, but instead it's just getting bigger and bigger.  If I am correct (AND MORE THAN ANYTHING, I HOPE I'M WRONG, but deductive reasoning is my occupation), but.... if I am correct, it seems likely that what this is is a PUV...a posterior urethral valve problem. 

A problem with the valves in the urethra that doesn't allow the urine to empty out, thereby causing the bladder to be obstructed, get enlarged, and then back up into the kidneys resulting in kidney failure along with potential heart and lung defects from the lack of amniotic fluid.  No wonder I'm freaking out.  However, before I think about posting a bunch of information about this, I'm going to wait until after the ultrasound/specialist appt on Monday and see where things are at that point.  All prayers, good thoughts, fingers crossed would be much appreciated....

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