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September 2012 Moms
It's a boy! And a not-quite-perfect anatomy scan...
First of all, KittenBus is a boy! Yay! This narrows down our name choices, and I think we may have already settled on one. All measurements were right on track for 19 weeks, heart and brain look great, and he has the correct number of everything. 
After the scan, the tech told us the radiologist would be in to go over everything with us. Two minutes later, the tech came back in and said she didn't get a good head measurement, so she got another shot of the head and took that measurement, then left the room again. She came back in with the radiologist after a few minutes. He told us that all measurements and development were good, but they wanted to look at the feet again.
He said the feet are turned inward and pointed down in a way that they shouldn't be by this point in development, so he suspects club foot. He asked if there's any family history of clubbed feet on either side, which there is not. Then he went on to scare the crap out of us by saying that if it's not something that runs in the family, it might be connected to a chromosomal abnormality, and that he'd recommend amniocentesis, and that my pregnancy will now probably be considered high risk, and my doctor will likely refer me to a perinatologist. He asked how my blood test results have been so far, but of course my doctor was waiting until after the A/S to go over everything with me.
Of course my A/S was at 4:30 on a Friday, so I get to worry all weekend that something is seriously wrong. H did some Google work for me (he did not want me to do that on my own), and is finding that, though clubfoot can be a marker of trisomy 18, other markers would have also been seen by now. He (and my mom, who was also at the appointment) thinks the radiologist had a poor bedside manner and jumped right to worst-case scenario, when it sounds like it's much more likely that baby just has clubbed feet. I hope he's right.
I have a doctor appointment late next week, but will call first thing Monday morning to see about getting in ASAP. I'm trying not to get too freaked out. From my own searching, it does seem that something else would have looked "off" if the problem were more serious. Also, in Googling ultrasound photos of clubbed feet, our baby's didn't look as bad as most of them. They turned inward, yes, but not at a sharp angle to the ankle and shin. So I'm still hoping this is a false positive.
If the feet are the only problem, we'll be fine. It's not the "perfect" result I wanted, but this is correctable. Anyone go through something similar? Have any stories of a specialist with poor patient communication skills who freaked you out, only to find out later the issue wasn't as bad as initially communicated? I'd love some reassuring stories right now.
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Re: It's a boy! And a not-quite-perfect anatomy scan...
Lots of hugs and luck!
I would ask to have a Level 2 ultrasound done with a perinatologist. I don't know anything about that condition, but it could have been a fluke.
With DS, I was referred to a peri because I had 1 REALLY BAD kidney infection that landed me in the hospital for a week with 104 fevers. There was a chance it could be genetic, so my OB wanted me to check with a peri to make sure everything was okay. We got to the office, waited for hours, finally had ultrasound (with a tech), waited for another 45 minutes to see he doctor, and were finally ushered into his office. He ignored us for a few minutes, then finally looked up and told us that based on my medical records it was inadvisable for me to get pregnant. I was 17 weeks pregnant at the time.
After he actually looked at the ultrasound he told us that the kidneys looked fine (then why the F didn't he look before saying something so terrible??), but that there were potential problems with the brain so we had to come back in 4 weeks and do some other tests. Luckily I didn't feel like he had a lot of sense after the pregnancy comment, so I tried not to worry. 4 weeks later he did another one and the brain looked fine...but there were bright spots on the heart so I had to come back 4 weeks later. After that final visit, all organs were cleared (yeesh) and several months later I had a healthy baby boy with no kidney, brain, or heart problems. He sucked.
DH says he looked and sounded like John Malchovic (sp?) and he had the bedside manner of a rapist.
Thank you all for your comments. It's scary, but oddly Google has made me feel better, for the most part. And I'm still not completely convinced the feet are truly clubbed. When I Google images of club feet ultrasounds, the feet are clearly not where they should be. At our scan, we didn't even think the position of the feet looked wrong at all until the radiologist said so.
In any case, I appreciate the support and will update when we know more. I'll call my doctor's office first thing Monday morning.
Congrats on having a boy!
YES...I can relate to your story, almost exactly, actually! When I was pg with my DD (my last pregnancy), I went in for my A/S at my doctor's office but she was in the wrong position and couldn't see everything they needed to. So they sent me over to MFM at the hospital 3 days later. My husband had already taken 1 day off from work that week to go to the first A/S so he wasn't able to come to the second, but I wasn't too worried since they told me it was all positional.
Wellllll....the tech told me over and over what a "gorgeous baby" I had, we counted the fingers and toes together, etc. Well then, the radiologist comes in to tell me that the baby had bilateral club feet and a bright spot on the heart. Having both things could definitely mean a chromosomal abnormality and they wanted us to have further testing (like an amnio, like you said) and then we could talk about our "options". My DH and I do not believe in any other "options", so we refused further testing. Of course we did go in for more ultrasounds and went to see the chief of orthopaedics at Children's Hospital (they did an ultrasound there and then we met with the Dr. so he could go over the procedure to fix them). The bright spot had pretty much disappeared in the next few weeks, but the feet were definitely clubbed.
Anyways, all that to say....my daughter is perfect. Yes, her feet were clubbed but she has no other issues whatsoever. She is running around with her brothers and is as smart as a whip.
If you want to talk more, please PM me! I can tell you about all they had to do to correct her feet and what it all entails. (She had casting, surgery, and braces that she is still in at night.). Just remember....IF it is clubfeet (which I hope for your and the baby's sake it is not), it IS correctable and the baby will be fine and lead a normal life.
Big hugs! I am so sorry you are having to worry about this!
With this pregnancy, I found out I am a carrier of the Fragile X premutation, which can cause mental retardation. The way I found out was really sucky b/c there was a note in my file that one doctor had already called me to discuss the results with me, but no one had called me! So, at my next check up, a different dr in the practice just started talking about it as if we already knew. And we were like, ummm WHAT?? It was like being hit by a truck. I was so worried & I had all these questions, but the dr couldn't give us specific answers. To make things worse, she felt so awkward that she was just nervous laughing her way through the rest of the appt trying to calm me down. Yeah, it didn't work!
We were sent to a genetic counselor & then based on that info, we decided to have an amnio. We will get those results in a few weeks.
I understand the worry & waiting you are experiencing. It sucks. Your baby will be in my thoughts & prayers!
Dd was diagnosed with possible club foot at her 20 week appointment. Every appointment after that involved me nerviously asking about her feet. Everytime I was told that it was still there. We were so worried about it. We live outside of NYC and did research about where to take her for treatment and what the vest treatment would be. We made an appointment at this foot specialty place that made sure to tell us doesn't take our insurance and would be 500 for the consultation. I spent many night crying over dd's diagnosis wondering if I did something wrong. Well as it turns out dd was born healthy with no foot issues at all. So just a little ray of hope that these scans are not an exact science. Also we do not have club foot on either side of the family and genetic issues were brought up to us as well. Needless to say we are seeing a different ultrasound place for our current pregnancy U