Yesterday Sean and I went to the ultrasound center for the big 20 week ultrasound.
I was nervous and excited about it at the same time. Since we don't want to find out Junior's gender the most important purpose of this ultrasound was to get reassurance about Juniors health.
The technician was a really nice lady and took her time checking junior top to bottom. The head, brain and spinal cord all looked good. Then she moved to the face and that was just amazing. Junior was actually yawning on the screen and also drinking the amnionic fluid. So cute!!!
The arms, legs, fingers and toes were all looking good and complete as well.
The next part of the body she checked were the organs, which all looked fine. The heart was beating very nicely and it was easy to detect the ventricals and chambers and even the valves. Then she noticed something in the left ventrical which she referred to as echogenic intracardiac foci (EIF), which is like a white spot in the chamber. She didn't really reflect on it to much and told us they see this more in Japanese people?? So we didn't really worry about it.
All happy and 3 pictures later we were outside again. I will post the pictures later, I am still trying to find a nice format, and I have to say the pictures we got were not as impressive as the images we saw on screen.
Later that day, beeing in medical research, I was curious to know more about the EIF she had seen. Big mistake!!! The other day there was a news item on tv about the fact that health care costs go up due to self diagnosis and medication. Well I know why now. The first 10 hits in Google that came up about EIF were related to Down Syndrome. So this is where my big freak out started, by the end of the day I was convinced Junior has the condition. So after an emotional night I called my midwife this morning to express my concern. She called the technician to talk it over and it is really nothing to worry about. The research on EIF is still very contradictory and because of that and the fact that it can cause unnecessary worries (really??) they usually don't even mention it during the ultrasound. Only if there are more indications present that point that direction you get a more specialized ultrasound. The EIF was an isolated indication for us, no other tests caused any concern and because of my age the change of Down Syndrome is still VERY low. But the midwife was nice and took my worries serious and away.
In 10 weeks I will have another ultrasound to check on my placenta. For now it is still really low and blocking Junior's exit.... a potential problem. But with the uterus expanding the placenta should move up too and they will check this around week 30. During that next ultrasound they will also look for the EIF again, because a lot of the times this actually dissapears.
So even though it was great to see Junior yawn and move around the ultrasound also caused some worries, but now I am doing good and I keep looking at Junior's pictures and the little movies Sean took during the ultrasound. Junior is a beauty and so adorable!
