Saturday, January 12, 2013

Never a moments rest.......SUA?

Oh the new things I learn everyday...

Part 2 of my anatomy scan went pretty smoothly. Baby boy is very stubborn but will give in to the technician after awhile. This time she was able to get some excellent photos of the spine but getting the photos of specific sections of the heart were still difficult because of the position he was in. 

The high risk doctor switch out with her towards the end just to see if he could have better luck with it. He did manage to get some pictures and let us know that even though he thinks it looks fine (baby has 4 chambers and everything) they want to schedule me for a fetal echo-cardiogram because he didn't get everything he needed. During the scan he also mentioned to us that our son has an abnormality with his umbilical cord. Normal umbilical cords have 3 vessels, 1 vein and 2 arteries. My son's umbilical cord has 1 vein and 1 large artery. This condition is called Single Umbilical Artery (SUA)

Naturally this threw us off guard since how many first time parents know what the hell that is?!
The high risk doctor didn't seem overly concern with this new information. Ducky has been measuring good in every aspect and the echo-cardiogram will rule out any abnormalities in the heart. He explained normal function of delivery of oxygen and nutrients could still be handled by just 1 artery. I wish I would have asked more questions but in the end he is not my regular OBGYN and I figured the best route to take would be to discuss what (if any) new plan we would have to make in light of having SUA.

I've tried not googling but I can't lie, I have a little. Most of the information out there is relatively positive but of course you always find horror stories here and there. So far I have found out that it is a rare condition, about 1% are diagnosed (1 in 100 births).

*Small vent=I'm really tired of this 1% bullshit. I was told by our R.E. we had a 1% chance of conceiving naturally without the use of fertility treatments. Can I just say...grrrrrrr? Yeah that is about as eloquently as I have the energy to put it right now, lol.


Anyways, I also found out that the reasons for it are relatively unknown and the likelihood of it repeating in another pregnancy is highly unlikely. Seems that many women have had healthy pregnancies despite of SUA however they are monitored much more closely once the diagnosis has been made. Some women have had to have early inductions if the baby is showing signs of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) since the baby will have a better time growing outside of the womb. Most doctors will not allow SUA babies to go past the 40 week mark. There also seems to be more concerns if a baby has other abnormalities besides SUA (heart defects, one kidney, markers for down syndrome, etc). So far baby boy is looking good, measuring in at a whopping 12 ounces! Just have to keep my faith strong and hope for the best possible outcome.

I'm 20 weeks today, officially half way there. Lets keep going at this my baby boy, mama's determine to make it another 20 weeks! Can't wait to meet you :)

Quaking on,
~JD

2 comments:

  1. Just to give you a positive story with SUA I have a friend whose second daughter had SUA and although the doc was concerned simply because the abnormality was there and like your ducky they didn't find any other abnormalities and she was born nice and healthy! Quack on baby boy!!

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    1. thank you day by day, I truly appreciate that. If this is the only abnormailty they find I'm sure I'll continue to just enjoy my pregnancy as stress free as possible. I think the timing of everything that has been going on (back to back issues) have really thrown me a bit but I'm determine to make it to June! :)

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