Ultrasound #2

Yesterday (Wednesday) we went in for our second Level 2 Ultrasound. We got far more information from this visit than we thought we would.

For the first time, we were able to see "the mass" and know what we were looking at. The size of it surprised us both. It takes up the better part of Baby's left side. When they told us it was "displacing the heart" at our last visit, we thought a centimeter or so. Actually, the heart is being pushed all the way into the right side of the baby's body. This was not as concerning to the doctor as it was to us. She assured us that she's seen masses this big shrink to the point where they are not a problem and don't need to be removed until the baby is around a year old. (If they don't remove them, there have been instances of this tissue turning cancerous when the baby gets to be a teenager, so even if it's not causing problems, the mass will be removed to keep it from turning into cancer.)

The doctor also told us that she is confident that the left lung is indeed there, it just can't be seen. In all likelihood, Baby will end up with one lobe of lung on the left side and a normal, three lobe lung on the right. (Most people have five lung lobes--two on the left and three on the right. We were assured he can be healthy and as athletic as he wants to be if he's missing only one lobe.)

Right now all other systems are looking good. His little heart is chugging away like a champ, and the pregnancy is completely health--Baby is getting the nutrients he needs and there are no signs of potential preterm labor.

If the mass has a CCAM component to it, that is actually good. CCAMs have a tendency to grow until 26 weeks gestation and then shrink on their own. BPS's usually stop growing at some point, but don't shrink on their own--the baby grows around it, so it is proportionately smaller, but we don't know when this might happen or how much it will help.

That was the encouraging part. The discouraging part is this: The mass has grown in the last week. I'm not exactly sure what increments we're measuring in, but last week it was at .9. This week it is at 1.23. If it gets to 1.3, we are in a danger zone for cardiac problems. Because we have come this close to the danger zone and Baby is at 23 weeks--still about three weeks from when we hope to see the mass shrink on it's own--they've given me a couple doses of steroids to try to shrink the mass.

Hopefully when we go in next Tuesday, we'll see that the steroids have done their job and we are still out of the danger zone. If we do start to see cardiac problems this early in the pregnancy, doing surgery in utero is a possibility. There are only a few places in the country that do that, so there is the potential for a trip in our near future, but we are trying not to cross that bridge until we come to it. The doctor thinks it is very unlikely that we will have to take that step.

I think that's more than enough for one post. Hopefully it makes sense, and if you're still reading this, know that I'm very impressed that you got this far. Please pray that the steroids do their job and we see the numbers level off or shrink next week. Thanks again for all your love and support.