Complicated

At my 20 week ultrasound they saw some sort of cyst or something on baby boy’s neck. At my 24 week appointment I asked my doctor about it and she decided to send me to a Perinatologist to get another ultrasound. (Perinatologist has the same training as an OB plus more, specifically in ultrasound.) Honestly I was excited to get to see my baby again!

I had that appointment on Friday (two days before my 25 week mark). First an ultrasound tech just checked the usual things like measuring the brain, the femur, fluid levels, etc. She tried to find the cyst on the neck and couldn’t find anything. Then the Perinatologist came in…

She did a few measurements herself, and then started looking for the cyst. Turns out it’s not a cyst at all. She found what they thought was a cyst, and it’s the pharynx. For some reason it’s enlarged. She looked at it from all different angles. The thyroid is perfectly fine. We watched (while she recorded) him swallowing for a good 10 minutes. He swallows ok and my fluid levels are fine. (He actually got the hiccups while we were watching, which was amusing.)

Basically she told us that it could just be an abnormally large pharynx, but she’s pretty sure something’s not working right. She took the video of him swallowing, and a ton of pictures, and she said she’d consult with the other Perinatologists and get back to me on Monday.

Today is Monday. Luckily I didn’t have to wait long. She called at 10:40am (I’m sure she’d been at work for quite a while by then). She said that the other doctors agreed that the pharynx is enlarged more than it should be and that it’s either a narrowing of the esophagus or a Tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF).

So what does that mean? She said that since I don’t have extra fluid and he’s swallowing he’s fine for now, but he will probably need surgery to correct the TEF once he’s born.

I’m glad that it was spotted so early so they can watch it and know about it before the normal symptoms of “when feeding is attempted and the infant coughs, chokes, and turns blue.” I’m going to be scheduled for another ultrasound in 4 weeks at the Perinatologist again. She also said that she’d talk to the Neonatologist to see if I should deliver at the hospital down the road from us (which isn’t a small hospital by any means), or if I should deliver closer to (or at?) Primary Children’s Medical Center.

Since he’s fine for now and moving around quite contentedly in my belly, I’m trying to not stress about everything. Stress isn’t going to help anything.

Other than that, the usual updates on pregnancy: I’ve been gaining weight finally, which my doctor was quite happy about. He’s almost 2 lbs according to the ultrasound, which puts him about 6 days ahead of schedule (which doesn’t mean much really). He likes to move around a lot especially in the morning when I’m trying to “snooze” my alarm. I bought some more maternity clothes (10 shirts, a pair of shorts, a pair of pants, and a skirt). I can’t believe I still have 15 more weeks!

*Update* - I have another ultrasound scheduled with the Perinatologist on Oct. 5th, so stay tuned for the results of that.