I'm sorry, somethings wrong - Part 2


Wednesday 18th September 2024

After an awful nights sleep I was sent downstairs to the scan department, it was very early so thankfully there weren't many people around, I was already very upset and the thought of sitting in a room full of happy expectant parents filled me with dread. 

I remember the look on the ladies face that scanned me, when she turned off the screen I knew there was something wrong, this was followed by those awful words "I'm sorry, there is something wrong with the baby".

I sat there in complete silence waiting for her to complete the scan trying not to cry as I wasn't sure what was going on, she called in another lady to look at the same screen and after what felt like an hour but was only 5 minutes they told me that my baby had lots of fluid around her abdomen and I had a lot of extra amniotic fluid, they couldn't see her bladder so couldn't confirm where the fluid was coming from.

I was told I was going to to be sent to another hospital for a more detailed scan ASAP. I just sat there completely numb trying to take in all this information on my own.
I was given the choice of Preston or Manchester, i chose Preston with it being a bit closer to home i thought it would be easier travel wise.
The next few hours were filled with tearful phone calls between myself and my husband and discussions with the midwives trying to work out what was going on.

As I wasn't in active labour it was decided it was safe to discharge me from the hospital as long as I made my way straight to Preston hospital for a more detailed scan.

On the way to Preston I was quiet, I was considering the worst case scenarios and wondering how I was going to tell me family what was going on.
My mum & dad were on holiday and I didn't want to worry them so kept this news to myself for now.

The doctor I met with was reassuring and showed me the baby's heartbeat and told me they would do everything they could to try and work out what was happening to our little girl.

After the more detailed scan was completed I was told that there was fluid in multiple locations around my tiny baby and that they didn't know why, we spoke about chromosomal defects, potential bladder issues and I agreed to have blood tests and an amniocentesis done to give my baby the best possible chance at working out what was wrong in a small time frame we had been given.

The condition hydrops was thrown into the conversation, this is a condition where there are multiple areas with fluid around the baby, this is usually fatal and very hard to diagnose, I was told not to Google this by multiple people but I did anyway....kind of wish I hadn't.

Whilst having my blood taken I broke down in tears for the first time since this all began, I think it finally hit me that I could potentially loose this tiny human that I'd grown for 8 months and that was terrifying.

Between myself and the midwives we decided to give our tiny baby the best opportunity I would need to have steroid injections to help her lungs become less sticky as it was likely the baby would need to be delivered earlier then her due date, at this point I still had another 5 weeks and 2 days left of potential growing to do.

An appointment was booked for me back at Lancaster to have steroid injections and monitoring.

I went home feeling scared but optimistic the doctors would be able to find out what was wrong and do everything in their power to try and fix it.


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