Stanford Appointment

Had my appointments at Stanford today. First an ultra sound with the tech and then three high risk ob/gyns joined to take a look. Doctors could see the stomach up in the chest and see that the heart was squished all the way to the right side of the chest, however, they couldn't see any other organs up there. One doctor said for the heart to be squished so much that there must be more up there and that the MRI would show us.

After that I had my fetal MRI. This was scary. I had never had an MRI so I wasn't sure what to expect. They put me into this huge machine and I had to lie completely still for an hour. They kept having me take deep breaths in and hold it for short and sometimes long periods of time. I handled it well but it's not something I'd want to do again.

Next I had a fetal echo-cardiogram. By this time I was irritated. I felt I had been poked and prodded at so much already and I was hungry and tired. First a trainee looked at the baby's heart, then after an hour or so he got his supervisor, then the doctor, then the director of the department came in. They seemed to struggle getting a view of the pulmonary artery, however, all other components of the heart were working fine so they assume that one is as well. I will have to have another echo-cardiogram though to confirm. I was impressed how they didn't give up and tried their best to get all the data possible.

I was at Stanford Hospital from 9am - 4:30pm. I was hoping to meet a pediatric surgeon and see the NICU but it was too late and I just wanted to eat and get home. At this point, I still haven't had a doctor sit down with me and explain this defect in detail. I think each doctor probably thought the other doctor had done so. However, I had already read so much online that I didn't necessarily "need" that talk but still felt it should be done. I go back to the other high risk doctor who is closer to home from me next week. Hopefully he'll have the MRI results by then and I can get some more information on "my" baby's condition.