Thursday, July 2, 2009

If It Isn't One Thing...

So I had to have another ultrasound on Tuesday because I'm measuring bigger than I should. I figured it was because of the gestational diabetes.

Nope.

Apparently I have chorioangioma.

What's that you ask?

Well, according to the very few links I could find about it yesterday it's a benign growth of the placenta, but it's still a threat to the baby.

Great. Just what I needed...a little more stress.

My doctor issued a referral to UW Medical Hospital in Seattle. When she told me that I lost it. Not when she told me about the 'tumor' but when she said she was sending me there. Because to me, going there is SERIOUS. I think that's where my dad ended up a lot of the time while he was fighting his cancer.

She said the baby looked fine in the ultrasound...but that doesn't make me feel much better. After all, he might LOOK fine but have mental issues. Not that I don't have mental issues myself, but I dread having a kid with similar or even worse issues.

I hope they can treat it somehow. The websites I browsed (there's surprisingly little info out there) said it can cause premature birth, fetal heart failure, and of course fetal death. *sigh* The one site says that labor is usually induced once the "fetus" (I hate that word) is viable. Well, hell, I think technically he's nearly viable now but I sure as hell am not ready for him!

It's encouraging when I feel the baby kicking around though. Which he was in the night and this morning.

We'll see what the "experts" at UW say. I need to call them this morning to make the appointment. No idea how fast I'll get in. And tomorrow is a holiday. My boss is just going to love when I ask for more time off.

* UPDATE *

Apparently this thing is so rare that even the OB doctors at Group Health haven't ever seen it. My doctor (not specifically an OB, but doing this for 30 years) has never seen it either. *sigh*

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG - never heard of it myself either and I've been in the medical field for 18 years.

My prayers go out to you and good luck. I'll be following the updates on this.

pamibe said...

Praying for you and the baby, Megan. Hang in there; maybe it's one of those things that sound worse than it is! {{Hug}}

Anonymous said...
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A New Yorker said...

Don't panic. Do yourself a BIG favor and find a Midwife, home based and just get an second opinion on this. Ask them what they would do and who they would send you to for testing and then see what THAT person would say about how long you should keep baby inside and what that person thinks about induction etc...(I am a birth professional.) Not every dx is the crazy emergency they'd freak you out to think. Hang tight. You'll be ok!