cupcake
Mommy of a gorgeous boy!
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hi everyone thank you all for the wishes, thought i would update you on this golfball situation. as some of u know they found whats called a golfball on the heart on my 21 wk ultrasound. have been worried for days and saw my obgyn this morning. a golfball means calcification in one of the ventricles of the heart.
it shows up as a little white dot on the ultrasound and did not show up on my 16 wk ultrasound. in and of itself the golfball is called a non functional indicator ie it could be absolutely nothing and go away. however they still send you for two tests because of this finding. one is a eco-cardiogram which is basically a ultrasound of the heart, it will be performed by a neo natal cardiologist. he will make sure there are no major heart malformations ( G-D forbid) this is quite unlikely as other indicators would have shown up on my scan and did not - everything on my scan was just fine with the heart. the second thing they ask you to do is go for genetic counseling. the reason for this is the golfball may be an indicator of down syndrome my doctor stressed that it is not a good indicator and does not up my chances because of the golfball. my chances for downs were what they always were based on genetic history and age. we did not have that blood test or a neuchal scan so i do not know what our chances were to begin with. so we will see a genetic cousellor who i suppose will give us the odds. the doctor mentioned 1 in 800 and said to think about the 799 instead
obviously if your chances are very high they will recommend an amnio. at this stage i am too far along for a regular amnio and they would do something a bit different but along the same lines. i assume the amnio is related to a def yes or no answer and also for people to think about termination (G-D forbid something we are not interested in).
so in summary this is just one of those things. its probably nothing at all, but we still have to take the steps. we wont have a definate answer about ds until the baby is born ( unless they suggest an amnio which im not sure id do anyway). the doctor said to try not to worry, all pregnancies come with risks and ours are not any higher because of this golfball.
i do feel better today. i wanted to write this all in detail so that if anyone comes across this on their scan they can have the info. its not that common 4% of ultrasounds find it. i love my baby and i have every faith that we will all be ok.
it shows up as a little white dot on the ultrasound and did not show up on my 16 wk ultrasound. in and of itself the golfball is called a non functional indicator ie it could be absolutely nothing and go away. however they still send you for two tests because of this finding. one is a eco-cardiogram which is basically a ultrasound of the heart, it will be performed by a neo natal cardiologist. he will make sure there are no major heart malformations ( G-D forbid) this is quite unlikely as other indicators would have shown up on my scan and did not - everything on my scan was just fine with the heart. the second thing they ask you to do is go for genetic counseling. the reason for this is the golfball may be an indicator of down syndrome my doctor stressed that it is not a good indicator and does not up my chances because of the golfball. my chances for downs were what they always were based on genetic history and age. we did not have that blood test or a neuchal scan so i do not know what our chances were to begin with. so we will see a genetic cousellor who i suppose will give us the odds. the doctor mentioned 1 in 800 and said to think about the 799 instead
obviously if your chances are very high they will recommend an amnio. at this stage i am too far along for a regular amnio and they would do something a bit different but along the same lines. i assume the amnio is related to a def yes or no answer and also for people to think about termination (G-D forbid something we are not interested in).
so in summary this is just one of those things. its probably nothing at all, but we still have to take the steps. we wont have a definate answer about ds until the baby is born ( unless they suggest an amnio which im not sure id do anyway). the doctor said to try not to worry, all pregnancies come with risks and ours are not any higher because of this golfball.
i do feel better today. i wanted to write this all in detail so that if anyone comes across this on their scan they can have the info. its not that common 4% of ultrasounds find it. i love my baby and i have every faith that we will all be ok.
