Things went mostly good at my scan today. I am measuring at 22 weeks (although he is not changing my due date and said we will likely induce at 39 weeks because of the blood thinners anyway) and baby is still a girl!
Everything looked great-her brain looked good, spine looked good, arms and legs measuring like they should, saw little fingers and toes, the chambers of her heart looked good, all of the valves were there and were pumping like they should be etc. When the doc came in after the sonographer, he finished up the scan (they were having trouble getting baby to uncross her legs so he was going to give it a go). He went through and showed me her brain and explained that things looked good, her spine, stomach etc.
He stopped at her heart and said "see that little white dot, that's a calcium deposit, it's nothing to worry about, it's not a hole, it's not a defect, it won't need repaired, it won't affect anything, but it can be a "soft marker" for Downs". My heart sank. He said the sonographer said she saw a little excess fluid on the kidneys and that this can be a soft marker too but that when he looked he did not see the excess fluid and said the baby probably just had to pee and did. So even though the kidney thing is supposedly no longer a concern, just the mere mention of a possible second soft marker added to my horrible anxiety. I couldn't think about anything else. It was as if all of the wonderful things I had just seen and learned about my baby girl were overshadowed by this new fear that my baby's risk of Downs could now be a concern. I felt the blood drain from my body. It was like the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. I asked some questions, the answers helped a little. My doc also went on to explain it like this: The speck on the heart is seen in about 10 out of 200 babies who are perfectly healthy and who do not have Downs and if you took 200 babies that did have Downs, 11 of them would have the spot-so the difference is very minute and this is seen in babies without Downs at almost the same rate that it is seen in babies with Downs. In some ways that explanation helped and in some ways, once that inkling of a possibility was there, it was hard to hear anything else after that.
I put in a call to my Dr. this afternoon after I came home and had time to process this and think of some questions I wanted to ask him. He had just rushed out for a delivery so the receptionist said she would leave him a message and he would call me tonight after he was done with everything. He called me a few hours ago. He was so wonderful-so kind, so patient, and very thorough in answering my questions. He said that because I had the NT and Quad screen tests done and they showed my risk to be so low that really, the spot on the heart was more of a normal variant for me than a "soft marker". He also said that since the kidneys went down so quickly that he doesn't think that is a soft marker for me either. He said sometimes when the baby's bladder is full it can back up into the kidneys and that since they went down that baby probably just peed. He said that if it was truly excess fluid in the kidneys that it probably wouldn't have gone down like that. He said he hates to even mention things like this and really only did it because he has to for liability reasons. He also said that with the advances in ultrasound technology that we see more of these things than we used to. He said he has had to ruin many women's pregnancies and he hates that. I also asked him how often he sees these two things (the calcium deposit on the heart and the excess fluid in the kidneys) and he said "almost on a daily basis". That really helped to hear. When I asked him how many of those turn out to be Downs he said that "about 7 babies are born in Akron, OH (Akron is the city he works in) every year that have Downs and that is out of about 7000 babies born in Akron each year". Considering that he sees it on almost a daily basis and only 7 babies turn out to have Downs (and that's in the whole city, not just babies he delivers), I'd say that way more often than not it does not indicate Downs. So, although this is all still in the back of my mind, I am feeling better about it tonight after talking to him more about it. If I had not had the first trimester screenings and we did not have that information about my risks, he said he would be more concerned. That info combined with the ultrasound findings now makes my risk for Downs 1/5000 instead of the 1/5661, not that huge of a difference. In that respect, I am glad that I had the screenings because in my case having that information has reduced my worry and my doctor's concern about the ultrasound findings.
I asked my doc if he thought I should have an amnio and he asked if it would change anything. I told him no, that I already love my baby and it would not change my decision about anything. He said then he would not suggest it since the risk of preterm labor is about 1/300 (much higher than my Downs risk). He did say that if my worry gets the best of me that we could do an amnio at 32 weeks because at that point if the amnio caused preterm labor that the chances of a baby surviving at 32 weeks are almost as high as those of a 40 week baby. I will give it some thought, but will likely not have the amnio. The only reason I would is to know for sure before the birth so I am not so anxious during labor and delivery worrying about whether my baby will be born with Downs. It wouldn't change anything else, it would just give me an answer sooner.
So-there is my VERY LONG story. I'm so sorry it is so long but it kind of had to be to explain everything. I feel fairly confident that my baby girl will not have Downs but if by chance she has Downs, I will love her all the same and make sure she has every opportunity in life to be happy.
Positive stories and words of encouragement welcome.
at grumpy sonographer Deb I hate the miserable ones they really change the whole experience you have when they are like that. Glad to hear that all is well with baby badger 
