Shadow on bowel and 1 kidney... Anyone been through this? 30ks

[Rhapsodi]

So at 24 weeks they found baby had a thicker bowel lining than usual. They did another ultrasound at 28weeks to verify and I guess there is a shadow on bowel and kidney. So they are sending us to a specialist next week to find out more.

We have genetic appointment, ultrasound and end with seeing a dr (hopefully for results).

Has anyone been through this? What will they do at the genetics appointment? I haven't been told anything.

(I'm in the US)

 

[ClairAye]

I haven't been through this exactly as I never knew my son had problems when I was pregnant. I can tell you that his bladder wall is thickened due to extra stress on it caused by PUVs. I hope everything goes well at your appointment.

 

[Rhapsodi]

Yesterday was the big day. So for future people looking for answers/help here is what we found out.

So after the ultrasounds at 24 & 28 weeks showed echogenic bowel and enlarged kidney drainage tube they sent us to a specialist.
First we saw a genetic counslor who talked of all the possible problems this could be which were, nothing, Cystic Fibrosis, Trisomy 13, 18, & 21. We talked about all the possible tests that we could do depending on the ultrasound results. They talked about the quad screen (which just gives a ratio), maternity 21 (which is still a possibility result but slightly more educated guess), re screen (and more detailed) for cystic fibrosis carrier and an amniocentesis (which can tell us definitively).
Then we went for a level 2 ultrasound. Which is a more sensitive/detailed ultrasound. They looked for more anomilies like clef lip, heart defect, growth rate. They also checked the kidneys and bowel again.

For us we had decided if there were still anomilies shown that we would do an amniocentesis. Thankfully, everything looked perfect. All issues before went away.

The last thing we did was see a Maternal Fetal medicine specialist. Who reassured us that everything was looking great. He explained what they were looking for again, what they found and gave us explanations.

He said 1- it's possible it was just how the sound waves showed up and nothing was originally wrong with the bowel (most likely) it was past the timeframe it typically happens but for us we didn't have anomilies at 20weeks so it is still a possibility.
2- it's possible the baby swallowed some blood. And there is no longer signs of any internal bleeding (this is unlikely but a possibility for me)
3- there could be something still wrong but he is confident baby is fine and they will just watch for various things after baby is born but nothing is telling them that they need more tests before delivery.

We were lucky these appointments all happened back to back. But it was a stressful day. But we got through it. Good luck to anyone having to go through this.

 

[JLLM]

That's great news everything looked perfect! I went for my 20 week scan & was told there was a brightness in bowel however when she showed the consultant the pictures she said bowel was normal I then scared myself to death by looking on google when I called with my worries I was offered a rescan and was assured the bowel wasn't echogenic I wasn't offered any follow up to this so am still a little worried.

 

[Rhapsodi]

Hopefully if there was an issue then it was just an error in the sound waves. Ours was technically not technically echogenic (the bowel just as bright as bone) but it wasn't normal and they wanted to check it out anyways. The kidney issue too didn't help.

Oh and I should mention the kidney going back to normal was probably just due to increased hormones. Like constipation for us pregnant moms.

 

[JLLM]

The mildly bright bowel was all the sonographer mentioned everything else was normal the consultant scanned me & said it was completely normal and like you said for it to be truely echogenic it has to be as bright as the bone.