20 Week Ultrasound

The baby's profile.

Baby foot!

Our 20 week ultrasound was on January 28th.  It was really exciting to "see" our baby.  However, we were not prepared to hear that something might be wrong with our little one.  The information given to us at this appointment was very vague.  We could sense that they were hesitant to tell us much.  Super frustrating!  We were referred to a speciality clinic to have a higher level ultrasound.

On January 30th, we went in for another ultrasound.  It's incredibly amazing the technology medical clinics have.  This ultrasound was able to detect blood flow.  Again, they performed a full body ultrasound to look at everything.  We were told that a doctor was watching the ultrasound in another room as it was being performed.  The frustrating part is the technician can't tell you if anything is abnormal.  The worst part of the appointment was waiting to discuss the results with the doctor.

The doctor informed us that when our baby's left lung was developing, it skipped a step and formed a mass of lung tissue that will never function as lung tissue.  (A lung has also formed.) The mass is known as a CCAM.  The CCAM is causing the lung to swell, which has caused the heart to be displaced.  Normally, the heart is located in the left side of the body, but because the lung is so large it has pushed it to the right side of the body.

In most cases, the CCAM decreases in size on its own. This is the best scenario.  Then, around 2 years of age, they would remove it using a minimally invasive surgery.  As it grows, it could put the other organs in danger because they won't have enough room to develop properly.

If you're interested in reading more about CCAMs, I found these sites to be helpful.
Boston's Children's Hospital
CHOP

What are the next steps?  For the next 9 weeks, I will be going in for a weekly ultrasound to monitor the size of the CCAM and make sure it's not affecting other organs.  I also have to go to The University of Minnesota's Children's Hospital for a fetal MRI and ECHO.  Our original plan was to deliver at the Maple Grove Hospital.  If things settle down, there still is a possibility that can happen.  Otherwise, we'll deliver at The U of M Children's Hospital where there are pediatric surgeons and machines that can help the baby breathe if needed.

This is certainly not what we were expecting to go through.  It's very scary, but we're trying to stay positive.  We'll take it one week at a time and pray that the CCAM gets smaller and the baby keeps getting bigger.  We're so grateful to have good doctors and are comforted that our baby is getting the best care possible.

We did find out some exciting news at our second ultrasound....its a GIRL!  : )

Keep our little girl in your prayers.  We have appointments tomorrow and will update the blog as soon as possible.