Throughout the pregnancy, we've been going to a high risk Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor here in Kingwood. Our referral originally came because of our New Year's kid free to Belize. It was our first time to leave Audrey and a wonderful 4 day get away with just us. At the time, I was unknowingly about 3-4 weeks pregnant and we had never heard of a thing called the Zika virus. In fact, I read the first article about the Zika epidemic in Brazil from CNN the day we landed back in Houston.
Although we weren't there for long and my overall risk was low, mosquitoes absolutely love me above anyone else outside. I'd worn Off almost every time we went out, but I still managed to get 10-12 mosquito bites while we were there. So there was a small chance of exposure. I had tried previously to get a blood test to confirm whether or not I had been exposed to Zika, At the time, I didn't meet the CDC's requirements for testing, since I had no Zika specific symptoms (80% of people don't). My sample was thrown away and the 10 week testing window for exposure came and went. We would just have to wait and see.
Obviously, at the 20 week anatomy scan, we were both nervous. Chances were if I had been exposed to Zika, calcification in the baby's brain would show up in this ultrasound. The in depth ultraslasted about 1.5 hours. The doctor came in with good news. Our baby's brain showed no signs of Zika. The sono did however, show a slight abnormality in the baby's umbilical cord. Most cords have 3 vessles (2 arteries and 1 vein), but mine only had one of each. The doctor told us this can sometimes be associated with birth defects, but most of the time it is just the way my baby's cord formed. Since the rest of the baby looked completely healthy and normal she wasn't concerned and didn't think we should be concerned either. The biggest risk with two vessel cords was low birth weight, so we would just keep coming back every month for additional ultrasounds to make sure she was growing strong.
Well, we did the same thing at 24 weeks. The baby looked like she was growing healthy and strong.
At the next 28 week appointment, we weren't even worried. Everything had looked fine and our baby was kicking and moving by now all the time. I even let myself have a celebratory Starbucks treat on my way to the doctor's office. We thought for sure we'd be graduating from the high risk doctor and had nothing to worry about.
During the ultrasound, Wesley and I were chatting as the technician looked over the baby for about an hour. She said she'd be back with the doctor soon. After waiting longer than normal for the doctor to come in, Wesley opened the door to go find the bathrooms. Right out side the door was our baby's ultrasound blown up on a TV screen. The doctor and a large crowd of people were standing around. Everyone was pointing and talking softly. We both immediately knew something wasn't right.
When the doctor came in she told us they had found an issue in the baby's brain. She didn't think it had anything to do with Zika, but was something else entirely. A part of the brain called the ventricles didn't look like it was completely developed. She brought out her medical school textbooks and tried to explain the details as best she could. Normally, this type of brain development was seen with multiple other issues, but in our baby it looked to be isolated. In fact, if the baby hadn't been in a breech position today, we would probably never have seen any issue. All she could tell us is that our baby may have verbal and gross motor delays, but that outcomes were mostly good. She didn't think it would change any delivery plans or the immediate future for our baby, but if we wanted to know more we could schedule a Fetal MRI at Texas Children's.
Obviously, we left somewhat shocked, confused and concerned, but still hanging on to the phrase "outcomes were mostly good," We did decide, however, to book an appointment for a Fetal MRI and pediatric neurology consultation at Texas Children's. If you're an hour away from one of the best children's hospitals in the world and an appointment wasn't too expensive, why not try to find out more? We hoped it would help us determine if we needed to take more maternity and paternity leave, get physical therapy right away, change child care arrangements, etc.
The next opening for an appointment was about 4 weeks away. So we would just have to wait and see.
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