Bumpy Start

So we'd found out we were pregnant, both glowed with excitement for a few days, but had decided to keep this thing under wraps until we had some solid evidence things were progressing well. It was a tough two weeks before our first doctor's appointment. We went and I got to meett the doc Jaynah had been seeing and I think we hit it off well. He did his thing, answered our questions and said everything was looking great. He ordered some routine bloodwork and decided to schedule a scout ultrasound for a few weeks later, about 8 weeks gestation to make sure everything was progressing and see how many babies were actually in there.

That check up was all we needed. We were planning on going to a wedding near home during a very brief 30 hour off period I had during my ICU rotation, and we decided we'd spend the night and tell the folks we were pregnant as well as all of our friends at the wedding (quietly, I might add so as not to shift attention from the special occasion). Everyone was excited, but no one more so than our parents who were literally acting like crazy people over the news of the first grandchild on the way. My parents, to illustrate how ready they were, brought down from the attic a beautiful Amish hand-crafted oak high-chair that they had bought on their travels over a year before. It was a great weekend, the secret was out, things were peachy.

The time finally rolled around for our first Ultrasound. Jaynah was understandably nervous after trying so long to get pregnant and got herself up to a blood pressure that made the doctor tell me to keep checking it nightly to make sure it was just her nerves. The ultrasound tech was very nice, and quickly put Jaynah at ease. Shirt up, cold gel, probe in right hand, boom, gestational sac, check, only one, check, heartbeat, check, measuring correct for dates, check. She saved some pictures and burned them onto a CD for us. We then went into a regular patient room to wait for our Doc to see us. When he came in he got right to it:

"Well, I want to be really up front with you, we saw something on the ultrasound that might be a problem....."

The worst feeling was, I had seen it too.

For those that don't know, I'm planning on being a radiologist, and this past summer, I did a month long rotation at Vanderbilt doing only Ultrasounds. I'm by no means an expert, but I had seen the issue, agonized over it, but smiled for Jaynah, and calmly asked the technician if there would be an actual radiologist reading the ultrasounds. She, as if sensing where I was going said that no, whenever there was an issue, patients were referred for more scans with a specialist. I tried to shake it off, convince myself I was over-reacting. I mean it was pretty subtle and the embryo was literally not much bigger than a pencil eraser at this point. So when I heard the Doctor say those words, my heart literally dropped to the floor. My anxiety from the scan that I was sure was just an over-reaction by a parent who knows enough about medicine to get worked up about nothing was now realized as my worst nightmare. My poor wife was caught completely off-guard and I felt guilty for not giving her any heads up at all, but I thought I was doing the right thing by not getting her worked up before it was time.

Our doctor was fantastic, he explained everything completely, was very positive and upbeat that it could be nothing, but he had rather be safe than sorry. He knew us too well. Also using that insight into how we operate, he didn't come in the room until he had a plan for us. We were to see a specialist, he had already arranged an appointment.

It was set to be the longest 5 days of our lives......