Fetal Echo and Amnio

Original post date – July 27, 2011

Today we returned to the Perinatal Specialist who preformed our ultrasound last week.  This week, they did a Fetal Echo of Rowan as well as doing an Amniocentesis on me.  The Fetal Echo mapped out Rowan’s developing heart and looked at the direction and strength of blood flow.  This will hopefully give the Pediatric Cardiologist a better understanding of Rowan’s specific case with Hypoplastic Right Heart.  The Amniocentesis was a bit of an ordeal.  Once the needle went in, I started having contractions, which is not horribly abnormal, but is horribly uncomfortable.  They had to dig around with the needle a fair amount to avoid problems and I am feeling incredibly sore now.  The purpose of the Amniocentesis is to look at Rowan’s DNA.  Some heart defects are a result of a chromosomal abnormality, and we want to make sure that is not the case with him.

We don’t know when we’ll get results back from these tests, but we signed  a medical release so the results could be faxed to us and we will have the reports to read over ourselves.  I also have an OB appointment next week, at which point I imagine we will discuss some of what we know.  I still think it won’t be until we meet with the Pediatric Cardiologist August 11th that we have real answers – and they will probably be vague.

Rowan looks like Little Bird, but slightly different.  I can see so much resemblance.

The more I have read about other families and their experience, the better I feel about our chances.  We have an amazing team working with us giving us ever chance of having the best possible outcome.  It’s just hard not knowing what exactly the best possible outcome is.