16 Weeks: A visit to Maternal Fetal Medicine

We had our appointment and consultation with the doctors at the maternal fetal medicine clinic. I guess one of the bonuses of being classified as a high-risk pregnancy is being able to see the baby on the ultrasound screen every couple of weeks.

During this ultrasound, the technician did a lot of measurements on the baby. She checked head circumference, spine length, and leg length. She also zoomed in to show us a close-up of the baby’s face, fingers, brain, and stomach. The baby was once again nice and healthy, and was measuring 3 days “ahead of schedule.” After measuring the baby, she did some measurements on the fibroid as well.

After the ultrasound, we had a consultation with the doctor. The doctor gave us some of the same news we had heard before but we also got some more worrying news. The fibroid was currently blocking all view of my right ovary. Because of this, the doctors weren’t entirely comfortable diagnosing this as a uterine fibroid. It was possible this growth was stemming from the ovary and thus could be an ovarian tumor. Depending on its origin, it was possible that I would need to have surgery to remove the growth, and/or terminate the pregnancy.

The doctors were going to order images from my first ultrasound to see if my ovary had been visible earlier in the pregnancy. If it was visible, then the doctors could proceed with a diagnosis. If it wasn’t, then I would either need to have an MRI to get a better view of my ovary, or have a tissue sample removed from the growth through laparoscopic surgery to confirm the growth wasn’t cancerous.

We left feeling frustrated but hopeful that things would turn out OK. At this point, we simply wanted OK news–we didn’t need great or even good news, just anything better than bad news.

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