Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Differences

If memory serves, I am much more worried about my c-section this time around.  I'm not sure exactly why -- maybe I feel as if I got lucky the first time with such a good recovery; maybe I've collected too many stories of adverse surgical outcomes (of any variety) to feel at ease.  Or maybe it's because I have a little boy now, and I don't want anything to happen to me.  

I am also a bit more nervous about meeting F.ranz.  I feel that I know less about him.  With S.oren, I had so many ultrasounds that even though we'd had the weird amnio result, I really felt that he was going to be normal in every respect, aside from maybe the possible clubfoot that the MFM doctors periodically speculated about (and which did not come to pass).  I had seen him open and close his eyes on ultrasound.  I had seen that he had a full head of hair.  Each month, I had been reassured that all body parts, internal and external, looked proper in their development.  But with Fr.anz, the last ultrasound I had was at 28 weeks, so who the hell knows what he's like?  I mean, gosh, only TWO level II ultrasounds?  How do normal people manage?  And let's not even talk about the olden days, when ultrasounds and amnios and so forth didn't exist.

One of my friends in real life is experiencing a difficult pregnancy.  She's about four weeks behind me.  She's 37, but her nuchal and blood screening results came back with such low odds of abnormalities (1 in 10,000) that she (very reasonably) didn't do a CVS or amnio.  But then she didn't seem to be growing right, so she's had a bunch of ultrasounds, and over time more and more soft markers have been coming up for various trisomies.  She's now had a fetal brain MRI and heart scan (I forget the name), and they're trying to determine whether something is really wrong or not.  And because she's dealing with specialists, they're hard to schedule, so she'll have a test and then have to wait a week or two to talk to them.  She goes in today to meet with someone about the most recent tests, so please keep your fingers crossed for her.  

6 comments:

Jess said...

I'm sorry about your friend. Prayer said.

Good luck with Franz' delivery. Chances are things will be fine, though I know it's of little comfort. Thinking of you!

KandiB said...

I can totally relate. Going through IVF makes it even worse. I had so many freakin' ultrasounds before and after, that one every 10 weeks just doesn't seem right or fair!

You'll love Franz just the same. Maybe it'll be just more of a surprise?!

Anonymous said...

I hope things go well for your friend.

I know when Franz makes his appearance, all of the differences won't matter.

Me said...

I found it really hard being in hospital away from TBB.

Thinking of your friend.

TLB said...

All my c-section friends hated it when I said how easy the recovery was. After the first two days, really, it was no biggie. I'm sure you'll be fine once more.

Can't wait to meet Fran*z!

xoxo

statia said...

I'm totally freaked out about my c this time around too. I think it's a number of things. Yeah, you don't want to die on the table or anything, because you love your preshus little hellion more than anything. But you also know what to expect and I think the anticipation of that makes things much worse this time around.

I'm sorry about your friend, but now I'm effing freaked out. I've been so wrought with worry about this one. I feel like there's something wrong, because everything was natural, and blah blah blah. I hear about all of these horror stories of people passing chromosomal tests with flying colors and then end up being surprised at delivery.

I'm going to go breathe in a paper bag now.