Worrying scan at 29 weeks

[lostfrequencies]

Hi all. Wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation and can let me know what happened, whether a positive or a negative outcome.

I've had a pretty straight forward pregnancy so far. The anomaly scan at approx 21 weeks was fine, everything ticked off as being seen and okay, no concerns. Not scheduled to have any more scans, now just due to have midwife appointments.

I booked a private scan for the weekend just gone, it was meant to be a fun bonding experience for my son who will be 7 when baby is here. It was a foetal well-being check and then a 4d scan. Except we didn't get to the 4d bit (I've been offered a free re-scan) as the sonographer was concerned with the images of baby's brain. He showed us a black area at the back of the brain, in the "posterior fossa", and said that this looks concerning to him and as there shouldn't be that space there. This was such a surprise as nothing had been flagged up at the anomaly scan 8 weeks prior. I have been referred on to the foetal medicine team at the hospital who I am hoping to hear from today. The referral form says "posterior fossa cyst ?arachnoid cyst ?DWP".

I am hoping that it was a misinterpretation of the scan / obscured views by an awkwardly angled baby / or perhaps an inexperienced sonographer... but I also have a sinking feeling. Of course my mind initially went into overdrive and I googled away for nearly an hour, reading about different syndromes and so on. But I have stopped that now and am just trying to wait til my phone call and til I'm told what the next steps are.

Wondered if anyone here has been in a similar situation? Thank you.

Hopeful bump.

I haven't been in this situation but I couldn't read and run. I'm sorry you're having to go through this so sending you a hand hold for the moment. I really hope it's just been as you say- poor angle on the probe or inexperience on the sonographer's part. Thinking of you and will pray for you and baby.

Bump

I had a brain anomaly picked up on a 28 week growth scan. I was referred to foetal medicine three times from my local hospital because something kept measuring big in baby’s brain. The first time, foetal medicine didn’t even accept the referral because they could tell that it had been taken inaccurately. The next time they accepted the referral and couldn’t find anything wrong and the final time the foetal medicine consultant who ran the foetal neurology clinic told us that the local hospital were just measuring it wrong. Baby is now here and confirmed to be perfect.

I’m not telling you this to get your hopes up, just warning you not to get carried away with doom and gloom until you’ve been seen by the specialists. Normal sonographers don’t have the expertise to measure lots of these things after the 20 week anomaly scan and foetal medicine told us that it’s not unusual for them to get unnecessary referrals. The worry really affected my pregnancy, so I would try and just assume that everything is fine unless someone who knows what they’re talking about tells you that they’re concerned.

I hope that your foetal medicine appointment is positive!

Not all abnormalities are visible an the anomaly scan but forewarned is forearmed. Hopefully you will get more answers from fetal medicine that can enable you to prepare for whatever might be ahead. Have you got someone who can go to the fetal med appointment with you?

Thank you so much everyone for your replies. I called this morning to double check the referral had been received and they confirmed it had, and that I will hear back by the end of the day.

@Robin223 thanks so much for sharing your experience. Don't worry, you haven't got my hopes up at all, but it was so helpful to read. Especially the line about trying to assume that everything is fine unless someone who knows what they're talking about is concerned.

Any news yet? Thinking of you

Hi @trevthecat - I had a call yesterday to say that I would hear today about an appointment, likely this week.

How are you feeling? Have you got support?

Hi have you had an appointment yet? I’m in a similar situation and waiting for a fetal medicine appointment

How are you getting on OP?

Hi everyone. My appointment isn't til next week, but in the meantime I got a copy of the scans from the private clinic (turns out that no scan pictures were sent with the referral) and I sent them over to the hospital. I had a call yesterday from a lovely midwife who said that a consultant has viewed them and they aren't concerned, they think they look like normal brain scans...! So it could just be a case of a sonographer seeing something they weren't used to and not being experienced with anomaly scans, so they referred for further investigation. The hospital are still seeing me next week and will do full checks, so I feel reassured for the time being but not totally out of the woods yet.

Private health care doesn't have as much involvement with antenatal care as much as the NHS so are nowhere near as experienced.

Just sending you good wishes for your scan
Since they promised me it was 1 baby I've never one trusted them. Yes twins, mean since your scan

Hope all goes well for next week, @lostfrequencies - but I would take a lot of reassurance in the fact that the consultant didn't think it was abnormal x

Gosh what a stressful time for you! I'm so glad they could at least offer some reassurance since you won't be seen until next week. I have everything crossed for you 🤞best wishes to you and baby.

Yeah totally, that's what the midwife was saying yesterday - just because someone is qualified and registered with the HCPC as a radiographer /sonographer, it doesn't mean that they are experienced and familiar with the broad range of things that the sonographers who do the anomaly scans are. So I guess it's the right thing for them to have referred on when they saw something they were unsure of, but my god it has caused a lot of worry!

As someone who works in Fetal medicine, you'd be surprised how many people get sent to us with misinterpreted scans. Private scans can be reassuring but they can also cause a lot of undue stress, I say this with my own personal experience of being referred to my department by a private "reassurance" scan, it was a blip in their equipment that put a shadow on the screen which in turn looked like an anomaly on my baby, couple this with the sad things you can imagine I see at work - i had a major meltdown. Obviously that's just my case and without seeing your records etc, no one here can say for sure in your case. Try to stay calm, keep busy, I found that helped at least a wee bit.

A lot of the sonographers in the private clinics are actually NHS too, but do extra shifts with private clinics for extra money/retire. Someone who worked in my department as a student years ago actually did my gender scan ... baby didn't cooperate though and just kept turning round.

An update in case anyone is following this... I went to the appointment last week and there is part of the brain that is measuring just outside of normal realms. I had a foetal MRI today, I'll hopefully get the results back within the week.

🤞 for a good outcome. Xx

Hoping for the best op xx

Hope it goes well, these measurements are so tiny that the differences between normal and abnormal can be just millimetres. Hopefully it all turns out fine

So sorry you've got all this worry, OP.
I really hope that you get better news soon.

Hoping for the best @lostfrequencies

Hoping for the best for you x