Hi Emkana - sorry I missed you last night. I don't know if you remember my posts about 6 wks ago or saw my response on post re Lyn Chitty, thank you for yours. We had an appointment with her on Monday which wasn't great, we left feeling a bit confused and depressed and I was hoping you could have a chat with me about your experiences whilst pregnant with DS. I apologise for the length of this!
We've gone through so many ups and downs with this baby. After the 20 wk scan which showed baby was very small, followed by amnio, blood tests, achondroplasia test, which were all clear, therefore the main suspect for growth problems was IUGR, which appeared to be severe and early onset so v scary.
At 22 scan baby was still small but evidently growing at a normal rate (though with head and abdomen proportionately larger than arms and legs). Usually with IUGR babies the growth rate deteriorates so this seemed odd - also amniotic fluid was all fine whereas usually there are problems with IUGR babies. Dr(Prof Nicolaides) said maybe the placenta was damaged but had recovered and was now working normally. He recommended further scans at UCH (where I am booked in) rather than at his clinic, which we found quite reassuring as if there were serious concerns I think he would have wanted us back there.
24 wk scan showed more growth at normal rate but Dr was concerned that baby's profile was unusual (frontal bossing), which had been noted at 20 wk scan too, but not mentioned by Prof N. Dr then suggested we have next scan with LC as she is genetics expert and may have some idea of what may be going on that others hadn't thought of.
So, 26 wk scan with LC, still more growth, but arms and legs still lagging behind - no structural defects, hands, feet, chest all normal but profile of forehead abnormal. She couldn't see the face. Her conclusion was that "there is a reasonable chance that the baby may have a skeletal dysplasia" but also "this may yet be constitutional short stature". She now seems to be discounting any IUGR/placental problems earlier on in the pregnancy but I didn't really understand why. As I said in other post, she was having a very bad day and seemed quite dismissive of our questions...
I know that there are so many types of dysplasia and the differences between them are vast. I also understand that she can't diagnose what she can't see, but I would kind of hope for some indication of how severe or mild a case this might be based on what we can confirm - or do you think, based on your experiences and understanding of dysplasias, that am I being unrealistic and even things that appear benign can change and there will be problems later on? Sorry to put you on the spot, we should have a doctor who can tell us this but at the moment we feel a bit at sea!
I am in two minds whether to go back to Prof Nicolaides and also whether to switch consultants at UCH or stick with Lyn Chitty and hope she has more time for us next time and may have the expertise to spot things in later scans that sway her opinion one way or the other. It sounds as if she was more definite with you, but was that later on in pg?
Thanks for listening! Any advice gratefully received.