Matt and I were so excited to find out if baby Coleman was a boy or girl. My family has all girls, but I was starting to think that the baby was a boy. Matt even made a bet with my cousins that it was going to be a boy. He felt so confident that we finally broke the girl trend. :)
The ultrasound tech talked with us throughout the entire ultrasound while she was taking measurements. Even though the baby was being stubborn, we found out that the baby was a... BOY! Wait, what? My family doesn't have boys! What about my plan of hair bows and dresses... Are you sure it's a boy? There was no denying that baby Coleman was a he! Matt and I couldn't be anymore happier. We're going to have son.
After the ultrasound we met with Dr. T to discuss the ultrasound and get an update on how everything was progressing. I could tell that something wasn't right as soon as Dr. T entered the room. Dr. T is a very bubbly person and always found a way to make me laugh - that didn't happen this time. We went from being the happiest people on Earth to being scared and nervous about what was wrong. I never knew it was possible to go through such a range of emotion in such a short amount of time.
Dr. T explained to us that our sweet boy was measuring appropriately and all his organs looked great, but he appeared to have an opening in his spine. He went on further to tell us that he believed this opening meant that Jackson had a neural defect called spina bifida. Through the ultrasound, Dr. T also saw that Jackson showed lemon and banana sign in his head and his feet were turned inward (clubbed feet).
What is spina bifida? Spina bifida (Latin: "split spine") is a developmental congenital disorder caused by the incomplete closing of the embryonic neural tube. The closing of the neural tube is complete by day 28 - before you even know that you're pregnant. Some vertebrae overlying the spinal cord are not fully formed and remain unfused and open which is called a lesion. If the opening is large enough, this allows a portion of the spinal cord to protrude through the opening in the bones. There may or may not be a fluid-filled sac surrounding the spinal cord. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spina_bifida)
What is lemon and banana sign? The lemon sign, noted on antenatal imaging, is one of the many notable fruit inspired signs. It is a feature when there appears to be an indentation of the frontal bone (depicting that of a lemon). It is classically seen as a sign of a Chiari II malformation and also seen in the majority (90-98%) of fetuses with spina bifida. The banana sign describes the way the cerebellum is wrapped tightly around the brain stem as a result of spinal cord tethering and downward migration of posterior fossa content. The shape of the cerebellum has appearance of a banana. This is very frequent to hydrocephalus. (http://radiopaedia.org/articles/banana-sign)
Ok, keep in mind that we weren't provided any of the information found in the previous two paragraphs - none! However, I want to make sure that if you're reading this, you have an idea of some of the terminology that you have heard. We weren't really offered much information about Jackson's diagnosis other than that he could have a poor quality of life and we still had time to terminate if we chose to do so. This option really bothered me - how can someone make such a decision, but not know exactly what spina bifida means in general, let alone what it means for your child.
While we were left asking so many questions, wondering what the future may hold, and terrified, we were also recommended to go see a Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor to get a second opinion. Thankfully our appointment was scheduled for the next day. I'm not real sure how I would have handled having to wait to "try" and get some more answers. Our families knew that we had our anatomy scan on this day. How do you tell your family that your having a son and then crush the excitement by adding on the fact that he may have spina bifida?
Crystal
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