Anomaly Movie – Part 2

11 June 2012: We are at the movie theatre today!  I mean the sonargrapher’s room with the nice ladies. The nurse first.  Very friendly and pleasant.  She does the preparing for the scan.  I must say, I like the sheets they use in the room.  Ingrid is in place and we wait.  And there she walks in.

‘Good morning!  How are you keeping?  Is everything ok?¨she asks.

‘We are fine.’ Ingrid replies.

She goes through the paper’s and is a bit puzzled.  ‘Why are we doing the Anomaly scan again?’ Actually, asks herself that question. 

‘Ah! The first one was a regular scan, but the fetus was well developed so I did it earlier.  That is ok, we will now do a Obstetric Sonogram.’ She concluded.  For us in the non-medical field, it all sounds the same.  But, as the old saying goes, Doctor knows best!

The movie begins. I have my front row seat. Straight to the head we go.  A tour.  Looks like an avocado fruit.  From my perspective, all I want to see a symmetric avocado. Symmetric it is! She goes through the whole length and breath of ET and notes all the details.  And explains things. I can even see the 4 chambers of the heart.  All is well.  She shows us the mouth of ET.

‘It is chewing away at something.’ She says.

Excitement fills the room.   To see live movement.  It is like that time when Darth Vadar confronts Skywalker in Starwars!  What is ET chewing?  We did not give any chewing gum. Apparently, amniotic fluid is in abundance and that was what ET is working at.

‘Oh, it is nearly a Kg in weight!’ she says. ‘Big baby..growing very fast’

Hmm…I am thinking. Do we want an overweight ET. No!  Well, straight to the  gym when it arrives.  Some serious exercise that is not particularly fashionable. Everything is fine and normal.

Impression: Single viable intra uterine fetus in transverse lie with average gestational age of 26W/6D at the time of scan.

To me, that means, there is only one ET in a transverse position with an age of 26 weeks.  Now it makes more sense.  Transverse, is sideways.  Not doing a head-stand yet. Or, not on feet or arse!  Transverse is perfectly normal at this time. 

The heartbeat stands at 150 BPM.  Which is normal.  It also says Fetal Movement is present.  That we already know.

The rest of the information is.

Approximate Fetal Weight: 980gms (+/-66 gms)

Amniotic Fluid: Adequate for gestational age.

Umbilical Cord: Triple vessel.

Finallly:  No obvious anomalies detected.  Just what we like to read.

Something very interesting, is the fact that the age is 26 weeks and 6 days.  But, the growth is that of a slightly older fetus.  By just 2 or 3 days.   ET is actually playing hell with my numbers already.  Must give ET a good lesson in Mathematics when it is out.

All is well, and we tell them that we will leave for Amsterdam by the end of the month. They wish us well, and want to see the baby when we are back. Lovely people.

Now to the doctor. 

Since we do not have an appointment, we go to the counter to check on time-availability of the doctor.  Apparently she has time. So we wait.  Not a long wait. 10 minutes or so, we are ushered in. 

‘Hello! How are you?’ she goes, with a radiant smile. A bit over enthusiastic the lady is!  I have never seen her smile so much before.  Maybe, she had a date last night, which ended in a night of lust , love, sweat and loads of oxitocins!!!   She was glowing.  Or, maybe she has been reading my blog. That is a very likely. Having said that, I must say, as a doctor, she knows what she is doing.  Straight to the point and does not pussy-foot around.

‘We are fine, we did the scan...’Ingrid says.

She smacks her lips and straight to her check list. Does not bother to listen to Ingrid.  And scans the computer. 

‘I have the hard copy of the scan with me!' I say, giving it to her.

‘Oh..ok! They have not put it on the system yet’  she says nearly apologetically.

She glances through it, shakes her head like a Baratha Natiyam dancer, 

‘We must check your sugar!  Don’t eat ice cream ok’  

This lady amazes me.  She throws out one-liners that the listener must have a more than average knowledge of medicine and its related fields.

‘Feeling movements?’ she asks, looking at Ingrid.

‘Yes..there was this time about 2 weeks ago, when I did not feel….’ Ingrid starts to explain.

‘No! if not movement then we must check..but that is normal!’ She says.

Wait a minute!  What is normal?   Why on earth does she not listen to people first.  Well, that is an inherent problem with lots of communities.  They never listen. They just like the sound of their own voice or whatever. 

If I don’t feel any movement for a whole day, is it normal?’  Ingrid ask, hoping that a clear question will give a clear answer.

'It is normal. Don’t worry!’  She says.  Still question not answered. 

'But, if the whole day there is no movement, is it ok?' Again Ingrid ask.

'If there is no movement at all, we must check’  she say.

‘Yes, for how long does it go without movement normally?' 

‘If no movement, then we must see’

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…No answer to the question. But somewhere we decipher her message. That if there is no movement the whole day, then we must check. At the same time, all movements are not Kung Fu Moves!! So some or most cannot be felt. 

We must check your sugar, ok? Don’t eat ice cream ok!’.She say‘

This is turning out to be hilarious. 

Out comes her service manual.  The check begins.

Medicines:   Check!  Yes

Engine Heating:  Check!  Yes

Calcium:   Check! Yes

Exhaust:  Check!  Yes

Iron:     Check! Yes

Air Pressure: Check! Yes

Oil ………………

‘When are you going?...ah..where are you from?’ she asks. All these days, where did she think Ingrid was from?  Pluto?

‘We want to go end of the month, and she is dutch!’ I say.

She looks at Ingrid just like one looks at a new exhibit in a zoo and smiles.  

‘Then I must give you a Flight Fitness Report?’

‘Yes!’ we say.

‘Now, we will do some test!’ She quips and pulls out a sheet and goes ticking away at some columns.  On checking later, I find that they are, Glucose Challenge Screening Test, Urine Test, and CBC!. 

Next update after the test!