Aug 17, 2010
We got news at our 13 week ultrasound that "Ripplet" (as the baby has been dubbed!) has gastroschisis. Gastroschisis is where the abdominal wall doesn't fully close so some of the intestines come out of a hole to the right of the umbillical cord and are external to the body. Research hasn't found a reason as to why this happens and there is nothing that can be done to reverse or reduce the condition. Here is a great link with more info about what's going on now and what we can expect after delivery.
http://www.chop.edu/service/fetal-diagnosis-and-treatment/fetal-diagnoses/gastroschisis.html
Most of the action and recovery will take place after the baby is born. We should get more information about this as we have more appointments with the doctors.
My regular OB Dr Mary Wells in Fairhope referred us to a Maternal-Fetal Medicine doctor (high risk) named Dr Dobak in Pensacola, FL. We'll be seeing both Dr Dobak and Dr Wells throughout the pregnancy.
At our first high risk appointment everything went as expected! No surprises, baby looks to be holding its own for now (heart rate and size on target).
We had a good long chat with Dr Dobak. He answered all of our questions and was very reassuring. They are very comfortable with treating this issue and they have great outcomes for the kids. At this point we progress like a normal pregnancy and as we get to the latter part of the pregnancy we will go weekly for testing and monitoring to see how the baby's heartbeat and weight gain is looking.
If we do Sacred Heart the Pediatric Surgeons will probably be Dr Kimmel (looks super good on paper, did a friend's baby's operation) and Dr Lewis (she specializes in Gastro-intestinal).
They will probably have me deliver around 36 wks if baby can hang that long so it'll be "preemie". We're to expect lung and feeding issues (due to early delivery and needing a tube to feed for a bit) and a lower birthweight (Riley was 7lb1oz at 40 wks to give you an idea). If there are no complications with the intestines, baby should be in NICU for around a month and should be "normal" from there. No long-term GI specialist will be needed as long as there's no twisting or bowel obstruction. Dr Dobak said they have very good results with their surgeries and they treat on average 3 patients with gastroschisis (Gastro-skee-sis) at any given time (one is in the NICU right now).
No other indications anything else is going wrong so that's great news. The kid will just have a scar where the hole was but other than that- pretty normal (complete with belly button!).
Next appt is 2 Sept with Dr Dobak again and 8 Sept with Dr Wells
