Visit with the Perinatologist

On October 28th, Josh and I had our first meeting with a perinatologist(specialist for high risk pregnancies) who flew into the area from Tampa a few days a week. He seemed ok, very knowledgeable. The nurse conducted the ultrasound initially while he viewed from the other room. The Dr. came in and explained that he believed our child had a urinary tract obstruction, also called Posterior Urethral Valves, or PUV for short, as long as the baby was a boy. If the baby was a girl, the case would be slightly different. Because the baby was not in a favorable position, they were not able to positively identify the gender at that visit. The Dr.continued with the assumption that it was a boy. He explained that the obstruction caused urine to fill up in the bladder and back up into the ureters and kidneys. He showed us the large black circle on ultrasound which appeared to be the same size as the baby- it was just the bladder filled up with urine. They also found that he had bilateral clubbed feet. The feet were turned inwards from lack of room to grow. Not a big deal, he would just need special casting after birth. From my research, I already had a good bit of knowledge on the subject and he did not have to explain a whole lot. The kidneys looked very good, and there was still a lot of amniotic fluid around the baby, though it was decreased.

The Dr. gave us our options -including termination-which in his experience he said that most parents would opt to terminate their pregnancy with this discovery. That, however, was not an option for us. This was our baby and we were going to carry him no matter what. God gave him to us for a reason and I intended to follow His plan. Doc explained that there was in-utero surgery available for this condition to relieve the obstruction. Even if it was successful, studies showed that 1 in 3 children would end up needing a kidney transplant. To me, it was the right path to take. Surgery was worth the risk to save our son.