Saturday, April 9, 2011

Ultrasound Results

I had my dating scan yesterday afternoon, and like usual, it was a fairly unpleasant experience.

My tech had a serious case of verbal diarrhea. Like, she completely lacked the filter between her brain and her mouth. She tried to get a good view abdominally, but couldn't see anything. She kept saying "I don't see it, I don't see it". I was always under the impression that sonographers are supposed to keep a 'poker face' so to speak. She tried for a couple minutes before asking me to empty my bladder so she could do the ultrasound internally. Not my first time to that rodeo. Unpleasant, but almost preferable to the painfully full bladder.

She immediately became quite flustered. I suppose she is not quite used to navigating uteri with birth defects. I don't think I've mentioned it yet in this blog, but I have a mullerian tube defect that causes my uterus to have a septum. My uterus is heart shaped, as opposed to balloon shaped, and there is a partial wall that descends from the top into the lumen.

So anyways, she was quite discombobulated by this, as it took her quite sometime to even locate my pregnancy. It is up inside one of the lobes, she did eventually find it.  She dated me at 6 weeks, a full 8 days behind my suspected dates, but ironically this is exactly what they found at my dating scan with Lyra. She found a heartbeat immediately, which she times at 117 beats per minute (which I thought sounded very slow, but at 6 weeks, the heartbeat is typically 90-110 bpm)

Then she couldn't find my ovary. Like, she just could not find it. I am very sure I have two, but she kept saying it was hiding in my bowels. I'm not entirely sure how that's possible, but she did locate it eventually, and was able to identify my corpus luteum as well.


This ultrasound was different than any other I've had. I've always had to sit in the room silently with the tech while they measure, then wait while they show the radiologist, and then they come back to show you everything. The whole thing left me feeling kind of addled. I'm not sure if she was caught off guard by my malformed lady parts, and it flustered her, or if there's something wrong. And I feel so ambivalent about that, and that makes me feel guilty because  in theory, it should upset me.

Weird pregnancy is weird.

7 comments:

  1. Ultrasound technician is lacking tact.

    You'd think that it would be in your file that you have a uterine septum so that anyone you deal with is informed in advance, though... I find that quite odd.

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  2. I am unsure that the imaging clinics have access to previous diagnoses. I think that would be in violation of FOIP.

    I never even thought to mention it, because no one ever said anything about it during any of the 5 ultrasounds I had during my pregnancy with Lyra. It was diagnosed after my miscarriage in December 2008, and I really haven't even had it looked into or have had it brought up since then.

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  3. Ahh, that makes sense. Did you go to the same imaging clinic that you did while you were pregnant with Lyra? If you did, it should be on your patient file... but if you didn't, then I definitely see how it got skipped.

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  4. No. The clinic I was with when I was pregnant with Lyra contracted their ultrasounds to MIC, my GP ordered this ultrasound, and he contracts through Insight

    I did, however prefer the environment at Insight. i didn't have to wait an hour, practically pissing myself. And the receptionist was a peach.

    There was a very unpleasant woman having a really inappropriate conversation on her phone in the waiting area though. haha

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  5. Oh, and the diagnosis of my uterine septum was actually made at the U of A hospital. ironically, I should add, since they don't even have an obstetrics department. They tried to send me away when i turned up crying and bleeding from the vagina, but I refused to leave. So they assigned my case to an excruciatingly pregnant doctor- her last day before maternity leave (she mentioned it during my pelvic exam)

    I have terrible experiences with the medical system. Truly.

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  6. They tried to send you away??! WHAT?!! That's appalling! I don't blame you for being jaded about dealing with doctors.

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  7. You can book an ultrasound at MIC even if you just got an Insight form, and vice versa, if you have a preference.
    This is quite a story! you really NEVER know what you're going to get when you go for ultrasound, jeez.

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