Sunday, October 02, 2005

On Thursday I went for the 23-week ultrasound that is part of the study I wrote about in early September. This was to measure the bloodflow through the uterine arteries where signs of constriction could point to oncoming preeclampsia. The right side was completely normal and the left slightly elevated pressure, but not enough to warrant any concern. Dr. R. who is running the study took one look and declared, "You will not be having a baby in the next few weeks." Music to my ears! She can't rule out later-onset preeclampsia, but she believes that if it were coming soon there would have been visible constriction in one or both arteries. In fact, she's the doctor who did the ultrasound the day before Will was born. She remembered that when she first spoke with me about the study three weeks ago and flipped back in my chart to look at her notes from that test. Sure enough, one of the arteries was described as "kinked" which doesn't mean that bloodflow was completely cut of, but severely restricted. The next part of the study will be a repeat ultrasound at 28 weeks and we'll hope that the only thing that has changed in the picture is the size of the baby!