When only the best...

On Monday, we went for a growth scan in Ipswich, at our local hospital. Up until now, we've been at Addenbrookes which is in Cambridge, about an hours drive from where Clare and I live. Addenbrookes is our region's centre of excellence when it comes to baby things. We've had a very good level of care there and all the people are wonderful!

Because they are considerate people, they suggested that we had an interim scan in Ipswich to save us a drive. This proved to be more hassle than it was worth. Having done the scan, the consultant alarmed us with phrases such as "Obviously, I don't want him to arrive before 32 weeks..."; suggested we arrange a new appointment with Addenbrookes immediately; and then, refused to give us an information about how our boy was actually doing!

*deep sigh*

(It's worth adding that this has been our only bad encounter at this hospital, but it's been enough to put us off going back there for any further scans... I'd rather drive for an hour!)

Anyway, the whole event left Clare feeling very upset, and me absolutely livid! (It's hard to be Christian when you're surrounded by idiots!).

Nevertheless, the outcome is this... Clare has increased amniotic fluid. From what I've read, this is an expected side-effect of carrying a baby with Achondroplasia. Even so, she has been tested for Gestational Diabetes and we will get the results soon. She's also had two steroid injections to mature little man's lungs...just in case he chooses to grace us with his presence a bit early!

As far as I can gather:

• His arms and legs are still growing (albeit at the same slower rate as before)
• His chest:abdomen ratio is still good (normal is 0.9, lethal dysplasia is 0.5, our boy is 0.86!)
• His head has increased in size : ( but seemingly not too dramatically

Unfortunately, I've come to these conclusions by trawling through his notes, plotting graphs, tapping numbers into calculators, etc... so it's still anyone's best guess. It would have been nice to have been told all this, categorically, on Monday but the consultant felt that the results of the scan were not comparable with those in Cambridge ("different operators, different machine")

As a result Clare is going to Addenbrookes tomorrow to get the real story. By the grace of God, she is still feeling positive despite all these setbacks. We will wait and see what tomorrow holds, knowing that whatever comes our way, we believe in a God who is able to help us through it.

"To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."
Jude 1 v24-25