Friday, November 2, 2007

Horns of the Devil

Sorry for the typo on my last post regarding the bicornuate uterus and resulting confusion. I notice that the more frazzled I get, the less editing that I do. As such, I end up with some mighty misspellings and strange puncuation.

So yesterday, Husband and I made the 30 minute drive to my new OB's office. With the Fall colors, it was a lovely and restful drive with the hubbie. And by all accounts, my OB is truly fabulous. While he is a bit rough around the edges, he is thorough and easy to talk with. I clued him in to my concern about the funky uterus notes on my sonogram results and he seemed skeptical. However, the scan changed that significantly.

Upon the first viewing with the dildocam, all we saw was a surpisingly small and quite empty uterus. Somehow, I was calmed by the fact that my doctor showed significant concern. It's almost as if by him being concerned, I know I will have to fight less to get the attention that I need regarding my medical care. And so I breathe a little sigh of relief that I have a medical advocate. Anyway, he probed and shifted that dildocam around quite vigorously and found the problem. As the plain of view shifted, we saw an empty sphere, then two empty spheres, and finally the spheres merged to reveal a smudge in the center complete with a flicker for a beating heart and some motion as the little guy dodged the image. It was fairly exciting, I must say. And my doctor was visibly relieved and thrilled all at the same time.

So it's fairly clear at this point that I have a bicornuate uterus and there is a septum. What isn't clear is how big that septum is and if and when it will be a problem. For now, nothing can be done but wait and see what happens. From where the little guy is now, it looks as if he will grow into the right horn.

On the way home yesterday, I thought about how people call a bicornuate uterus "heart-shaped". As you may imagine, this image doesn't quite do it for me. I prefer the devil's horns image. My evil uterus and it's horns from hell.

21 comments:

Unknown said...

Nicole - I'm so glad everything is going along so well!

I can't believe you have a septum in your uterus and no one bothered to tell you? That seems awfully important for you to know.

Sounds like the little guy (or gal) is happy in his (or her) little home! :-)

Aurelia said...

Oh lord honey, please don't worry about the spelling! I was joking!

Okay, as far as the septum issue, my former neighbour was told her septum might be a problem, BUT it turned out that she was fine because her babies settled in the largest chamber of her uterus. They had to be delivered a few weeks early by c-section, but they turned out okay.

She also had to take it easy in the first trimester and third trimester.

If I find anything in my pile of articles that is helpful I'll pass it on. Take care.

Serenity said...

Hey Nicole - as you probably know from reading my blog, I actually had both - a bicornuate uterus AND a septum.

Something to keep in mind - it's very rare to have both like I do. And if you google it, you'll find out that a septum can be a cause of miscarriages, if the baby tries to implant on it. In fact, that's the reason my RE thinks that our first IVF attempts never worked.

A true bicornuate uterus is, in practice, the best uterine anomoly to have - because it's covered with endometrial lining and therefore there's plenty of blood flow for the placenta. A septum, which usually has no lining, sometimes can be problematic and often needs to be removed.

That said... My good friend had the same thing happen as you did. They discovered a septum in her ute when she had her ultrasound with her baby. And it turned out just fine - she now has a healthy 18 month old daughter. Ultimately her daughter just grew below the tissue and the placenta was not close to the area.

Fingers crossed. Feel free to email me at serenitynowinfertile at gmail dot com if you want/need more information.

Hugs hon!

Dino said...

cool heartbeat yayyyyy that's awesome. I am glad you like the doctor - to me bed side manner is secondary I want my doctor to take me seriously and be an advocate. my fertility appointment is in 2 weeks hopefully they can figure out why non of the meds have worked so far

Caro said...

Nothing to add except I'm thinking about you and yay for the heartbeat.

Anonymous said...

I am glad things are going ok so far. I hope those devil horns don't cause any problems with this pregnancy.

Bleeding Heart said...

Isn't the heartbeat sound wonderful? I am so glad that you saw and heard your little baby. That is awesome.

Best wishes to you and your family :)

Jean Grey said...

Glad you have a good doctor, it makes such a difference! I hope everything goes well, you deserve it.

Cate said...

At least you know now that they will be monitoring you very carefully. I would be slightly pissed if I found out what you did in the way that you did.
Congrats on the heartbeat.

Julia said...

I can't believe they didn't tell you before. This is beyond irresponsible.

I am glad you have a concerned and thorough doctor. I find that to be very very important and good for fraying nerves.

thrice said...

Okay, I feel much better after reading Serenity's comment. When's your next appointment, because I'll be stalking you until then. Be well and get stronger. ;-)

BroccoliEater said...

Yay for heartbeats! Yay for movement! Yay for an OB who is easy to talk to!

BOO! for no one previously bothering to mention the Uterine Formation Observation (UFO?) WTF is up with that? Sheesh! When was that observation made? How long was it known and not brought up?

But YAY for heartbeat! Yay!

Clare said...

Nicole, I have a bicornuate Uterus and I carried Little W to 38 weeks and she was a whopping 8.9lbs. and I have DD as well... I also have all the IF crap stuffed in between, but I think maybe you can look to me as a person how just did it with a deformed ute. email me if you want to talk clare_fs@yahoo.com.au I haven't been posting because I have PPD and been feeling very awful ( and I don't want to write about it). I'm waiting for the Zoloft to kick in... anyway, I'm here reading and cheering you on from the sidelines.

ymp said...

First, sorry for the stress, confusion, and the way in which you found this out.
Second, yay! for the the doctor you like. I know that makes such a difference.

Lisa said...

Glad to hear about the heartbeat. I wish I had some info on the devil uterus but from the other comments it sounds like it won't be a big problem. Good little one for settling in nicely.

Veronika said...

Honey, I think of you every day.

niobe said...

To add to the hopeful stories, an acquaintance of mine had a bicornuate ute and a septum. Her first baby implanted in the left, uh, horn and was born a few weeks early, but was absolutely fine. She got pregnant again almost right away and was concerned when this baby implanted in the smaller, right horn. But same thing -- the baby had to spend a few weeks in the NICU, but is now a happy, healthy 5 year old.

Sarah said...

definitely great to have an advocate. it must be a bit scary, but so glad to hear its going well!

Jenny F. Scientist said...

Seriously, all those ultrasounds and nobody noticed??? I guess people only see what they're looking for sometimes. I hope you and your mildly-evil-shaped uterus, and the wee one, are all doing okay and that work and school haven't been too stressful!

Tam said...

Oh I am so glad that your little one is growing nicely and in the right place!! Yay on the heartbeat!

Hoping that your devil's horn doesn't cause any trouble!!

Thinking of you always xxx

ScienceMama said...

How exciting to see the heartbeat! It's really great that you have such a good doctor. That can make all the difference in the world!

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