Monday, July 23rd was the day of our follow-up ultrasound. The past two weeks had been filled with research, joining online groups, and calling Seattle Children’s. I found out that if we were diagnosed with clubfoot that I could come for an in-utero consultation and could schedule Icem’s first appointments. I had heard the main doctor was hard to get into.
I was anxious all day. Hoping Icem was in a better position, praying his heart and brain were healthy, and wondering about his feet. Garret and I headed to the hospital after my morning at summer school. Walking in, I had a little anxiety about the day I would be walking in there to give birth. We checked in at the imaging department. The ultrasound tech brought us back. She was very kind and seemed adept. She quickly took measurements. We were able to see his brain, she talked us through what she was looking for, I took this as a good sign that she must be seeing what she wanted. She then measured the head, still measuring a week ahead, go figure! Howell heads are large! Next, she looked at the heart. It looked like she found the chambers she was looking for, or at least I hoped. Finally she looked at the feet. Afterward Garret and I agreed that in our unprofessional opinion, both feet looked to be turned inward. At the end of the appointment she tried to get some 3-D pictures. Unfortunately I have an anterior placenta, which made it hard to get good pictures. Also, the boy’s hands are always by his face. Once again, no good pictures. I definitely felt more at ease knowing she got the measurements she needed. Now it was time to wait for Dr. Newbury to get the images and call.
Later that night Dr. Newbury did indeed call. He is the best, I believe he called around 8:30 pm! I was grateful Garret and I were with each other to receive it. Thankfully he led with the news that his heart, brain, and profile measurements looked great. However, he said our baby looks to have bilateral clubfoot. Of course official diagnosis would be at birth, when we could really take a look at them. He was very helpful in explaining things and answering any questions we had. He said he thought we were being very level headed. I secretly laughed at this inside, if only he had seen me after my appointment two weeks ago! He also said we could move ahead with booking his first appointments and that we could induce around the due date to make sure we could make it to Seattle in time. Dr. Newbury agreed with the idea of heading to an in-utero consultation before birth. He said he had only seen one other case of clubfoot, during his residency. Icem was his first in Juneau. At times in this process I felt like we must have been chosen for a reason.
Now that we had a confirmation, we were able to move forward with a plan. The next day I called and scheduled my consultation for the Monday after my Washington bridal shower. They told me we would schedule his casting appointments after that. We decided we would live with my parents during the casting phase. I also lined up one of my previous softball players, who was in town going to school at UAS to watch our dogs and house while we were gone.
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