My Pregnancy Journey(enlarged yolk sac) UPDATE: all is well!

[Tara83]

I just want to introduce myself a little before asking for advice

I am currently 12 weeks into my 4th pregnancy. My first pregnancy ended at 7 weeks (June 27th 2006). After a year of trying we again got pregnant (almost a year to the day) and were so blessed to 9 months later have a beautiful little girl. In Aug of 2008 we found out we were expecting again only to have heart break after heart break with weeks of blood tests and ultrasounds only to finally give up at 11 weeks and have a D&C.

We waited one cycle after that loss to start trying again and would you believe we were lucky again. As excited as we were we had heavy hearts knowing what we could stand to loose and how hard the next few weeks could be. My Husband and I tried to stay positive and only focus on how lucky we were to yet again be pregnant.

We had our first scan at 8 weeks. The tech was told about our recent loss so with in moments he showed us the baby and the heart beat and I couldn't hold back the tears. All seemed to be well he was very friendly and it felt like an elephant was just lifted off my chest.

The tech then says since it is so early on they like to get a closer look and that I need an internal ultrasound and he would send in a female tech. So my heart now sinks and I dont know what to think. The female tech walks in and says there is nothing to worry about all is well they just want a real good look since the internal ultrasounds are much more accurate.

When I get the ultrasound report it shows that I have an enlarged yolk sac of 6mm at 8 weeks 2 days. I have no idea what this means. The baby is measuring on time the heart rate is a strong 164 so what does this all mean??

I go home to google it only to read over and over the pregnancy won't go past 12 weeks. I have another scan booked for 2 weeks from then to check the progress of the baby. In my heart I have to admit I started to give up and think the worst.

So week 10 rolls around and we go to have our ultrasound and this time the tech doesn't even make eye contact. So my stomach sinks and I start to think about when I can book the D&C as my daughters birthday will be coming up. When she stops and says ok everything looks fine I just want to do an internal and get a better look at the yolk sac. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!?!? Why we she be so cold knowing we were worried and the risks involved and she didnt even show me the baby.

So this time the report reads that the baby is still measuring on time and that the heart rate is still strong and steady this time at 167 BPM. Now with an enlarged yolk sac of 8mm. Which apparently the yolk sac should have grown so it was to be expected that it was bigger.

I have read also that an enlarged yolk sac can be a early sign for birth defects and chromosome issues. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information online about enlarged yolk sacs and what you do find is heart breaking. Until I found this site and read many positive stories.

I will be 12 weeks this friday (Jan 9th 2009) and I will have the first trimester screening done on monday.

My question is are there any stories out there of couples who have had enlarged yolk sacs and had there be no medical issues with the babies?

I am past the point of worrying about loosing the baby I know he/she is a real fighter because so far he/she has beat the odds. I just want to know if there is a chance we could still be lucky and have a healthy baby.

Please keep us in your thoughts this monday when we go to have our testing done. I hope to find out all is well and be able to post yet another success story on here.

Thank you,

Tara

xoxo

[Kay]

HI Tara. I messaged you back but, yes, we've had women with enlarged yolk sacs go on to have perfectly healthy babies. The literature is so awful. It gives no hope and, yet, we've had some very successful cases here.

Hang in there.

[Kay]

Tara, I know you messaged me with your good news. I hope you update this post because you'll give women such hope! I'll be moving this to the misdiagnosed forum

and let me just say YAY!!!!

[Tara83]

On Jan 12th I was just over 12 weeks along and had my first trimester screening. The baby is looking PERFECT. There is no longer any reason for concern. We saw him/her dancing around sucking their thumb and continues to have a strong heart rate of 142.

We saw my OB and she said she has no concerns at all for this pregnancy or the baby. *tear*

[Kay]

[Tara83]

I got the blood work back from the first trimester screening today after getting the great ultrasound results I knew we wouldn't have anything to worry about but you can't help but wonder what if. Well the risks to this baby having down syndrome are 1 in 16,000 and for my age group (26 years old) the average is 1 in 1,200 so my results were closer to one of a 15 year old which is amazing. We could not be any happier. I hope anyone who has to deal with the news of an enlarged yolk sac stays positive and hangs on to any and all hope because as hard as it is to believe... everything could be just fine!!!

[Kay]

Just wanted to update...I received a message from Tara tonight. She just had her 18 to 22 week ultrasound and everything is perfect!

I am just so thrilled!

[Tara83]

I want to keep this post updated as often as possible to help give other women hope.

I had my anatomy scan done at 20 weeks and everything is perfect with our baby. Everything is working and placed where it should be. There are no reasons for concern at all. We also found out we will be having a baby boy!!

I am so happy.. with each milestone we hit it just takes my breath away. I am so lucky to have found this site and the wonderful positive stories that gave me hope during such a tough situation.

I am now 22 weeks and had an OB visit today and everything is still going well with no concerns.

[lw8843]

Tara I am glad to hear your story is going well. Congratulations on find out it's a boy!

[Kay]

Tara, I am so glad you are updating. I know that so many women follow Stacy's posts http://www.misdiagnosedmiscarriage.com/ ... php?p=5702 and yours is just another great one!

For everybody else, Tara really provided the motivation for me to write a page on 'large yolk sacs'. So much of the medical literature gives absolutely no hope when a yolk sac is over 6.5mm and we've had a number of success stories here. If anybody wants further information, here is the page I wrote: http://www.squidoo.com/yolksac I've been adding pages to Squidoo rather than here because they are helping to keep the site afloat (you can make money writing there...not much but it helps) and pages there rise quickly in Google search results, getting the word out to more and more women who need it. I encourage anybody to write a page there. Your story, no matter the ending, can help people.