Beverly was almost five months pregnant with her first child. A child she and her husband, Dwayne, had tried for over five years to conceive. They were thrilled that God had finally blessed them with a baby. Beverly had to go to a paranatologist for special 3-D sonograms because of the fear of complications. This was their third visit, both their visits prior had been great!
This visit was not so great. The Doctor told Beverly and Dwayne that they had detected Hydrocephalus. Neither Beverly nor Dwayne were familiar with this condition, so the Doctor explained in a very frightening and discouraging way. The doctor said that there would probably be other complications: Spina bifida, Dandy Walker, and other possibilities. He proceeded to show pictures of worst case scenarios where infants had been still-born as a result.
When asked what the odds were of her not having an additional complication, his response was that they would need to consult a specialist. When asked what could be done, his response was that they would need to consult a specialist. When asked if it could go away before she was actually born, his response was that they would need to consult a specialist. This was his response to all other questions that tried to be positive, while he was willing to dwell on the negative effects of Hydro without a specialist consultation.
The Doctor then said that they would need to do an amniocentesis to see what other complications were involved. Beverly agrred, although she had previously denied screening for this because she had stated that it would not make a difference if something was wrong with the infant anyways. Now she was being put to the test. Beverly was scared and felt very helpless, something was going to be wrong with her baby and there was nothing she could do about it. She asked if there had been somthing that she had done that cause it, the answer was no. Dwayne also felt scared and helpless and did not know how to comfort Beverly.
This was the worst day of their lives.
They went home and looked up hydrocephalus on the internet. Two things caused them to feel a little more encouraged, although still scared. They found that Hydrocephalus could indeed be a condition on it's own, and that people could live a normal life with it. And they found out about shunting and third ventriculostomy. These two things were very encouraging and they could not fathom why the Doctor had not mentioned them. They did consult a pediatric neurosurgeon, which was very optimistic. They had received the results of the Amniocentesis and the baby did not have any other complications. All in all, the thought that their baby was not going to be normal was very scary, they were thrilled that so far it was not life threatening. They stood by the fact that God blessed them with this baby and He knew what He was doing.