A Greek Odyssey - Jason Fic

CHAPTER 147

Lexi and Jason waited for what seemed like forever. Lexi felt close to tears and tried to quell the rising panic which kept threatening to overwhelm her, the longer they waited. Jason tried to show on the outside that he was calm, not wanting to alert Lexi that he was worried, but inside his head he kept wondering what Marie had seen.

After around ten minutes the door opened and Marie re-appeared, an apologetic look on her face. She was accompanied by an older gentleman who introduced himself to them both as Mr Martin Smith, the chief sonographer of the department.

'I suppose you're both wondering what Marie here has seen? Well, she saw something unusual and wanted to run it by me. I'm sure it's nothing, but I would like to take a look if that's ok with you both?' he looked at them expectantly, hoping Marie's suspicions were wrong.

Both of them nodded mutely and simply looked at Martin, still unsure as to what he was doing there.

He squeezed a little more gel onto Lexi's stomach and started running the probe over Lexi's stomach, his fingers hovering over the buttons as he took measurements.

Lexi and Jason both held their breath wondering what he was looking for, their hands gripping each others' tightly.

As he reached the head he leant closer to the screen, squinting slightly as he moved the probe slowly. He looked discreetly at Marie, raised his eyebrow and she nodded. 'Well done for spotting that,' he said simply, moving the probe back down and started looking in detail at the baby's hands and feet which was somewhat difficult for him, given the amount of squirming the baby was doing. He was extremely impressed given Marie's experience that she had spotted what she had - more experienced sonographers had been known to miss what she had spotted.

'What do you think?' Marie asked hesitantly.

'Not sure...' he replied and carried on looking until he located the baby's kidneys followed by the heart. 'They look fine, as do the hands and feet.' He said, writing some notes in Lexi's hospital notes.

Lexi could wait no longer. 'Will one of you tell us what's going on? What have you seen and why were you looking at my baby's hands and feet?'

Martin looked at Lexi and Jason in turn, indicating for Marie to turn the light on. 'Sorry to worry you. What we're looking for is something called Soft Markers. They're warning signs which indicate chromosome abnormalities, specifically one's called Trisomy 18 and 13. Marie here spotted one of the Soft Markers, sorry warning signs, I guess it's easier to call them warning signs - something called Choroid plexus cysts also known as a cyst on the brain. He saw the look of sheer panic crossing Lexi's face and patted her hand. 'Many babies have these cysts on the brain, and as they develop in the womb these simply disappear and the baby is completely fine. They're usually gone by around twenty two weeks give or take So they're not usually anything to worry about..'

Jason was feeling increasingly worried at the doctors words and wondered if these cysts were supposedly harmless, what the hell he was doing there. 'Ok, so if they're harmless why are you here? Are you saying our baby has some kind of chromosome problem?'

'Probably not. Basically these things called Soft Markers or warning signs are a possible indication of chromosome problems. The more of these markers a baby has, the more chance that there's a problem.' He quickly consulted Lexi's notes. 'I see you didn't have the twelve week nuchal fold scan which often shows these problems up earlier, is that right?'

Lexi shook her head. 'The blood tests didn't show an increased Downs risk or of anything similar and so we decided not to have the scan. Is that what you're thinking the baby has? Downs syndrome?' She burst into tears as she finished speaking.