Jen-
We already had a 20 month old daughter with cf when we had an ultrasound when I was 24 weeks along with my son. It showed "bright bowel" so we knew that our son had cf as well. I am not sure if you are one of the mom's who has written in recently about being pregnant with a baby with cf or not. If not, there are a few other reasons why you can have bright bowel without being cf. They ran a few tests on me to determine if we were dealing with other things, even though it was obvious to me that we were dealing with cf with my son. A perinatal doctor followed the pregnancy. I went about every three weeks to check for any changes of his bowels. The perinatal doctor was able to see the intestines expanding in some locations. The intestines stopped expanding about week 32 and stayed the same until I was induced at 39 weeks. We were expecting meconium illeus and had spoken to a pediatric surgeon when I was about 7 months. We had a plan to allow Jack to pass his meconium with the help of enemas. The surgeon would give Jack ten days to pass the meconium (with IV feedings). If he had not passed all of it by then, then surgery would be scheduled. He passed some meconium almost every day. The morning of day 10, with surgery scheduled at noon, an x-ray showed he had passed all of his meconium. What a blessing that he avoided surgery! He went home two days later and has no problems associated with his bowel problems at birth.
It does not surprise me to hear that the tech did not see the bright bowel or that the doctor did not give you a good explanation. It is not something they deal with very often . You should ask your OB to send you to a perinatal doctor. They really seem to be the only ones (as well as the pediatric surgeon) who understand bright bowel or meconium illeus. Also the pediatric GI doctor and CF doctor had very limited knowledge of what should be done during the pregnancy. Although once Jack was born the pediatric GI worked with the pediatric surgeon about what should be done.
The "bright bowel" just looked a bit brighter (whiter) than the rest of the bowel. I was told by the surgeon that the bright bowel most probably is where the intestines have leaked a bit. The intestines heal wonderfully in the womb. I was also told that there is no concern about delivering the baby early due to bright bowel or meconium illeus as long as the baby heart rate, movements, etc are good. If you are dealing with cf, the most important thing is allowing the lungs to develop as long as possible. The lungs do not develop fully until week 38 or so.
I do have more information to pass on to you if you find that you are dealing with cf/bright bowel. E-mail me at sdelorenzo@sbcglobal.net. I know how stressful it is to not have a good understanding of what is going on and wanting some answers. Just know that your baby is going to be beautiful!
Sharon, mom of Sophia, 3.5 and Jack, 1.5 both with cf
