Crazy Couple of Days

This has been a whirlwind of a week, and it’s only Wednesday! Monday afternoon I had an appointment for a “basic” ultrasound to check his measurements and overall status of our baby. His measurements are still small, but he is still growing which was good news. The sonographer went to measure his Cystic Hygroma and she said there really wasn’t anything to measure there anymore! Yes! One thing to check off the list. When the Dr. came in to do his part of the ultrasound he was concerned at a new finding of fluid around the lungs. He confirmed and said that though it was a small amount of fluid it will still concerning because with all his heart troubles, this can be a sign of heart failure. He sent me down to Texas Children’s Hospital to have me admitted for observation and to start steroid shots for lung development. The steroid shots are intended for babies who are born prematurely because it helps mature the lungs to reduce the complications once they are born. If they examined his heart and found that it was in fact in great danger of failing they would need to deliver and the steroids would help decrease lung issues. This was really nerve racking and scary. We know that our baby needs to be in there as long as possible for his overall development, but primarily his brain development. Also, we don’t want to add on the complications of being premature with the complications he is already facing. They started me on the steroid shots late Monday night (you do 2 shorts 24 hours a part) and hooked me up to a monitor to check his heart rate. His heart rate was staying steady and they were going to be scheduling me an echo of the heart in the morning.

Needless to say I didn’t sleep very well, if at all, and anxiously awaited my echo appointment. They were able to fit me in at 9 in the morning on Tuesday with one of their fetal cardiologist (not the one I normally see). I was on the table for about 2 hours which isn’t much fun. Those tables aren’t very comfortable and I never know what they are looking at while they are actually doing the ultrasound. The Dr. completed the ultrasound, but said her next patient was there and waiting, so she would come to my room later for the consultation of the findings. More waiting. So much rested on these results and so it was very difficult to sit in a hospital room and just wait. Her day ended up getting very complicated and she was not able to get to me until 5 or 6 that evening. For the most part she had good news. She did not see any changes in his heart condition which was good. The one valve that they have never been able to find that slows down the flow of blood into the heart still wasn’t there, but the effects of it not being there were starting to be seen. She said it is common for those effects to show up about this stage in the pregnancy. She said that she only found a little fluid around one of the lungs (the original ultrasound showed it around both) and that our plan was still in place to keep him in there as long as possible. Sigh of relief.

I next had to wait for my OB to come by. He showed up shortly after and the cardiologist, but her report had not been finalized to where he could access it and review the results himself. We told him basically what we had been told and he re-assured us that they were going to keep him in there as long as possible. They were not going to panic and go to delivery just because they saw something that made them nervous. The only way they will take him out early is if his status greatly changes and his life is in danger if they don’t intervene. I felt so much better after talking to both these Drs. Because my second shot was scheduled for later that night and he didn’t have the report from the echo to review, we had to stay another night. At this point though, I was told I could lose the hospital gown and wear regular cloths. I have never been so excited to get to put underwear on in my life!

Wednesday was pretty uneventful. We basically had to wait for my OB to come by and see me and give me the game plan from here on out. He was able to finally come by around 3 to talk about everything. It looks like we will be adding more appointments to monitor his condition a little more closely. I will have 2 ultrasounds a week from here on out as well as a stress test some at the med center and some locally. I know I will have another echo scheduled next week, but do not know for sure the frequency that those will take place. These appointments won’t be so bad once school is out and I am not trying to coordinate things around work. At this point, I am really not given a say as to when these appointments are scheduled I just hope it doesn’t require me to miss too much school. Luckily, I work with amazingly supportive people and my students have been very supportive and cooperative as well.

Also, I have to give a big shout out to my sister. She came to the hospital and stayed the night with me Monday night, stayed with me all day Tuesday, left to go to her son’s baseball game, came back to stay the night with me Tuesday after the game and left for work from the hospital on Wednesday. I am so lucky to have her. Trey’s work schedule has been crazy this week, but he came and worked from the hospital each evening. With all the appointments we have had he is quickly running out of vacation days so we are trying to save his days as much as possible for when the baby actually makes his arrival. He is an amazing husband doing everything thing he can for me and our child.

With all this being said, please continue to pray for our little guy. Pray that he continues to grow, that his heart does not show further signs of complications and that he is able to stay in my belly as long as possible. I am always praying for the miracle that his heart condition improves and he has an easier treatment plan and recovery once he is here. As of right now, he is looking at the more complicated route of treatment where they basically reconstruct his heart. They will use things that are there to make things that aren’t there and he will not have a typical heart with all the same structures as everyone else. He would be looking at a much longer stay in the hospital of about 3-4 months. I have said all along, I don’t care what they have to do; I just want him to be ok. We are so blessed to have so many people praying for him and supporting us through all this. Words could not begin to be able to express our gratitude to everyone.

Here are the 3D pictures we were able to get at our ultrasound- 31 weeks