Doctor Doctor Doctor Doctor

As  I posted earlier this week I've been working very hard to distract myself.  I've kinda been in lala land since right before Christmas.  I've been walking around the house worrying about paint colors and finding more and more things for Philip to do.  Baby C (Did you see that name hint in my last post???) and I have been hanging out and crafting away not worrying about a thing.  Well we had a reality check this week.

On Monday we met with the pediatric cardiologist for the second time.  While there were not big changes it brought back into focus the future....my child will be here soon.....my child has a hole in her heart...my child will need open heart surgery...oh yeah forgot about that.  When we met with the cardiologist in Dec. he said we would only have to come back one more time, around 28 weeks.  Well today he said he would like us to come back at 34 weeks too.  It made both of  us slightly uneasy that he wants to see us again.  He said that everything looked good but he wanted to check her ventricle growth again.  The main change was that she has more regurgitation in her heart.  Yes regurgitation is the medical term he used which I find kinda amusing.  My word is squirt back.  Whichever word you use, what he was talking about was the blood flow in the heart. Like I explained before the blood flow in the heart is from the top to the bottom (atrium to ventricles)  The blood is not supposed to come back up into the atrium.  When it does go back it is because the valve isn't working correctly.  This is what they mean by regurgitation--the blood is regurgitating back into the atrium.  Or in my words, the blood is squirting back up.  This is common with her type of heart defect.  What the cardiologist noticed was that there was a small increase in the amount of blood squirting back up.  Yay.   

On Tuesday we met with the surgeon.  Overall we liked him.  He obviously loves his job and is confident.  He was also very personable and did a very good job explaining the heart and the surgery.  I really liked how much emphasis he put on the team.  He really focused on how important it is to have a good team working together.  He is obviously very proud of his team and thinks that every single one of them is essential to the success of each surgery.  He praised all the other doctors and nurses who will be taking care of Baby C. Here are some of the questions we had and his answers:

UVA is a teaching hospital, who will actually be performing the surgery?

• The surgeon will be the only one.  He may have a fellow watching him or holding something because he needs help but the he will make every cut and stitch.  

When do you think she will need the surgery?

• It depends on how she is thriving after birth.  Based on the echo cardiograms they have done so far they think somewhere between 3 and 6 months.  

How long will the surgery take?

• The surgery will take 4-6 hours

How long will she be at the hospital?

• A week to a week and a half.

What will he mend the heart with?

• He will use gortex to mend the ventricular septum (this is the lower part of the wall that divides the heart in half).  He will use bovine something or rather to mend the atrial septal (the top part of the wall that divides the heart in half).

What will the surgery and recovery process be like for Baby C?

• She will be put under before they start any IVs or other medications.  After the surgery they will continue to sedate her and have her on a breathing tube.  During the first 24 hours or so after the surgery they will slowly take her off the medicines and breathing tube.  They want to gradually have her heart and lungs have to take over the work.  After the surgery she will most likely be puffy looking, pale, and a bit rough.  

Today we went to see my maternal fetal specialist and my OB/GYN.  Everything looked stable which is fabulous :)  We found out that she weighs about 3 pounds and is in the 60th percentile on weight.  We got to see her practicing breathing which helps her lungs develop.  We could also see her hair!  She was laying on her tummy with her legs crossed and tucked and her arms hiding her face once again.  But because we could see the back of her head we saw hair there!!! It was very cool.  We got results back from a blood test I did earlier this week, a fasting homocysteine test.  According to most of the MTHFR (my blood clotting thing that may or may not be associated with why we lost Emily) research an abnormal fasting homosysteine level means you are at higher risk for blood clots.  My fasting homocysteine is NORMAL :)   This is very exciting because we are only a few days away in this pregnancy from 29 weeks 1 day, the day we lost Emily.   They have no idea if it actually means anything but I still take it as positive sign.  We are approaching 29 weeks 1 day with a lot of anticipation and faith.  We are looking forward to moving past it and getting Baby Noakes here.  

I will post again soon.

Love, 

Megan