For
those of you who haven’t been following along, at last week’s appointment the
ultrasound tech noticed a large difference between the amniotic fluid levels of
the two twins. Twin A had 7 cm of fluid and Twin B had 4 cm of fluid. Although
this seems like a large difference it still fell into the “normal” category so
the doctor decided to have me come back in 6 days to check the twins again
hoping that by then the fluid levels would have been closer together.
Greg
came with me to yesterday’s 1:00pm ultrasound appointment and it wasn’t more
than 30 seconds after the ultrasound started that we knew we had a problem.
Twin A has ALL the fluid at a whopping 10 cm while Twin B had no measureable
fluid after 30 minutes of searching. We watched the monitor as the ultrasound
tech tried to identify the bladder of this tiny smudge squished up against one
side of my placenta. You could make out that there was a head but this poor
child has absolutely no room to move while his brother is practically doing
somersaults beside him. Twin A has the entirety of the space in my uterus and
has abnormally high fluid levels while Twin B is shoved up just below my right
ribcage.
Within
15 minutes of beginning the ultrasound, my perinatologist was in the room with
us taking a closer look at the images and encouraging the tech to look closer
to identify the stomach, bladder & kidneys. (This was information we needed
to get to UCSF Fetal Clinic for them to decide whether I needed to fly out or
if there were things that could be done by the hospital I was at.) The tech was
able to point out the area where the bladder was supposed to be but initially
there was nothing there. She found the kidneys and after another 15 minutes was
finally able to find the bladder which measured the smallest volume of urine.
Twin A measured 1 lb 4 oz while Twin B measured only 1 lb. This put the twins 2
weeks apart in size and 20% difference in overall growth. I had every single
indicator for TTTS and we needed to call UCSF Fetal Clinic right away.
The
doctor made the call to UCSF while the ultrasound tech finished the ultrasound
measurements and report. Then we were taken to another room where the perinatologist
met us. UCSF called her back while she was in the room with us and said that
yes, we needed to come down to UCSF for a consultation and possible laser
surgery to help try to save Twin B. Our doctor answered what questions she
could which mainly consisted of questions about what would happen if the
surgery didn’t work. Very bleak discussion and I will save those details until
we absolutely need to talk about them. For now, let’s just take this one day at
a time.
UCSF
called us while we were on our way home from Hillsboro to tell us that they had
rearranged their schedules so that we could be seen starting at 9:30am the next
morning! We would have an 8 hour consultation which breaks down like this:
9:30am
– Check in to the hospital in San Francisco
11:00am
– 2.5 hour ultrasound to verify the condition of both twins and gain as much
information as possible to help them get an idea of the best course of action.
2:00pm
– Echocardiogram to check out the health of the hearts on the twins. It sounds
like this is mainly to ascertain how soon we need to go into surgery and to
make sure that the twins are healthy enough to survive the procedure.
TBD
– Consultation with pediatric cardiologist to discuss findings from
echocardiogram
TBD
– Consultation with perinatologist to confirm next course of action.
If
I need the surgery, it will probably happen tomorrow (Thursday) unless signs
indicate that it needs to happen tonight. There is a chance that we will be
done with everything (including surgery and recovery) by Friday but they can’t
say for sure until they get a better look so we are only going to buy one-way
tickets.
The
surgery will cause me to have contractions, I could go into pre-term labor, I
may need to deliver the twins in San Francisco, one twin may die, both twins
may die. The possibilities are endless but all we know for sure is that the
best chance the twins have is for me to get to SF as soon as possible. They
will give me the best care available and they have a whole myriad of options at
their disposal.
I
quickly called my Mom (who was watching Juniper for us) to let her know we
needed to go to SF and to see if she could start looking up plane tickets. Greg
and I talked and decided that it would be best for me to go with my Mom to SF
while Greg stayed in Saint Helens. This would allow us to keep Juniper on as
normal of a schedule as possible. She is really starting to hit the terrible
twos so any way we can keep from making our lives more difficult is good.
Greg
called his mom who is driving out from Bend in the morning to pick Juniper up
from daycare at take care of her while Greg continues to work. They will stay
at my Mom’s at night to keep an eye on Nana who is living there. Dad flies back
from Denver on Friday and can use the car that Mom and I are leaving at the
hospital to get to Saint Helens if we aren’t back by then.
I
haven’t slept since yesterday, my eyes burn when I blink because of all the
shed tears, I am so vulnerable that I feel my skin has been completely peeled
away. I am in a lot of pain, like I have been all week. The doctor says it is
because of all the extra fluid pushing my ribs up and out of place. I wish I
could say I am comfortably numb but I am far from it.
The
plane will land in about 30 minutes. Mom and I each brought a small carry-on
with a couple day’s worth of clothes so we can get right off the plane, find
ourselves a taxi to the airport and get this day started. We don’t know which
hotel we are going stay at tonight but we’ll figure it out at some point today.
Please
pray for us. If you don’t pray, please send up hope, courage and strength. I
knew this expedition to twins was gonna be a tough one but I didn’t expect to
be one of the statistics that you read about but hope you never become part of.
One
day at a time, one hour at a time, one breath at a time. I know I am going to
be in good hands and that I am doing everything that I possibly can for my poor
babies.
God
give us strength.
With
love,
Whitney