Cardiologist appointment

First of all, today is the 24 week mark, yeah! 5 weeks ago, when I was admitted into the hospital losing amniotic fluid, the doctors didn't think I could make it to his point. Well, we have, and hope to make it a lot farther... We were also told the results from genetic testing done on the amniotic fluid taken out after the laser surgery came back normal :)

Yesterday we had an appt. with Dr. Lewin, a cardiologist at Children's hospital. Dr. Walker has been seeing possible heart issues in the babies and referred us there to be evaluated. We were somewhat prepared for what he might find, but the reality of it all was still hard to take. In the ultrasound room were 2 techs, one scanning and one observing, Dr. Lewin, and a nurse. They all watched the screen intently for over an hour. They all left the room and we waited for Dr. Lewin to come back and deliver the news.

He was very solemn and started out by telling us we have already been through so much, what he was going to say would be hard to take. My heart sank. He started off with the more positive news. Both babies' leaky tricuspid valves caused by a thickened flap, which is unexplainable, may or may not persist after birth. Dr. Lewin feels, however, that it may not be problematic. All other heart functions for Baby A are normal :) Baby B is another story. Since she is the ex-recipient, she was likely to have heart problems caused by the stress of blood/oxygen overload during TTTS. She has a condition called Pulminary valve stenosis (valve is thick and narrowed, causing fast, turbulent flow across), and a thickened right ventricle muscle (caused by overworking from the blood flow). Since it is still early in the pregnancy, there is a chance that this condition could worsen and cause Pulminary atresia, which is no blood flow across the valve. We will not know what the outcome will be until she is born, but there are procedures for both scenarios. I am scheduled for a follow up Echo July 25 to check their progress...pray for no change!

After our appt. was all done, the nurse offered to give us a tour of the NICU and other facilities there. Tom loaded me up in a wheelchair and the fun began. Up to this point, I have been pretty strong about all this. I have been able to talk about things and take them in stride, but I was obviously not prepared for the reality that would hit me when we saw the facility. The NICU is great...they have rooms that house one or two babies at a time and some have sleeper couches in them. There is tons of equipment, sensors, tubes, etc. that hook up to the little ones. Since this is the cardiac wing, it is a much higher level NICU. Then we went through the recovery unit where there are kids from birth to 20 with various conditions. The nurse explained all the great things they offer for families....sleeper rooms for parents, laundry, waiting room, large indoor/outdoor play area for the siblings, and use of their pool. At least if we have to have Baby B there for a while, we can all be comfortable :)

Unfortunately, and fortunately, Baby A will not be at Children's. Since I will be delivering at either Swedish or Evergreen, she will stay in their NICU if needed. I guess this is a great thing, it means she will just be there as a preemie and not need any surgical procedure. It is hard to think that I will only get to be close to one of my babies, but the facilities at Evergreen are equally family friendly.

So, now the big decision. Evergreen or Swedish? We have another appt. on Monday to discuss when I will go in....until then....think healthy heart thoughts.

I will end this with a little lighter note. When we came home and picked up the mail, Tom started counting again....13 envelopes from our insurance company this time! These babies are going to be the most expensive little cuties, ever! Again, thank goodness for double coverage!!! By the time this is all over, we will have enough statements to wallpaper 3 rooms of our house :)

Summer is here! Well, at least the end of school...Summer weather TBD : p

Those silly Cameron kids

Another mile stone this week...the last day of school is tomorrow :) The boys are excited for Summer time! They will probably have the best summer ever, even though I won't be around. They have sleep overs planned, and lots of time at friends' and cousins' houses.

Andrew, Tom and Morgan being silly again!

Last night Andrew had his Kindergarten Promotion and end of year program and I got to go :) This will be my BIG summer event for the year, haha. Andrew is really going to miss Ms. Barbee, she has been great! He went from knowing only about 6 letters in the alphabet to reading and writing! He was in all day Kindergarten with a new curriculum that obviously works :) Tom and I had struggled before school started with the decision to start him this year or not. Tom was very hesitant since Andrew would only be 5 all year, so we didn't start him. After the first day of school, he started to reconsider. We scrambled and begged for them to squeeze him in...he started Friday of that week in Ms. Barbee's class. I started volunteering once a week and continued to do that until I was put on bed rest. I miss going in to help...the kids are really cute. Andrew will turn 6 on July 10 and be in 1st grade next year :)

Here is a quick video of Andrew singing and signing in his program...duh, I forgot that I can't turn my camera sideways so turn your head and enjoy, how cute :)

Andrew's classmates, Darius, Kevin, and Andrew with Berry Bear (their classroom pal)

Me (yikes, thank goodness for my cropping tool!!), Sara Barbee, and Andrew, Kindergarten grad

Justin and Andrew, proud graduates!

Little Tom did great this year too. He has done several oral reports, participated in the Science Fair, and won 5th place in the chess club tournament. He has developed a love for reading and sometimes will stay up late with a flashlight reading...hmmm...alot like his dad I hear! He has made a lot of good friends this year too. Unfortuneatly, there aren't any kids that live on our street, but he has made a couple of friends over our back fence that come and play. I can't believe he will be in 4th grade already and turning 10! Ah, time flies when you are having fun :)

We've made it to 23 weeks and 3 days :)

This week's appt. was more of the usual. We had an ultrasound to check all the vessels they are watching and they took a quick look at their hearts again. Nothing has changed, for better or worse. Dr. Walker came in to see us, followed by our nurse Donna, then Melissa, the nurse coordinator. Uh, oh, I thought, what now? The big gun is coming in followed by his support group reinforcements. I knew something was up....argh, what are they going to say?

Dr. Walker showed us on the ultrasound that both babies still have a leaky valve, which we knew, but Baby B has an additional heart issue. Her pulminary artery is looking very narrow and sending the blood flow through her heart very fast. This doesn't give one chamber enough blood to be able to pump fast or hard enough to grow as big as it needs too. He referred us to a fetal cardiologist for another Echo and consult at Children's Hospital. The cardiologist will be able to diagnose the situation and determine whether or not she will need heart surgery after she is born. Dr. Walker did say that this is something that can happen to the ex-recipient of TTTS, which Baby B is. There is a procedure they might be able to do inserting a balloon in the artery to help expand it, but we will have to wait and see what the cardiologist thinks will be the case.

We did get some good news though. Since everthing is reletively stable at the moment (hematoma was not detectable and the extra fluid pocket is very small), Dr. Walker feels that we could wait until maybe 25 or 26 weeks for hospitalization. We will discuss it more at my next appt. on Monday June 23rd. I will be 24 weeks this coming Saturday, so though the new goal is not that far away, it is one or two weeks more I can have at home. My boys are out of school this Friday, June 20, so I will get to see them a little more before I leave for my "summer vacation" :)

So, for now, I am still keeping my couch warm for at least another week...we are thankful for the small things!

Weekly ultrasound report 22 1/2 weeks

My ultrasound appt. was on Wed. this week and Tom decided to stay at work. Every time he goes with me he has to make up time so he can save all the time off possible to bail me out after these kiddos are born. My dad drove me and I got to go in by myself. By now, the ultrasounds are very routine and I can tell what they are doing and how much trouble they might or might not have catching the babies as they swim around my belly. I got a good profile shot of Baby A as well as more DVD video...check her out...

All was pretty routine. They did the normal dopplers on the vessels they keep an eye on and found the usual. All looks good except the heart leakage, which is still there, and low fluid on Baby B. I thought they might measure their growth, but the tech explained they only do that about every 4 weeks unless they think the babies look too small or something. My babies were measuring big the last time, so they are not concerned. I have also gained 7 pounds in 3 weeks, so we know something is growing....yah, me too, blech. I am quickly growing right out of the tons of maternity clothes I have accumulated through the last couple of years....just might have to throw them to someone else :)

During the ultrasound I got really dizzy and felt hot and yucky. I had to sit up for a minute and have a cold washcloth on my forehead. I felt like I was going to pass out and fall off the table...I have never felt like such an invalid (ok, maybe not the right spelling, but you catch my drift!) before in my life! Donna, the nurse, hung out with me to make sure I wasn't going to fall off the table and got me crackers and juice. It took a little while, but I soon felt better.

Dr. Paek came in to talk to me and double checked the fluid levels on both babies. Last week, Baby B's fluid was only about 2 cm and this time it was down to about 1.54 cm. This was not news in our favor. We have been waiting until 24 weeks, which will be June 21, to see if my fluid leakage was over with. I haven't had any noticeable leakage, but they suspect I am still losing it from Baby B's sack since her levels aren't where they are supposed to be. They are not worried about her though because they can still see her bladder. This means she is producing the fluid, it just isn't being retained in her sack. Soooooo, hooray for us, Dr. Paek reminded me we have been waiting to hit the 24 week mark for an extended hospital stay and wants to talk over plans at our next appt. The next appt. is Monday, June 16th...they will be doing another Echocardiogram on both babies' hearts, and the usual, followed by incarsaration plans for me. It looks like I have one last week of freedom, haha, if you call bedrest freedom!

I had to add this funny note. We hit a new all time record in the "bill receiving" catagory today. Tom walked in from work and handed me a stack of 9 envelopes all from our insurance company! Inside each envelope was at least 3 or 4 explanations of benefits showing how much our insurance isn't covering for all this...thank goodness we have a secondary that picks up the tab!! My mother-in-law thinks I should frame all the bills and pull them out when the twins have a cow over what color of lip stick to chose or something :) The cost is definitely hitting the "impressive" range....and is only going to add up even further with my new Summer Vacation plans at the hospital! Ha ha, I guess at least I will be in air conditioning. Because of my upcoming plans, I have been online shopping. I need some bigger comfy clothes to wear, so while laying around for months in the hospital, it will not include living in a lovely hospital gown and those oh so comfy mesh undies every day!

Until next time, I will go...starting to fall asleep at my keyboard......goodnight :)

Nesting time is here! :)

This last week I spent going from couch to lawn chair cleaning out my kids' rooms. We had sooo many toys we could hardly walk in those rooms! Fortuneatly for me and my sanity, my friends Angie, Joyce and Jamie, and my parents of course, came to help. We worked like dogs, throwing away broken toys and sorting others for my mom's garage sale Saturday. Every day my dad hauled away boxes of priced items and I got to go on a field trip to my parent's house to sit in the driveway :) I made a little bit of money and my sis and I took the bulk of the leftovers to the DI truck at the church. Ahhh, I feel so cleansed of toys! Now that things are cleaned out, the boys are all moved in together and the babies' room is cleared out. Morgan's room got cleaned out, my dad took down the crib, and put up her new toddler bed. She thinks it's pretty fun to jump on and tuck her animals into, but sleeping in it is challenging! Oh well, she was climbing out of her crib anyway...ah, toddlers are so fun! :)

Weekly ultrasound report...from the couch :)

Hi again! I am now 21 weeks, 4 days pregnant, yeah :) We had our weekly ultrasound this morning. Tom really looks forward to this, haha. He made a sarcastic comment that "maybe we will get to have another ultrasound today" so I shared this with the nurse while Tom was parking the van. She laughed, and as she went out the door, Tom was coming in. She told him that he got to sit through another ultrasound today and giggled. Ok, this may not sound very funny, but at this point we have lost track of how many we have had and though Tom is tired of sitting in the doctor's office for 2 hours every time, he still goes in case something new is discovered. His sarcasm is part of his charm :) At the right time of course :) We have to find humor somewhere in all this roller coaster of a pregnancy!

Enough with the dribble and on to the info! Babies are moving alot and I am really feeling them now :) Baby B even had the hiccups today. They did the usual dopplers on the main veins they are watching and all looks good. Each of their hearts still have a leaky valve, but Dr. Walker explained a little better what exactly is happening. He isn't too worried at this point that it will continue to be a problem or even if is a problem at all. He said this is typical behavior of the former recipient twin (baby B), which I think I explained before :) And, of course in my case, both babies are showing this in the same valve. The new thing we learned about this is that it could all go away once they are born. The upper valve connects the upper and lower sections of the heart and is affected by the lungs. Since babies in utero have collapsed lungs, they do not put pressure on the heart. Once a baby takes it's first breath, the lungs fill with air and apply pressure to the heart. This forces the small amount of pooled blood out and the valves then seal off. He said a cardiologist would probably not be too worried about this either and would just want to watch them closely after they were born to see how it might resolve. The important thing right now is that they both have normal blood flow running through the center of their hearts and blood is pumping normally through their systems.

It has been 10 days since I lost any fluid (I sound like someone at AA, haha, the pocket looks significantly smaller than it has, and the hemotoma (blood clot) is almost completely gone. Fluid levels for Baby A look great, but Baby B looks a little diminished. Dr. Walker feels that maybe Baby B ended up with less share in the placenta after the laser surgery, and though she has been the bigger twin up to this point, may not grow as quickly or as large as Baby A. Baby B's bladder is still visible, which we have learned is very important, so she is still producing fluid. Her sack is the one with the leak, so it is possible that I may still be losing small amounts of fluid that is un-noticeable. Though her fluid is low, since she is a twin, she still has lots of room to move, providing joint and lung development, because of Baby A's sack cushioning her.

Dr. Walker told us it was pretty amazing that we have made it this far and all looks pretty good, especially where we are as opposed to where we were even 4 weeks ago :) He said he was fairly confident that we will have a positive outcome and as long as the babies are growing and developing as they are, we will be in good shape. And if all is still going well, the longest we will probably go is 34 weeks...according to Dr. Walker, "When enough is enough :) We don't want to tempt fate any longer than we have too". :)

So, until next week...I will be here on my couch :)

Weekly ultrasound report @ 20 1/2 weeks

Yesterday I had another ultrasound...we have so many, I have lost count! The babies were extremely active, as usual, and the tech was thrilled about it, haha. Of course, it would help if I didn't drink root beer or orange juice right before my appointment! Sorry tech. :)

They did an echocardiogram on both babies. It took over an hour to chase them around and focus in on each blood vessel on their tiny, dime size hearts. A couple of weeks ago they were concerned that maybe Baby A had a hole in her heart, but found it is not a hole, but a leaky valve. Baby B is following suit with the same leaky valve. This means the blood pumping through their hearts is being pushed through quickly and has some back flow. Sigh.... We heard the statement, "it is still so early" again...this is good though. It means there is time for their heart valves to firm up and repair themselves. This is fairly typical of at least one twin recovering from TTTS, but not in both. Of course, my babies have to be an exception to the rules....maybe this will change over time...this is my hope :) They will repeat the echocardiogram in 4 weeks to re check them.

Good news...at this point, I have not lost any amniotic fluid since last Saturday :) This means that the hole in the sack is sealing and things are settling down. If I can keep this record going, I will not have to go in the hospital at 24 weeks...this is our hope too :)

So for now, we pray for healthy hearts and no more fluid :) Can we be that specific? I'm sure Heavenly Father knows what's best :) We have certainly been blessed so far! Our next appointment is next Wednesday, June 4. Let's hope we continue with better news :)