Unexpected change in plans......

First, I have to say welcome back to Dr. Zaretsky who has been on vacation. He is our MFM doctor and will deliver Brooke and Kamryn along with Dr. Trylovich. It's such a relief to have him back in town and ready to go when these girls are ready to enter the world!

We have tried so hard to not plan anything or expect things to happen a certain way because those plans will likely fall apart. We did though plan on delivering this Wednesday......... Dr. Z called Stef this morning to check in, confirm our Wednesday delivery plan, and ask about the amnio procedure to check for lung maturity. A few weeks ago Stef and I decided we weren't going to do the amnio test and just go get the girls at 37 weeks. After talking with Stef this morning, my mind started racing and I couldn't help but think the test wouldn't be a bad idea after all. I called Dr. Z and Dr. Savani, who have been my voice of reason throughout this process and trust them beyond words, to get their take on the issue. After learning a thing or two about the test, there was no doubt we needed to go down this path to be sure.

The test is just like a regular amnio procedure except they test the fluid by adding a chemical, shaking it, and watching for a reaction. If there is no reaction, it indicates the lungs aren't mature. This has nothing to do with the CDH condition, but rather if the lungs (in both girls) have had enough time in utero to form and participate effectively in oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange once born.

We decided to go ahead and do the procedure at 1:00 today and then waited, what seemed like an eternity, for the results. Around 5:00 one of the doctors came in to tell us the result of the test was negative indicating the lungs are not mature yet. It felt like the world had just collapsed around us. Honestly, there is a selfish side to all of this. You just want to get on with the show, you want to hold your child, you want to know how this story will end, and you just want one thing to go as planned or expected. You quickly realize though that this is about the girls and if we would have delivered on Wed, Brooke would have probably worked through everything, but Kamryn would have been in a more distressed situation. Kamryn has 25% of the lung volume that Brooke has. We are asking so much of that 25% to begin with and asking that little bit of lung tissue to support her life without even being mature would have been an awfully big mountain to climb.

Tonight we are disappointed that we won't see our little girls when we expected to, but we once again understand that they are charting the course, not us. We are also so thankful to our doctors for leading us in the right direction and making the right decision.

We will find out tomorrow the results of the extended tests that will give us actual numbers relating to lung maturity and a better idea of how long we need to wait. Right now we anticipate it being 1 more week (but we aren't planning anything yet :) )

On a happy note, I am quite confident that you all will at least get to hear more stories about Stef's very interesting life in the hospital!

Take care everyone,

Shawn