On Friday we had a follow up with our "local" Pediatric Cardiologist. I say "local" because he is and he isn't. He does practice up in southern CT, but is affiliated at and works closely with the folks at Columbia hospital. We're also working with a Ped Cardiologist at Columbia (going to see her again soon).
The PC did another Fetal Echo, took his time and could see much more since Baby Z is growing. The bad news is her heart is surely enlarged, and there's a small amount of fluid surrounding her heart. Otherwise, he was happy with what he saw. Surprised almost. In fact, he did say he was pleasantly surprised to see my name on the schedule.
The better news is that we're really close to the safety zone. If there are any signs of heart failure at this point, we talk delivery and beyond. This, to me, is the best news. He couldn't give us a time frame other than "anytime in the next 14 weeks." Basically we keep her warm and safe in my belly until she shows us anything that's less than OK. 27 weeks is good, but every week past that point is better and better. Once you hit 30 weeks, survival rate for premature babies hits upward of 95%. The doctor said that kids with heart problems may also do better in the NICU because their hearts are already overtaxed in the womb. It's like shes conditioning in there - her heart is doing extra laps. Once the blood flow to that extra vein stops, her heart may be that much stronger. It's like she's been training for a marathon in there. Which, in a way, she has.
We left the office in really high spirits. Excited, despite her other issues, that we're so far along and things continue to hold steady for her.
The next day was a little tougher, as reality set in and all the new questions start coming up. Do we have to wait until she shows signs of heart failure to deliver? Is it better to deliver a premie with a complication or a premie with a complication AND fighting heart failure? It's a lot to think about, and it's overwhelming.
To get our minds off things, we went to a friends Christmas party. Stayed as long as my emotional stamina would allow (read: not long). It was great to see my friends, but tough. When you're toting around a huge belly - that's all anyone wants to talk about. With our situation though, normal questions become loaded ones. "When are you due?" is relatively complicated now. I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve, so just answering "March" seems like a farce to me. I really want to say "um, any day now. My gut actually feels like 32 weeks, but we'll see how this defect turns out." At least no one asked where I was delivering (I live an hour + away from anyone there, so it never came up).
We face week 27 with seriously cautious optimism and a 4 ton bag of hope.
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