This was written April 25th but I wanted to add it to the blog as it gives a good overview for those of you who may not have read this.
Instead of writing over and over to each of you individually I thought it was a good time to write a note that would explain are new plans for the summer!
At the end of March I got results back from an ultrasound that showed that our kid could have dextrocardia, meaning his heart was on the right side instead of the left side of his body. This could have meant he could live a completely normal life or have severe heart and abdominal abnormalities. So a couple days later we headed to Prince George to have a Genetic Councellor do a high definition ultrasound. This result confirmed the heart was on the otherside but it couldn't tell us the status of the heart. He figured the kid looked really healthy but wanted me to go for a fetal echocardiogram in Vancouver anyway. So I figured I'd jump on a plane and head down myself since it was just another ultrasound. So Jason drove back home to FSJ. Mom of course figured I should at least have someone with me so she jumped on the plane too. Thank Goodness! Two days after seeing the GC in PG I was in Vancouver at Women's and Children's. It ended up being a full 8 hour day of work up. (I love univeral health care) Anyhow five different specialist spent well over an hour investigating the little munchkins innards. Fortunately they did find that his heart was, at this point, functioning completely normal but it was over on the wrong side of the body. So now as the perinataligist said we have to figure out if its "pushed there, pulled there, or if God put it there". Well its pushed there. What they found is the little guy has a congenital diaphramatic hernia. So this means the kid has a hole in his diaphragm (the muscle that follows the base of the lungs and helps with breathing) and at the moment just his intestines have crept up through into his left upper chest pushing the lungs out of the way and therefore pushing the heart to new places. So what does this mean for us and the munchkin? Well they want me to move down to Vancouver at 34 weeks gestation and stay down there so they can monitor me for complications and deliver the little guy down there. So as of early June till I'm hoping end of August (as that means the kiddos thriving) I'll become a Vancouver resident. Right now the kid has an 80% chance of survival as long as nothing changes between now and birth. Then once he's born (they said naturally) he will be intubated and ventilated and go into surgery within 24 hours. His chance of survival thankfully goes up to 85-90% after birth. Plus they say the surgery is relatively basic. After that he'll go to NICU ( neonatal ICU) and they said to be prepared for a rollercoaster ride for a good month. There is a team of 12 specialists that we will be dealing with intermittently throughout this whole experience and I couldn't have been more impressed with their straight forward nonsugarcoated yet incredibly compassionate approach. They have experience with similar situations about 10-15 times a year. So we just feel fortuate that this abnormality did get detected prior to birth and it is truly out of our hands. We just have to go along with the experience and hope for a healthy little guy to come home with us in September. As for long term, they say he should beable to hike, play hockey or do whatever the average person does. As an adult the only problem he should have is really odd x-rays if he ever needs one!
As for Jason, he has been absolutely incredible through this whole experience. He has been a complete ROCK for his basketcase wife and if we come out at the end of the summer with just each other I've at the very least found out how lucky I truly am to have him as my husband.Well all I can say is the next kid is gonna seem like a breeze! Cheers Julie
