Today's Appointment

Sorry it took so long to post, boy was it a long day. Ok, so we had our full day of testing at CHOP. The day started when I awoke (way too early) at about 4 o'clock. I didn't need to get up til 5:45 but I was very anxious. My Mom picked me up at 6:15 and we headed to the city. We arrived at around 7 and went right to the MRI. I got in a gown, took off my jewelry and got ready for what I thought would be a quick and easy test. Little did I know that MRI's are terrible. I am usually a very calm individual, but my goodness was it hard to sit still and not panic. About 45 minutes in I thought my back was going to break. The babies were dancing and jigging, so it took over an hour. My poor Mom stayed in the room with me for company, although we couldn't really talk.

After that I filled out paperwork at the Fetal Center, and the people there were so nice. I went to University of Penn for a Level II u/s. That was a very long 2 1/2 hours! Laying on my back for that long was killer. They didn't really tell us much so for the whole thing my Mom or I would have to ask what they were looking at to get any answers. They took lots of measurements and we got to see the girls. First they were both head down, but Grace flipped during the u/s. Abby fell asleep and was yawning and sucking her thumb. Grace was busy dancing a jig.

After the u/s Bry met my Mom and I for lunch and we then headed for the Echo. The tech could not get Grace to hold still so it took forever. She looked like she was a gymnast in there. After over an hour of trying to get pics the tech told us that the hearts looked great. So at this point it was about 3 o'clock and I was exhausted and my back ached. We had to wait an hour for the meeting with the docs. The wait sucked cause it was all boiling down to this. I had no idea what to expect based off of the day so far.

They took us into this conference room which was very intimidating. Made me feel like the three of us were going before the firing squad. After a couple minutes Dr. Johnson and another doc who is studying under him entered. Dr. Johnson is a well-renowned High Risk OB and Perinatologist. He was very warm and personable, however his student doc was cold and not as nice. We exchanged pleasantries and he asked some bio questions.

We then got down to business. He brought in a model brain and gave us an extensive and thorough lesson on brain development and anatomy. He then explained what we are dealing with. Abby had a ventriculomegaly, which is dilation of one of her ventricles. The dilation went down from 13mm four weeks ago to 11mm today. This puts her only 1 mm above the norm of 10. We were ecstatic to hear this. He also explained that there is no aqueductal stenosis, which was originally feared. Of all the potentially detrimental causes, he found no evidence to prove them. He explained that there is a possibility of a chromosomal abnormality like Downs Syndrome. He then explained that it is very unlikely b/c there are no other hallmarks (facial deformity, heart defects, bowel defects, shortened bones, etc.) and many hallmarks were looked for. He told us that "in his heart he felt that everything was going to be just fine." More beautiful words were never spoken. If the dilation continues to decrease she will be back in the normal range. The cerebellums have grown beautifully although they are only slightly smaller than the norm. All in all it was wonderful news. They will continue monitoring it and have advised for an amnio (which I am thinking about).

Now, on to little Gracie. They have conclusively found that she only has one kidney. Not a huge problem. Her existing kidney is enlarged which is good b/c it is compensating for the lack of a second. They did find a small tissue mass that is next to her kidney. They believe it is either a tissue mass or a shrunken 2nd kidney. They will keep an eye on it in case that it is a tumor.

So it was a long, rough day but yielded such positive information. We are feeling so hopeful and so relieved that everything is going to be just fine. Thank you to everyone who has been praying so hard for us. It worked!!