Palmer Family Blog

How stinking lovable is that face??

Today was the LONGEST day ever! Jeffrey and I had a consultation with a pediatric surgeon at the Children's Hospital to go over possibilities of treatment for our baby when she's born. It was over an hour and half and she just FILLED our brains with so much info. She even had a couple of textbooks of anatomy and surgery for babies that she went through with us. We went over every possible scenario and route that our baby could take and what all the different results would or could be and what our options were for treatment. I've got to admit, it scared me a bit. We have been feeling pretty good about our situation lately, her cysts have remained the same size, meaning that as she's growing and her body's getting bigger, her cysts that aren't growing, are actually seemingly getting smaller in her lungs. But from the meeting today, and the things she told us that could happen after birth, even in our case, I'm a little more worried again. But maybe I'm just supposed to be continuing to exercise a little more faith than I have been. And that's okay. This surgeon said that of all the babies she's treated with this problem, she's only lost one...and it wasn't during surgery or anything, it was the family's decision to take her off of support. So that was encouraging. I'm actually not worried that we're going to lose her, just concerned about the condition that she'll be in. And worried about whether it will affect her long term or not. Anyway, there was so much information floating around, that it's too much to share, and in fact, I'm not quite sure if I've kept it all in my head. But after that really really long consultation, in a small, poorly lit, warm room (which Jeffrey almost dozed off in a few times...you know, the eye crossing doze) we had an ultrasound. But that took much longer than normal because the tech couldn't get a good picture of the lungs. So she tried for a while, unsuccessfully and then we waited forever for the doctor to come in and do it herself. She finally found an okay shot, wasn't the best, but she was at least able to make a measurement of the cysts. Which is what we needed. Apparantly, her spine was casting a shadow over the lower part of her lung, which was exactly where we needed to be looking. Silly girl. It's actually been really fun to have so many ultrasounds (besides the actual reason why we need them). Because we get to see her growing and developing so much more. She is always sticking her tongue out, or licking her hands, and she yawns all the time. It's so fun to watch her!! But ultrasounds are really hard for me. I have wicked bad SI joint pain and laying on my back for an hour or more really really hurts. So I've been limping around all afternoon with sharp shooting pains up and down my leg and back. It's lovely! :) At least I'm not using canes like my sister eventually had to. :) I hope it never gets that bad. Well, that was my long day of appointments. I usually only have one at a time, but today they were lumped together. I feel so pampered though. I've met so many people and doctors and they each seem to take our case very seriously and personally. I know that they'll be doing and have been doing all that they can to make sure our little girl is okay! It's a nice feeling!