Another OB Appointment - Dr. Sweeney

Today, November 21, I had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Sweeney. While I waited for her in the exam room, Kelly, my nurse practitioner, came in to visit with me. I called her yesterday to tell her about the good news we received at Stanford. She was so excited for us and she wanted to give me a hug and share in my joy. She also expressed her belief that we have experience a miracle. She felt the same way we did about the fact that several different doctors had done ultrasounds/echos and all of them had seen problems. So, it wasn't like one doctor made a mistake that big. Our explanation is God. It was so nice of her to come in and talk to me and share in my joy. She is such a truly wonderful person!

When Dr. Sweeney came in, we talked about what needed to happen to transfer my care to the doctors at Sutter Memorial. She said the perinatology group we've been going to don't actually deliver at Sutter Memorial, so she's going to refer us to a different group. And, she was going to try to have them get me in next week so we could get our care established with them right away. She said I would need to have my NST's done there as well. So there are lots of changes ahead as today was my last appointment with Dr. Sweeney and now I will have to start going to a new office altogether.

She decided it was also important to check my cervix again to see what had progressed over the last 9 days since I had seen her last. She said I am 100% effaced but still not dilated which is good news. She last last week when she checked me I was 50% effaced, so there was significant change during that time period. She said she is going to talk to the perinatologists downtown and ask them to think about steroid shots to improve the development of Caden's lungs. But she would leave that decision up to them. However, it does mean that I need to be even more careful than I have been. I am going to be staying down completely as much as possible. No more sitting to do things, laying down will be much better for me and Caden. When she was done with our appointment, she sent me down to Labor & Delivery to have a NST done just to make sure Caden was doing fine. So I went and did that and Caden is doing fantastic.

On my way home from the hospital, I got a call from the genetic counselor at Stanford. She wanted to give me an update from the committee meeting today regarding a recommendation on where we should deliver. We had felt pretty confident based on everything we had been told that we would be able to deliver at Sutter Memorial without a problem. However, she said they had quite a lively debate about our case and Dr. Silverman was the one voicing the most concern about us delivering in Sacramento. He still felt that the heart looked good from the echo even though the left side was slightly on the small side. But his concern was that the left side wouldn't grow proportionally with the right side, therefore creating a problem. He wanted to reserve final recommendation for delivery location until after we have our ultrasound and echo at Stanford on December 17. Just when we felt like things were figured out, we're put back in a position of limbo.

I mentioned to the genetic counselor that there was additional concern that I might not make it to December 17 with this pregnancy since there is so much change in my cervix. She said that if I were to go into pre-term labor, I would obviously contact my OB's office and go to the hospital in Sacramento. And, hopefully at that point, they would be able to get me stabilized and hopefully stop the contractions and then get me to Stanford before delivery. But if I ended up delivering in Sacramento before December 17, and there was concern for Caden's heart, they could always transfer him to Stanford and I could follow when I was discharged. Of course this option is less than ideal but we will do what we have to do when the time comes. At least at this point, the perinatologist office in Sacramento will be getting all my records sent to them and they will know me and know what is going on with me. So if I do go into pre-term labor, at least they will be prepared.

I just wish there was clear direction at this point. I thought we had it and now I feel like we're back where we started, at least in terms of where to deliver or not. Right now, we are asking for your prayers for me to not go into pre-term labor so that Caden can remain inside me as long as possible. Having a baby born prematurely is difficult in general, but if you combine that with a baby with a diaphragmatic hernia, it definitely complicates things even more. We have already seen evidence of God answering our prayers, so we are asking you to continue praying for us that Caden will remain right where he is for several more weeks!