I owe you an update...

I promised an update about our visit to Geisinger on Friday morning. The weekend has flown by and left me without much "updating" time. I believe the appropriate (though succinct) text messages and the few phone calls I was able to make on Friday got the main idea of our visit out to those who were praying. So here are the details.

Jason and I were pleasantly surprised to hear our name called to go back for our ultrasound scan 10 minutes BEFORE our appointment. The excitement was dashed when we sat in the hallway for 40 minutes waiting for a room and a tech. We were finally taken in around 12 to start our scan. The tech measured and measured and measured...although talked us through most of it while she did it....for about an hour. I was asking questions about the things I know to look for about T18 babies, looking for any kind of reassurance she could give us. She wasn't giving much. The baby was very active, a good sign. But that also meant that it was hard to gather the pictures in the kind of detail we needed to get any kind of positive encouragement about the baby's health.

Every good thing we saw got taken away or mitigated by something else. We saw a four chamber heart pumping away beautifully, but the septal wall is still fuzzy on the screen, so there's no way to guarantee that there is no hole in the heart. We saw open fingers (on both hands), but they were waving and wiggling, so there was no way to count all 10. We saw little feet that the doctor said she "likes the shape of" (ie. not appearing to be clubbed feet), but again the wiggling got in the way of counting all ten. We saw a stomach that had fluid in it, so that meant the baby could swallow. But we couldn't get into more detail with the stomach or intestines to know for sure that they're all in the right place. We saw kidneys, but they couldn't be sure that there were no cysts there to be concerned about. The tech and the doctor both said that the brain looked good- everything was measuring correctly and they couldn't see any cysts or fluid or other scary things that they're looking for there. Arm and leg bones looked beautifully straight.

We did learn, or have clarified, that my risks for Trisomy 18 are actually higher this time than they were with Joshua. Joshua was 1 in 41, and this baby is appearing to be 1 in 33. The doctor had my blood test results side by side and said she couldn't believe how close these results were. She said that gave her a little more confidence for us because it may just be something about ME! Hallelujah to that. BUT......they couldn't give us any more than about a 70-80% assurance that things are OK until they scan again and do a fetal echocardiogram in 5 weeks. That is scheduled for June 4th.

I left there feeling more positive than I did when I got there, so I guess that was progress. We're still scared, and both Jason and I feel like we've been through the wringer twice now with these scares. Neither of us are sure that we could ever do this again. If we are blessed with two healthy, beautiful babies, I believe that'll be all the farther we go. It's gut wrenching to go through this, but we're walking through the best we can.

Everyone (Mark at Dr. Miller's office, Dr. Miller, the ultrasound tech and Dr. Schucker at Geisinger) seems to say that time is what we need. Time for the baby to get bigger so that everything can be seen with more clarity. I suspect that, between now and June 4th, we will be given an opportunity to have our "regular" ultrasound that non-troubled people like us get to have around 20 weeks with Mark. It may seem like overkill, but we'll likely accept that appointment. Another set of eyes on a slightly larger baby sounds good to Jason and I both.

The rest of the weekend was filled with a nutso yard sale at our house (community yard sale day in Milton) that raked in about $500 for the Dugan family. All of that will likely be spent on taxi rides and other purchases that amount to nothing when Jason and I leave for our few day escape to New York City on Thursday morning. But on a good note, the basement is significantly cleaner now than it was. We started with a garage full and ended with 1/2 of a clothing rack and one half of a table with things on it. Not too shabby for a morning's work. Joshua was a trooper, although he did yell at one or two people for touching his toys that were for sale. That didn't help sales much. He was treated to a new toy for all of his help. He picked out a drum....a real drum with sticks and a strap and everything. So now we have our own little marching drumline in our living room. Lovely.

I'll work on some pictures of the little drummer boy and maybe one from the ultrasound on Friday if I can figure out how to scan something at work. We got a very cute little profile shot that has me smitten already. We thank you for your prayers and well wishes over the last few days. I hope I never have to return the favor for anyone else, but I appreciate your appeals on our behalf.