11/22 Putman5 Update

Update #1: What a blessing to have the weekend at home with the family (No Doctor's appointments. Spent Saturday picking up in the yard with the kids... good thing because Sunday it snowed. HOORAY! (Some of you may not know... I grew up in Colorado. LOVE SNOW!) Sunday we all got some extra sleep (in shifts).

Update #2: We had an appointment today (deja vu =), and tomorrow are scheduled to have the shunt put in. Tomorrow we are 25 weeks so there is a better chance for viability outside the womb. In the slight chance that something goes wrong tomorrow, we are doing this in the O.R. so that baby can be delivered if absolutely necessary. Dr. thought it was a 5% chance, but just to be safe... The Mommy in me is so thankful we are "doing" something. (But wait, haven't we all been praying? There is my sinful self, thinking our actions are more powerful than prayer!!) And I continue to be surprised at, for me, how draining the appointments are emotionally, mentally, and physically. It is just so sobering and sad to see what we see inside our baby.

I finally thought to and remembered to ask for pictures of this CCAM (Congenital Cystic Adenamatoid Malformation) so you can all picture what it is that is in our baby that is not "supposed to" - medically, not in God's perspective - be there. We have about 10 profile shots but didn't have any of this. These are not as high-res as we can see in the screens, but you'll get the idea.

In this first photo you can see the baby's spine at the bottom of the picture, head to the right. In the chest area, you can see an almost vertical line splitting into two. This is the (thankfully intact!) diaphragm. Everything to the right is the CCAM. To the left, you can see some solid (gray) which is the liver and bowel, and then the black portion (kind of like an ocean around islands). The black is the hydrops, extra fluid that isn't supposed to be there from the heart being strained.



In the second photo, this is a cross section (looking from the head, down into the chest). Our tech labled "LT" on the left side of the body and "RT" on the right. So, the heart should be on the left, but you'll notice it's labeled all the way over against the ribs on the right side of the body. The rest of the cross section is the CCAM. When the heart beats, you can see the CCAM moving too, as they are squished together. I am so amazed at the flexibility and determination our baby is already showing in surviving thusfar. Thank the Lord!