Decision Time!

Where should I begin....

Yesterday we had our appointment with Dr. Colvin. He was wonderful, as usual, and every time we go visit him he blows me away with his knowledge! He did a fetal echo and measured some arteries: the pulmonary artery, etc. and concluded that they were good in size; also the "squeeze" of her heart (how it is beating) is good too. These are all important things to have for a successful first surgery!! He also said that he's confident that he could measure her aorta, however, its very small (1 to 2 mm). My heart leaped for joy when I heard him say that he could see it! Praise the Lord! :) I am just thankful it is there. He did make the comment that although it would be easier for the surgeon to work on a larger aorta, it can still be done successfully on one of her size. It's just harder. I'm sure I have mentioned this before, too, but the Norwood is the harder of the three surgeries. The second and third are "easy" he said, compared with the first. So it is just a matter of getting through the Norwood and keeping her stable in between surgeries.

We were given some awesome news about the possibility of where to have Emma Kate's Norwood. Atlanta's Egleston Children's Hospital is apparently a place that children are also sent for this surgery! I have heard about kids from Macon being sent there, but for some reason never actually considered this as an alternative for us. Honestly, this is a HUGE relief. For the past month I've been stressing out about the logistics with Boston or Philly. Atlanta would be a lot easier, especially considering we have family there. However, we do not want to compromise quality for convenience. Dr. Colvin said that the risks for the surgery would be the same as in Boston, Philly, etc and if Atlanta would be more convenient for us (all factors considered) then he is recommending that we go there! This will also be awesome with family being so close!

We still have a final decision to make, though, and this is the situation: Around mid-August, Dr. Knott-Craig (the surgeon who is leaving UAB) will be transferring somewhere. (I don't know where, but I'm kind of curious to find out). This makes it kind of hard to know what to do with my due date being August 24 (only 8 weeks away! Yikes!) Here are the options as we were told. We can:

A) Wait around to see if Dr. K-C will still be here when I deliver here in Bham. Then wait for Emma Kate to come on her own (which could be WHO KNOWS WHEN, deliver here and if he is still here, stay here. If not, have to figure out right then where to go. Seems kind of last-minute and STRESSFUL to me).

B) Go ahead and plan to have Emma Kate here in Bham and also plan on making arrangements at another hospital to have her first surgery.

or C) Plan an induction date in another city (Boston, Philadelphia, or Atlanta) have her there, and have her first surgery where we plan to be.

Please pray with us as we talk to the doctors, do the research, etc. Also, if anyone out there knows of any children who have HLHS and been treated at Egleston, I would love to hear their experiences! Especially any information about surgeons would be helpful.

Poor Brooks had his wisdom teeth pulled the day before this appointment and I'm sure he was completely miserable sitting there while being in so much pain. He's such a good husband and father for coming with me. The nurse at the front desk was so sweet and gave him some ice packs for his swollen cheeks as we were leaving! She was really kind and she's always reassuring about stuff with Emma Kate. She was commenting how these next couple of years will be really tough, but they see kids who have heart issues who are older, in their twenties, and doing very well.