Good News and Bad News

Today was the long awaited day of appointments that would determine if I would be admitted to the hospital until baby is born or allow me to go home...

As you may know, Josh’s Mom, Eve, has been living with us for the last month. She has been doing everything for us and it has been absolutely wonderful. The doctors were thrilled to hear this. I was on strict instructions to not do anything and save all my energy for baby. I have been doing my best and laying low as much as possible. Charlotte is loving have all of Gram’s attention and they have a blast playing all day, every day! 

Eve was able to stay at our home with Charlotte while we drove down to Atlanta last night. We stayed with our friends, the Salemme’s. It was great to see them and their cute girls and new house. We really appreciate their hospitality. 

We started this morning with the cardiologist, Dr. Book. She asked how I was doing, got my vitals, EKG, and pacemaker check. Everything looked great! She sent me down to the lab for blood work and told me if the labs and echo come back good, I won’t be admitted. After labs, I had to run up to the OB (luckily in the same building) before coming back to the cardiology department for my echo. Yeah I was running around, totally rushed (not good when your heart is being tested) all while wearing a hospital gown. 

After my echo, we talked to the doctor again. Dr. Book explained that my blood work was all stable (phew) but that my valve was leaking even worse than before. That it is actually torn. The overall function of my heart is failing as well, so much that I cannot have another open-heart surgery because my heart would not last on the bypass machine. The next SURGERY would be an open-heart to perform a heart transplant. Of course I want to be much older for that and put that off as long as possible. Until then, they would need to replace the tricuspid valve with another pig or cow valve through an artery up through my leg. Yeah, they can do this now and it’s amazing!!! The technology is constantly changing! When will this happen? Not sure, but in the near future. They really want to wait until the baby is delivered. Hoping we can get to that point. The cardiologist wants to see me in three weeks and reassess everything. She told me each time I come to be prepared to be admitted. I told her I had my bag in the car! Luckily, the medication dosage she prescribed last time has been working well! On our way home we go!!

As far as the baby and delivery is concerned, she looks great and weighs 2 lbs. 1 oz. Her fetal echo was completed today and everything looks normal. She was totally cooperating during the ultrasound today and looking right into the probe! Haha. All the doctors would love to see me reach 38 weeks for delivery but it will all depend on my heart. 

I am so grateful for all of your prayers, fasting, calls, texts, and messages. I can feel your love so much. We love this little baby so much already and are so excited to bring another baby girl into this world! 

We are so sad to see Eve leave tomorrow but know that she’ll be right back if we need her or when baby girl makes her grand entrance. My mom arrives this weekend and will be with us for nine days. Charlotte isn’t going to know what to do when the Grandmas stop coming!!