Slow and Steady

Psalm 55:22 "Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall."

The first few ultrasounds after the first one, were fairly "uneventful."  We were learning new terms like pleural effusion, hydrops, thoracentecis, and diaphramatic hernias.  I know more about a baby's development than I ever thought I would want or need to know.  It is truly a miracle of God that any of us are born whole and healthy.  I learned a lot about who God is and how much He pays attention to even the tinniest details like finger nails and eye lashes and the big details like lung capacity and diaphragm function.  We are truly amazing creatures.  I hope you know that, my friends.  You are truly fearfully and wonderfully made.  God adores even the hairs on your head.  Praise God for the masterpieces He makes everyday.

At this point in my pregnancy, I truly believed everything would turn out just fine.  I really, honestly thought that God would surely heal my baby.  I couldn't imagine that this was the road God was going to ask me to walk.  I wouldn't be a statistic and neither would my precious baby.  We would be okay... or would we... there might have been a gentle thought in the back of my head that I could be wrong... but really?  We were warned that most of the medical world would have taken more drastic measures sooner, but we prayed and talked and prayed some more and we decided to wait on the drastic measures and see what God would do.  I doubted my choices later and we will surely get to those doubts further down this journey we are taking together.  God was just getting started with me.  My prayer life became something new during these days.  You see, we can choose to turn to God or turn from God during times of crisis.  We can't choose what will happen, but we can choose who we will turn to when it does.  Will I turn to myself who has no control, or will I choose to turn to the only one who can heal me... from the inside out?  We will talk about what healing looks like too... we need a paradigm shift there, my friends.  I am certain of that.

Here are excerpts from updates 2 and 3.  I was rounding 23 weeks during this time.

Update Number Two and Three

Carrie and I went back for another ultrasound today. Thank you for all your support and prayers over the past couple weeks. The results from today's ultrasound showed that the amount of fluid in the baby's chest is about the same as it was last week. There is no visible change in volume, though we were hoping and praying for a decrease in fluid. However we were happy to hear that it did not increase, because that meant that we did not have to do the thoracentecis to drain the fluid. The baby still is at risk from the pleural effusion (which is unilateral), but his chances of survival are much greater than if it were bilateral or if he started to develop hydrops (fluid in multiple cavities of the body).

The doctor told us that, while there is no research for our specific situation, studies on fetal diaphramatic hernias where the intestines are pushed into the chest cavity say that when an intestine to lung size ratio (fluid to lung size ratio in our case) of 1.4 or greater is present, there is minimal risk to the development of the lung. Based on measurements taken this morning, our baby's fluid to lung size ratio is 2.04.

We are also told that there is no sign of Hydrops (praise God!). We will have weekly ultrasounds from now on to watch out for this. Starting two weeks from now, we will be seen at the Chapel Hill UNC Women's Health Center, because if a thoracentesis is performed and the baby does not respond well, his chance of survival is greater with the level of care provided there.