Sorry I didn't get to writing last night...

Sorry I didn't get to writing last night - yesterday was another long day. We left for the hospital around 9:30 a.m. and didn't get home til about 6:30 p.m. We had an echo to look at the babies hearts for a little over 2 hours long. Boy my back is really hurting from layin down so much this week. After that we checked and they told us to go eat lunch so we did. Then we went back up and they put us in a consultation room where we waited for 2 hours for the dr. to come in. They had several emergency surgeries that day. Well, the dr. finally came in.

Basically, the problem has switched. Olivia's heart has improved a little - still not great but better. Emma's heart is severe with several things - it's leaking, her heart valve is only pumping 10%, and there is more but I couldn't remember it if I tried. Bottom line, if we don't do something, there is 0% chance that either will live. So Monday morning, I will be going in for laser surgery. The surgery should be at 12:30 p.m. and take 3 hours. However, if there is a trauma or emergency surgery, we could always be pushed back that day. But we will have the surgery on Monday.

The surgery does not guarantee anything. We are dealing with Twin to Twin here and Growth Restriction - Placental Inefficiency. Because of that, the twins are basically portioned out their part of the placenta. If they go in and Emma has less than 20% of the placenta, she will not make it either way. They will not know how much they share until they are in there. He told us we would know within 3 days if we were going to lose one or both of them. The nurse said they almost always know within 24 hours. He told us we could lose them both, they both could live, one could die, the heart situation could reverse after the surgery where Olivia's heart would be the one having difficulty again. So anything can happen.

They will do an ultrasound before I go into surgery to make sure the problem is still there, etc. I will not be put out. I will have an epidural and some woozy medicine. So I should be coherent but obviously not make any decisions. Afterwards they will moniter me closely. I will stay in the hospital overnight. Before I leave the next day, they will do another ultrasound and see how things are. We will know then if they are both still living. From there, I will go back to Alison and Keith's (they have been wonderful), and rest until Thursday. On Thursday I will go in for an echo and see how things are. We will probably be going home on Thursday or Friday.

So I think that is it. The surgery will be at Children's Hospital of Cincinnati. They contract out nurses from Good Samaritan to come over and take care of me while I'm in the children's hospital.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

We love you all and we know this is in God's hands - His will be done.