Making Lemonade

As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

We had good news and bad news at our perinatologist visit today. The bad news is that Claire's ventricles have continued to increase in size so that they now are measuring 17 mm and 21 mm. This officially puts her in the category of having "severe" ventriculomegaly. In other words, the fluid on her brain is continuing to increase and is putting pressure on her brain that is likely causing brain damage and hindering brain development.

Her head circumference is also measuring ahead (no pun intended). It measures 22 weeks, 2 days, even though she is only 20 weeks. (Her legs, by comparison, are measuring small, but then again, look at her parents!)

The good news is that our perinatologist has offered to set us up with someone at Duke, should we decide to deliver there. Apparently, he is friends with the head of perinatology at the university and said he would make a few phone calls to get us in there, if we would like.

To give you some background as to why we are focused on Duke, Duke has a world-class medical facility and is currently the only place in the world that offers cord blood transfusions, an experimental therapy that has helped other children with ventriculomegaly. The stem cells from a baby's cord blood can become any cell in his/her body and can be used to replace damaged brain cells. We have read that doctors have seen the best results when the cord blood transufsion is performed within 30 days of birth, so we were planning to travel to Duke sometime within a month after Claire is born anyway. Now that we have learned that delivering at Duke may be a possibility, we are seriously considering it.

So, while the news from today's visit was less than ideal, we have a lot to be thankful for. We feel like God continues to answer our prayers, and even though He may not be giving us exactly what we asked for, He knows what we need and is giving that to us.