No More Pictures

After 3 consecutive weeks of pictures JJ said enough is enough. He crossed his hands in front of his face in disagreement with the sonogram. I am sure he is really mad at us if he heard we will be having more pictures taken every week for the next 3 weeks.

Good news . . . decisions are now being made for us. Finally the burden of decision making is in the hands of the Doctors (at least for now). Bad news . . . the procedures are not easy. After a lengthy conversation with Dr. Horsager we learned that we do present with certain criteria that make us a partial candidate for a surgical procedure at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF). The procedure requires them doing a laparoscopy then inserting a balloon catheter into the baby's trachea. They then inflate the balloon and leave it in for up to 4 weeks. This allows for the amniotic fluid to be pressured into the lungs more and push for greater development. After 4 weeks the catheter is removed and after a few more days in the hospital Becky would be free to return home and hopefully enjoy a normal delivery. This would reduce some of the major breathing risks that JJ currently has and give him a better chance of survival.

Dr. Horsager was concerned with the right lungs volume as it has decreased slightly from the other organs growing around it. She did mention that the left lung could be flat and thus not showing up on the scans. We are waiting to see if the UCSF procedure will help improve this lungs development as well.

Dr. Horsager is going to get in contact with UCSF and find out where we stand on matching to all of their criteria. We should know more in the next 3 weeks on this procedure. If we are not candidates we will start to make plans for a lengthy list of surgical procedures that will follow immediately after delivery. As it stands now the risk for survival without the UCSF procedure is still 10 - 20%. We hope to know what percentage we have with the procedure in the upcoming weeks.

Becky has scheduled to see a new Doctor (Dr. Lo) who will handle the delivery. Dr. Lo is a UT Southwestern professor and a specialist on high risk type pregnancies. This makes it official that the delivery will be at Parkland Hospital (I hope our good friend Kendra is working that day).

We will begin looking into the logistics of living in San Francisco for the month of Sept. Fortunately my work does have a property that is less than 1 mile from the hospital. We also have an area office out there which would allow me to work without having to take too much time off, while still being nearby if Becky needs me. It sounds like she would have lots of bed rest. I will do some more investigation into this procedure and put some more info. on the blog this weekend.

Thanks for so many of the prayers.