Yesterday Mike and I dropped the kids off at my friend Natalie's house and rushed to our appointment in Ogden. I couldn't sit still the whole way there because I was watching the minutes tick by on the clock and realizing that there was no way we would make it to the appointment on time. We pulled into the parking lot a few minutes late and I jumped out of the truck and ran into the hospital. I had to stop the elevator at every floor because I couldn't remember where the office was. All the while I am panicking because they say they will reschedule your appointment if you are more than 15 minutes late. I finally found the right floor (4th, so yes, I made 3 other stops) and hurried to the desk. They took their time coming to me and said I could sit and wait.
I sat...and waited. The adrenaline wore off and I was able to relax a little. Mike rushed in (after searching the hospital floors as well) and we laughed at how close we had cut it to the 15 minute limit. Then we sat...and waited.
The waiting room was full... 5 or 6 other expectant mothers (and their rowdy kids). We talked about how we should have brought our kids too. We hate worrying that they are fighting at someone elses house, or worrying that we are putting someone else out while we sit and wait at Dr. appointments. Luckily the kids love it at Natalie's and she assures me that she loves it too.
Anyway, we watched other parents come out of the room in tears and remembered the pain we felt last month when we left the office. We watched others come out having accepted their new fate as parents of babies that won't be "perfect". (That's where we are this month). Still we waited...
Over an hour after arriving a little late, we were finally taken back for an ultrasound. Sam looks great. As I have said before, it will never cease to amaze me as we peek into his little world. As usual he was on the move. The tech took the first picture to figure out his position. She hadn't even typed in the words before he flipped to another position and she had to start over. She measured all sorts of things and took a good look at everything. Then we visited with the doctor. We didn't feel at all guilty taking time to ask all our questions because we had just waited in the waiting room for over an hour. He was great and answered all the questions he knew answers to. He asked if we wanted to do an amniocentesis to determine if there were any chromosomal defects in Sam. He explained that in 2 to 3 percent of kids with a severe heart defect, there is a chromosome disorder behind it. Mike jumped on that. He wants all the information he can get about Sam so we can be prepared for whatever comes. I thought of the big needle and all the risks associated with it and told Mike we'd have to talk about it. Have any of you had an amnio?
Anyway, we discussed all kinds of things and at the end we asked how often we really needed to come down to Ogden for the visits and he said "oh, I guess you could just meet with Dr. Andres when he comes to Logan every other week." Yeah, that would have been good to know weeks ago. It would have been nice to know that we didn't have to drive to Ogden, worry that we would be late, wait for an hour, worry that the kids were beating on Natalie's kids, worry that 5 hours was too long to leave our kids with anyone who wanted to remain sane, and worry that it was all going to have to happen again in 2 weeks. Now I know that the doctor comes to Logan and could just see me there. Hello! They knew we were from the Logan area. They knew all this when we made our first appointment. Why didn't anyone think to suggest that we might rather stay in our home turf if there was an option? Oh well, I guess that's just how it goes in this world. We are going to have to get used to waiting in doctor's offices. We are going to have to get used to figuring out all the red tape. I guess now is a great time to start. My next appointment is at Logan Regional.
So there it is.
And here's the best part of the post...
5 comments:
He is handsome! What a sweet little baby. I thought that they should have told you about them coming into logan too. I am sorry you had to deal with all that!
Is Sam giving the Tech "The Bird". He must be a Schwab.
Those are such sweet pictures! I'll bet all the red tape you'll see will be one of the most frustrating things about this experience! Your post made me think about my little niece who they thought had the same heart problem, but it ended up being a part of trisomy 13--it did throw my sister-in-law for a loop when she was born, they would have done a few things different with her birth had they known. So hard to tell what to do! Hope all goes well with that decision!
Hey Sue, I need to talk with you. I've had four amnio's and of course a few other experiences ... and I just want to give you a big hug. Some of Heavenly Father's greatest blessings come imperfectly wrapped, but that doesn't make it easy.
Email me at LizStoddard@gmail.com or call 801-798-6111.
Hi. My name is Arae and I found your blog thru Diana who has been following my blog. I am expecting Tristan in a little over a week. He was also diagnosed with HLHS. I just wanted to say that I was highly alarmed at the thought of the amnio too. I thought that if they really thought it was a chromosome thing, they could figure that out with the cord blood. It's not like waiting that extra time will change anything, right? Anyway- I started reading on this entry and working my way to your current entries. I am sure i will have more random comments! But I am sorry for your family's loss. He was a beautiful little boy.
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